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Online made-to-measure tailoring has come a long way in the last ten years. No longer just a specialty for office clothes, companies like Proper Cloth offer casual weekend shirts, all custom-made to your specifications. Their melange Beacon flannels, which come in solid colors and classic plaids, can be worn with jeans, chinos, fatigues, or five-pocket cords. You can layer them underneath tailored topcoats or Proper Cloth’s citified puffer vests. All the fabrics are from Canclini, one of Italy’s most prestigious shirting mills. Founded in 1925 near Como, Italy, the family-owned mill has produced textiles for some of the world’s best brands, including Zegna, Giorgio Armani, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana.
Also not to be missed are Proper Cloth’s new Biella flight jackets, pictured above, which are made from rich dark wools and generously sized, pressed shearling collars. Like much of Proper Cloth’s outerwear range, it’s designed so you can wear it with jeans or tailored trousers.
Ledbury is currently holding a sale, where you can get upwards of 30% off, depending on how much you spend. The promotion applies to everything on their site, including their popular Mayfield, a Portuguese-woven, mid-weight oxford cloth. The shirting (an industry term for shirt fabric) can be used to make any style you want: semi-spread collar, spread dress collar, short spread collar, hidden button-down collar, and of course, the classic American button-down. They’re available in three fits (extra slim, tailored, and classic) and an endless combination of neck and sleeve lengths. Prices start at $98, but with the current promotion, you can get them for as low as $68.60.
One of the notable things about Ledbury’s shirts is the placement of their second button. Unlike most dress shirtmakers, who place their buttons a little higher on the neck, as is traditional, Ledbury puts theirs a little lower. This allows you to wear the collar open or closed—closed for when you want to wear a tie, but then open to create a flattering v-shaped neckline with buttoning down to the third button.
Wolf vs. Goat is getting a ton of new things this month, including a huge shipment of bamboo-Sonora turtlenecks, cotton-cashmere t-shirts, and ecologically produced swimwear made from a fabric that has been spun from reclaimed sea waste. Perhaps most excitingly, there’s also an incoming shipment of cashmere knitwear.
I’ve been sworn to secrecy, but the new line of cashmere knitwear is produced at the same factory that manufacturers for a well-known Italian label (it’s the kind of label whose name always comes up when people discuss high-end cashmere). Wolf vs. Goat gave them two types of yarns: a pure cashmere they sourced from Cariaggi and a wool-cashmere blend from Loro Festa. The full production here was down in Italy, from spinning yarns to knitting the garments themselves. Both yarns were to make the sort of basic fall/winter pullovers that you can use to layer underneath things such as Barbour jackets, topcoats, and truckers, but Wolf vs. Goat founder Mauro liked the Loro Festa yarn so much that he set some aside to make chunky cardigans and shawl collar pullovers. “People will see a rise in the quality of the knits from last season,” he says, “and that’s saying something!”
Prices are not cheap, ranging from $290 to $550 at full retail. However, as always, Wolf vs. Goat offers 50% off all non-discounted items if you sign up for their rewards membership program, putting these within batting distance of what you’d pay for a good merino knit at most stores. Keep an eye out for these on the site in the next couple of weeks.
Dapper Classics’ socks are made by a third-generation, family-owned mill based in North Carolina. Their socks are made just as well as their European counterparts, but since you don’t have to pay for import fees, the final retail price is lower. If you’re just starting to build a quality dress sock wardrobe, start with fourteen pairs of over-the-calf navy socks—mostly made of solids—to get you through two weeks. Those socks will pair with trousers in any color.
Once you have those, however, consider venturing out. Dapper Classics’ new fall/winter collection includes soft autumnal colors such as coffee brown and pine green, which will complement trousers in brown shades ranging from tan to chocolate. They also have some fun weekend socks, such as navy over-the-calfs decorated with lowball tumblers and cigars (for a bit of fun at the bar). If you happen to have tan-colored trousers, these “soft banana” colored socks will sit well between them and a pair of brown shoes. In the spring/summer months, I think they would also work well with seersucker.
Chipp is an old Ivy-era clothier who’s dressed the likes of JFK and Andy Warhol, and since they’ve been around the New York garment trade forever, they also have access to some of the city’s best tailors. If you’re in NYC, they can make you a custom garment, but for shoppers online, they also have both ready-made and custom-order accessories. Their standard ties, for example, measure 3.25″ x 58″, but they can also shorten, lengthen, widen, or narrow ties for just $10. To place an order, go to their site and order one of the 60″ or 62″ ties. Then in the comment section, specify exactly what you want (say, a 3″ x 60″ tie). Turnaround time for custom orders is two weeks. And like everything Chipp sells, these are fully made in NYC.
It’s election season! Not just for our political system, but also for Long Island shopping. Our friends at LuxeSwap run a consignment store out of NY’s Long Island, where they sell top-end menswear, womenswear, and even some home furnishings. And they could use your help. At the moment, Bethpage is running a “Best of Long Island” voting contest, where people get to vote for their favorite stores. If LuxeSwap has ever done anything for you—sold you something nice, helped you offload unwanted clothes, or even just turned you onto a brand you were previously unaware of—consider supporting a small business and voting for them.
They are currently nominated in three categories: Best Men’s Suits, Best Thrift/Consignment, and Best Vintage. From now until December 15th, you can vote once a day in each category. They won be a slim margin last year, so they can use all the help they can get. You can visit the Thrift/Consignment page here and the Suits/Vintage page here. Vote early and vote often!
