Put This On

Chest Canvas and the Pinch Test

I’d been debating whether to hold on to this little tip for a future video episode, but it looks like we’re not doing a thrifting episode in season one, so I’ll let you in on it now. It’s probably the most useful bit of information you can have when you’re shopping for suits and sport coats.

One of the key differences between high and low quality coats is the construction. The chest of any jacket is composed of three layers of material - the fabric on the outside of the coat, the lining that makes up its inside, and a layer of canvassing in between that gives the coat its shape.

What’s the Difference?

In a high-quality jacket, these layers are stitched together, mostly by hand. This allows the coat to drape over the body naturally, and the horsehair canvas used in this process gives the coat an optimal form. This is called a “fully canvassed” coat.

In a lower-quality jacket, the structure of the jacket is provided by fusible interfacing. It’s a sort of combination of fabric and glue. The manufacturer uses heat and chemicals to bond this fusing to the outside fabric layer of the jacket. This is called a “fused” coat.

Sometimes, a combination of these two processes is used - typically the chest is stitched, which the lower part of the front is fused. This is generally called “half-canvassed.”

In the 60s and 70s, when fusing was new, the technology was awful. It often led to bubbling and stiffness in the chest. These days, the technology has come a long way, and these problems are less common, but it’s generally accepted that full canvas is the way to go.

How Can I Tell?

If you’re in a store, it’s easy to check whether the coat you’re looking at is fused or canvassed. Pinch the chest fabric and lining between your fingers. If it’s canvassed, you should be able to feel three distinct layers - the outside fabric, the canvas, and the lining. If it’s fused, you feel two layers, or (especially if it’s older) you may feel the outside layer tear away from the chest piece. To distinguish between full and half-canvassing, pinch down by the buttons.

Give it a few tries and you’ll get the hang of it. Feel a Brioni coat, and you’ll see that the layers are fully independent. Feel something at H&M, and you’ll feel a stiff outer layer and a lining. Brooks Brothers’ standard suits are half-canvassed; Golden Fleece is fully canvassed.

The Bottom Line

The vast majority of coats these days are fused, and the quality of those can vary widely from awful to pretty decent, but if it’s canvassed, it’s almost certainly a high-quality piece.

It’s On Sale

J.L. Powell Lakenheath Quilted Coat

Your chance to jump on the quilted blazer bandwagon at an affordable price point.

$179, originally $448 at JLPowell.com

A Loosey-Goosey Brand Guide for Thrifting Suits and Sportcoats

I’ve had many requests for a list of brands to look for when thrifting.  Of course, this is a monumentally huge request, given the sheer volume of brands of all types of clothes that’s out there.  I don’t really think it’s something I’m even capable of doing.

Luckily, though, folks on various clothing fora have put together hierarchical lists of ready-to-wear suit and sportcoat brands.  These tend to be based on things like amount of hand work, canvassing, fabrics and so on.  These aren’t the end-all, be-all of quality - if you’re Rod Blagojevic, then you want Oxxford to look like a competent guy who won’t get all graft-y, and if you’re an Italian playboy, you might want Kiton or Isaia to look like the kind of guy whose yacht travels with its own cigar boat.  Different brands have different meanings, fits, and values. 

That said, these brands, grouped into two loose agglomerations (super-mega excellent and very excellent) produce high-quality goods that are worth looking out for.  I’ve left out mid-tier brands (like, say, Brooks Brothers main line) because things get a lot murkier around that level of quality.  There are plenty of clothes worth wearing at that level, and you should not be ashamed to buy and wear them, but the brands listed below are consistently superb.

Again: this list is mostly alphabetical, and somewhat to very arbitrary.  It’s mostly a tool for folks who want a reference to help them identify the best of the best when bargain hunting.  I’m sure I missed stuff, and the ranking system is loosey-goosey at best.  Nonetheless, I think it will be of use.

Super-Mega Excellent

Attolini
Barbera (Luciano) Collezioni Sartoriale
Battistoni
Belvest
Bijan
Luigi Borrelli
Brioni
D’Avenza
Thom Browne
Castangia
Cheshire Clothing (Chester Barrie)
Cifonelli
Dior homme
Isaia
Kiton
Oxxford
Ralph Lauren Purple Label (both the Saint Andrews and the Chester Barrie)
Sartoria Attolini
St. Andrews
Sartoria Castangia
Sartoria Partenopea
Stuart’s Choice (Isiah until 06, St Andrews post 06)
Zegna Napoli

Extremely Excellent

Alfred Dunhill London
Armani Collezioni
Armani Classico and Black Label (made by Vestimenta)
Boss Baldessarini (made by Caruso)
Boglioli
Brooks Brothers Black Fleece
Brooks Brothers Golden Fleece
Canali and Canali Exclusive
Canali Proposta
Cantarelli
Caruso
Corneliani Linea Sartoria
Corneliani
Corneliani Trend and CC
Ermenegildo Zegna Couture (& mainline to a lesser extent - Z Zegna is low-end line)
Faconnable Tailleur (made by Canali and Cantarelli)
Hickey Freeman
Lanvin (not necessarily true for vintage)
Martin Greenman
Paul Smith (Mainline, not Paul Smith London)
Polo Blue Label (made in Italy)
Ralph Lauren Polo Blue Label (currently made by Canali, older by Corneliani)
Nervesa
Paul Stuart
Ravazzolo
Samuelsohn - Canada
Vestimenta
Zileri sartoriale line
Zileri Gruppo Forall

It’s On eBay

Sportcoat by Sartoria Partenopea

Starts at $390, or Buy It Now for $490, ends Sunday

It’s On eBay

J. Press Patchwork Tweed Blazer

I will send ten dollars to anyone who buys this and wears it successfully.  I’m thinking cream button-down shirt, maroon rep tie, brown cords?  Oh, yeah, and huge, pendulous, swinging balls.

