holland & sherry

Newly expanded cloth selection

Since we are attracting interest from first-time bespoke customers, we have greatly expanded our in-house selection of cloth. This enables you to view physical swatch books similar to a traditional bespoke tailor or online swatches in some cases. 

This is ideal for those who don't have easy direct-to-consumer access to cloth and removes the need to send your cloth to me. 

We can now source a variety of English and Italian cloth such as Ariston, Cerruti, Dormeuil, Drapers, Dugdale, Escorial, Hardy Minnis, Harrisons, Holland & Sherry, Scabal, Lesser, Porter & Harding, Vitale Barberis Canonico, and W. Bill.

A handful of our suppliers allow consumer access to their cloth catalogue including:

If we source the cloth for you, prices start at $2,250 for a jacket (i.e. our Essential Bespoke line). 

For those supplying their own cloth, please keep in mind our guidelines on cloth length. 

Mediterranean tailoring meets California lifestyle

Because of the similarity of climates, Sicilian tailoring is superbly suited for the California lifestyle. 

This is a summer sports jacket in a H&S 8oz wool-linen-silk blend made for a customer in the San Francisco Bay Area.  

It is made with Sicilian shape and lightness. I've included a few close-ups around the shoulder, chest, inside, under the collar and sleeve buttons. 

No worries of you live in colder climes - Sicilian tailoring can easily adjust to support heavier fabrics. 

Delivery time!

Very excited to see our first set of orders getting closer to shipping. This one is a wonderful spring/summer gunclub sports jacket in Holland & Sherry cloth. 

Cloth selection by our inaugural set of clients

Below is just a sample of cloth selections made by our clients. They reflect thoughtful and informed consideration of the function of the jacket and the desirable characteristics of the fabric. 

  1. Escorial navy hopsack. Wonderfully soft hand and finishing using high quality yarns, scoring very high for skin comfort and breathability (sourced from Pepper Lee).
  2. Hardy Minnis 3-ply grey fresco. The upper echelon in weave construction for durability and practicality (i.e. wrinkle resistance and recovery).
  3. Holland & Sherry wool-silk-linen blend in blue-brown check. A wonderful balance between design and comfort due to fiber blend and weight.
  4. Hardy Minnis 2-ply fresco in blue. Informal suiting with open, durable weave great for traveling and work/post-work settings. 
  5. H. Lesser summer kid mohair and wool blend in blue/grey stripe. Highest quality, vintage, pre-acquisition Lesser balancing wearability and comfort. 

 

Sourcing and selecting quality cloth

Effective January 2018: Please note we are now able to order fabric for your Essential Bespoke commission from many of the cloth brands listed below. This is likely the most convenient option for most US customers outside of New York City. 

In my personal blog I have written about the pitfalls of assessing cloth quality as well as an introductory primer and empirical comparison of cloth quality. Textile quality is clearly an important consideration for picking a cloth. The good news is that if you buy cloth produced from a well-known, established mill or merchant there is very low risk of purchasing a defective or subpar cloth. Effectively (for now at least), this means buying cloths of English or Italian manufacture identifiable as such on the selvedge.

While there are always exceptions depending on the fiber and mill involved, I think it is fair to say that English cloths, especially vintage ones, tend to be heavier weight and feature more conservative patterns and a drier finish. In contrast, Italian suiting and jacketing cloth tend to enjoy wider color and pattern variation with softer hand feel and finishes. This distinction was clearer in the past but you can still see differences today between the English and Italian approach to suiting and jacketing cloth. 

The following list is not exhaustive but you should stick to established mills and merchants such as:

Ideally, you should visit a local fabric store who sells directly to consumers. That way you can see and feel in person the cloth before buying it.

If you live near or in a major city, your best bet is to go a local fabric merchant who has access to quality cloth. These include Tip Top (New York City), Britex Fabrics (San Francisco), Mood Fabrics or B. Black & Sons (Los Angeles). 

Alternatively, you can find third-party sellers and mills that sell direct to consumer such as Fox Flannel, Huddersfield Fine Worsteds, British Fabrics, Pepper Lee, Yorkshire Fabric or Harrisons Burley's online shop and eBay shop.

With quality issues addressed, you can focus your attention on a more compelling concern when selecting a cloth for your Sicilian Reserve order. 

This means deciding where to play in the aesthetic and functional sandbox - namely, weight, color, pattern, weave, and hand feel. You can start with the functions most important to you such as wrinkle recovery, drape or skin comfort. This will determine the ideal yarn/fiber type, weight, weave and hand of your target cloth.

Otherwise, you can start with color and pattern and determine by a process of elimination the ideal cloth for your suit or jacket. Organize and group your initial set of swatches by color/pattern. Then do a second pass by examining and comparing their weights, hand feel and finishes to determine the winner.

If you're deciding between more than two swatch options per color/pattern, divide your selections into pairs. Then do a pairwise A/B comparison and elimination according to the criteria you have set until you have your winner. 

Remember the selection process is greatly simplified if you hew to the established mills and merchants (large and small), focus on determining your aesthetic and functional requirements of the cloth and then conducting a pairwise comparison and elimination of the different options.

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