Two very different pieces of news from the world of cloth this week, one practical and one almost unbelievable.
Standeven’s Oxbridge flannel
Standeven, a cloth merchant from Yorkshire, has renewed its Oxbridge flannel book. A “book” is the bundle of swatches a tailor shows you when you choose your cloth, and this one is full of soft wool flannels made for winter suits. The new range comes in plains, stripes and checks.
Flannel is one of the great winter suitings. It is a woollen cloth that is brushed after weaving, which raises a soft, slightly fuzzy surface. That surface traps warm air, so a flannel suit feels cosy on a cold morning in a way a smooth worsted never quite does. It also has a gentle, matt look that is easy to wear and hard to make look too formal.
Grey flannel is the classic, and for good reason: it goes with almost every shirt and tie, and the trousers work on their own with a navy blazer or a tweed jacket. But a chalk stripe adds a touch of City polish, and a muted check can make a suit feel relaxed enough for the weekend.
Dormeuil’s vicuña
At the other end of the scale, the Paris cloth house Dormeuil showed a vicuña suiting. Dormeuil has been supplying tailors since 1842 and is known for some of the most luxurious cloths in the world, and vicuña is the rarest of them all.
The vicuña is a small wild relative of the llama that lives high in the Andes. Its fleece is among the finest animal fibres there is, softer than cashmere and remarkably warm for its weight. The animals are protected, and they can only be shorn every couple of years, which yields just a small amount of usable fibre each time. That is why Dormeuil says a single suit needs the fleece of about 30 animals, and why the price of a vicuña suit is measured in the tens of thousands.
Which is right for you?
For most of us, a vicuña suit will stay a dream, and that is fine. A good flannel will do almost everything you need from a winter suit: it is warm, it drapes well, it hides creases and it looks better with age.
If you are thinking about a new suit for the colder months, autumn is the perfect time to start. Bespoke takes several fittings, so ordering now means you will be wearing it before the worst of the winter. Looking through cloth books together is one of the best parts of the process. Book an appointment and we will show you what is available this season.
