The Financial Times has an excellent article on some of Hong Kong’s menswear entrepreneurs. Men such Mark Cho, Justin Chang, Gerald Shen, Edwin Neo, and Arnold Wong are all featured. These are some of the most inspiring people in the business right now, in my opinion.
Come back Monday for an interview I have with Mark Cho about the new transition in ownership at Drake’s of London.
I name a lot of sartorial heros on here, but Mark and Alan at The Armoury rank high on that list. Everything about their shop is essentially what I draw on for inspiration at this blog. Plus, now that they have Ethan Desu, that shop probably holds the most concentrated center of sartorial knowledge on the planet. Those three guys know their stuff.
Check out their new feature on CNN. Well deserved, guys.
A lovely piece and a remarkable store.
(Source: dieworkwear)
The online made-to-measure shirt tailor Modern Tailor is offering a $19.95 introductory offer for shirts in their simplest blue oxford fabric. I’ve been looking for a couple of plain blue button-down oxfords, and for $24.95 each I bought three. The extra $5 was because I opted for thick mother of pearl buttons. Shipping added $20 to the total.
My measurements were based upon a made-to-measure oxford by my shirt maker, CEGO in New York (who I recommend wholeheartedly, by the way). If you don’t have a great-fitting shirt to base your measurements upon, I would be careful ordering more than one shirt.
I’ve been a bit skeptical of online made-to-measure, frankly, but I get many emails from folks who can’t find a shirt that fits them because of an unusual body type, and not everyone can afford $125-200 per shirt for a traditional custom shirt. For those people, operations like Modern Tailor and Jantzen can be a good option, though fabric can’t be inspected in person and one doesn’t get consultation from an expert.
We’ll see how these turn out. I’m already worrying about whether they’ll account for laundry shrinkage. Still, $25 is less than Lands’ End, and nothing ventured, nothing gained. Looking forward to the shirts’ arrival.
I reblog this suit from our pal MistahWong not just because it’s lovely (though it is), but because he and his tailor have gotten his fit down wonderfully. There’s a lot to learn here.
This is Hong Kong suit made in a somewhat Neopolitan style. The tailoring here is relatively soft - check out the shoulders, for example. They are consistent (you want your coat to cover up imperfections in the shoulder), but nonetheless very lightly padded. There is slight roping - that’s the ridge along the shoulder to sleeve seam where there’s a bit of extra sleeve fabric. The arm hole in the body is actually slightly smaller than the sleeve that attaches to it, which provides for freedom of movement. The coat is soft through the body, but nonetheless offers some waist suppression - note that it makes his waist look small relative to his shoulders with a little nip there.
Mistahwong has a particularly keen sense of proportion, and prefers his lapel notch and breast pocket relatively high. I’m guessing the coat is relatively short, as well, though we can’t quite see that here. The patch pockets (another Neopolitan signature) are also rounded, which is a nice touch. The end result is a suit that has an elegant shape, but is relatively informal, thanks to the soft construction and patch pockets, despite a relatively formal fabric.
Of course, this is by no means the only way to make and wear a suit, but it’s important to become familiar with the variety of suit shapes and the many choices a suit designer makes if you want to make informed choices about your own clothes.
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