Bespoke at Susannah Hall - Grey Fox is measured up

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Grey Fox had an enjoyable and interesting afternoon this week being measured up for a bespoke tweed jacket and waistcoat. This will be made from tweed kindly supplied by Hunter's Tweed (for more information about their beautiful Scottish tweeds see the image below and go to my post here).

The tweed from Hunter's Tweed

Susannah Hall is one of the many friends I'm privileged to have met through Twitter and I had earlier visited her shop in Clerkenwell, London, simply to find out more about the tailoring process. We got on so well, and had so many interests in common (in particular about British-made menswear), that I asked her to do the tailoring for me. See Susannah Hall's website here - Twitter @SHalltailors.

With Susannah Hall.

Grey Fox is wearing - linen/cotton suit: Oliver Spencer (jacket Made in England), shirt: Evocha (Made in England), shoes: Loake (Made in England), folio: Holdall & Co (Made in England), socks: J Crew, hair: model's own.

Susannah is highly professional, very knowledgeable and great fun, taking the measure of me (as she called it) as I walked into the shop, assessing style and taste. This process continued as she measured me up and we discussed cut, shape and details like buttons and lining for the jacket and waistcoat. She somehow skilfully balances helping the client achieve a distinctive style of their own, while tactfully steering them from any too obvious sartorial errors.

Now that I've been measured up, the pattern-making and cutting will take place in Yorkshire and soon there will be a second fitting at which the partly-complete coats will be tried on for size and further tweaked before going back to be finished off. I will report on that in due course.

Susannah Hall has an excellent selection of shirts (available off the peg in her Office Smoothie range, or bespoke), accessories and ties. She has a superb sense of colour and her products are beautifully displayed, skilfully blending patterns and shades of fabrics, linings, shirts and ties. Her prices are very competitive.

3 comments

Matthew Pike9 August 2013 at 06:15
I think this experience is a bit of a dream for a lot men, i'd just love to go through the whole stage and hope to one day not too far away. I'm getting married and the thought of walking down the isle in a tailor made suit is just wonderful.

Maybe! Look forward to seeing the progress.
Roj9 August 2013 at 15:28
Wonderful! Look forward to seeing you in the finished items.
Anonymous10 August 2013 at 02:02
Great to see you making good use of the fantastic tweed.Like you I am great fan of the traditional fabrics and design of Scotland and Ireland and applaud anything that drags them from the dead end of heritage and demonstrates their contemporary relevance and indeed brilliance.
As for tailoring anybody who lives in London and I suspect other big cities will find all sorts of people from Ghana , Jamaica, Cyprus etc under employed doing 'repairs and alterations' with skills that vastly exceed that.( Clothes have been/are still handmade in many instances in these places) just ask and you might find you have a top notch tailor on your door step.
Looking forward to seeing pictures of the fitting etc GF< It would be good to share that experience.