Starts at $35, ends Monday

One Shirt, Two Shirt, White Shirt, Blue Shirt

Elegance often comes from simplicity.  Our friend MistahWong is one of the best-dressed guys we know, and with his suits he wears plain white and blue shirts.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

But when and how should you wear solid blue and white shirts?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

White shirts are the all-time classic.  They came to be regarded as the formal shirting in a time when people had access to far fewer clothes.  The fact that you could wear a “white collar” meant that you were a successful professional or aristocrat who could afford to own and maintain easily-soiled shirts.  That meaning, of course, has faded, but the white shirt remains the standard for formal dress.  If you’re going to a christening or a funeral or a board meeting, you will likely (and reasonably) wear a white shirt.

The white shirt also goes with everything.  It is a neutral ground for almost any tie or coat.  Today, in fact, I’m wearing a white oxford shirt with robin’s-egg blue trousers that would have looked a bit off (not to mention a bit much) with almost any other color shirt.

Of course, the white shirt has its disadvantages as well.  Probably the most significant is that it isn’t complimentary to the coloration of almost anyone.  The complexions of light-skinned white men, in particular, tend to be washed out by white shirts.  A lot of bright white can make a man’s skin look vaguely sickly rather than vibrant.  This is less of an issue if you have dark skin, but it’s dangerous without a marked contrast - you’d probably look better in cream or ecru anyway.

The white shirt is also ubiquitous.  It is the shirt of the poorly-dressed man.  A poorly-fitted or poor-quality white shirt is the quickest route to looking like a bank teller or a teenager selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door to “pay for college.”

The blue shirt is less formal than the white shirt, but it’s still acceptable in almost any formal situation.  You wouldn’t wear a blue shirt with black tie, and you might be less likely to wear it to an art opening or funeral, but it’s certainly acceptable in almost any office.  The reality is that most, outside of England anyway, would accept in in pretty much any situation. 

It’s also much more gentle on the complexion.  No less suitable for the man of color, for most white men it will almost invariably look notably better.  If you happen to have blue eyes, there’s no excuse not to wear it, as it will make you sparkle.

The blue shirt is also just as versatile as the white shirt.  It’s tough to find a combination of tie and suit that would look wrong with a plain blue shirt. 

So, what should you have in your closet?

Certainly use white shirts for important occasions.  Have one or two great white shirts.  My own white shirts include a Barba I bought for my wedding, a Charvet I thrifted and a Corneliani I bought for everyday wear.  All three have rich weaves and soft hands that make it apparent I’m not wearing a $19 shirt from Marshall’s.  They are formal shirts that reflect the significance of the occasions when I will wear them. 

I also have several white oxford-cloth button down shirts for casual wear.  Oxford cloth has a texture which reduces the sheen which can make a white shirt look cheap and can make your face look extra-sickly.  It is particularly important to avoid non-iron finishes in white shirts, which tend to make them look slick, cheap and all-around lousy.  For a casual shirt, there’s nothing wrong with a little rumple.

What do I do?  When I’m grabbing a shirt from my closet to go with a sport coat or suit, it’s usually blue.  A few blue oxfords from Lands’ End and Benjamin Bixby are probably the shirts I wear most.  A few harder-finish nearly solid blues (shirts with a slight pattern that read as solid) are what I grab for suits or more formal sport coat situations. 

Generally, your go-to shirts should be blue, too.  Your more formal shirts should be white.  Particularly with white shirts, keep an eye on quality - it’s easy to look like you went for the white shirt because without it, you couldn’t manage dressing yourself.

Q and Answer: The Three-Roll-Two

Benjamin writes to ask: I inherited a handful of my grandfather’s tasteful suits a few years ago and am slowly having them tailored and integrated into my wardrobe. Among my favorites are a very classic Brooks Brothers navy blazer and a cotton khaki suit. Both include three-button jackets, however the lapels were folded as two-buttons leaving the third button hole exposed on the lower part of the lapel. Being under 6’, I tend to prefer a two-button jacket, so I would like to keep them folded the way they are now. But I would also like to know a little more about the style, what’s the deal here? Was it a style years ago? Is it considered tacky?

What you’ve got is probably the most classic suit buttoning style, the 3-roll-2:  three buttons, with a roll in the lapel that rolls under the top button, making the coat functionally a two-button.

Three-button suits were the style of the “Friends” era, and two buttons the style of the “Cheers” era.  The 3-roll-2 is a compromise.  It’s found on many Savile Row single-breasteds, and is the classic buttoning for the undarted Ivy League-style “sack” suit.  It’s the opposite of tacky - the epitome of class.

The great challenge will be preserving the lapel roll as such.  On cheap and mishandled suits, the lapel doesn’t roll at all - it folds.  Often dry cleaners will press the lapel down into the chest of the suit, flattening out the suit’s three-dimensional shape.  They’ll also often press a 3-roll-2 into an awkward three-button, so be vigilant.  A good tailor can steam the lapel roll for you to preserve its shape.