Exploring Bespoke 2: The Choice of Materials with Brita Hirsch Tailor

In the first instalment of this fortnightly series exploring the elements of true bespoke tailoring, I introduced my collaboration with bespoke tailor Brita Hirsch to explore and describe the skills of bespoke tailoring by designing and making a Norfolk jacket made from Harris tweed. Any such project starts with selecting the best materials. 

The inspiration and the end product - choice of materials is the first important step

Brita takes up the story:

"First stop on the journey to a truly bespoke coat is finding the right material: choosing it wisely is key to everything I do. When it comes to fine cloth and rustic tweed, I'm fortunate to have the world’s best producers on my door step: the best fine wool cloth available to the global market is still produced in the long established woollen mills of West Yorkshire, only an easy drive away from my workshop in Macclesfield. I source my fine worsteds, frescoes and flannels from the knowledgable local cloth merchants who work closely with these mills.  

Scotland, with its accomplished hand weavers, is not far away, either, and I buy my tweeds directly from them. Courtesy of Harris Tweed Hebrides, David was the proud owner of a length of beautiful, conker coloured, richly textured tweed. His idea was to have a coat that is steeped in tradition, a Norfolk jacket, tailored for him.

Harris tweed from the Harris Tweed Hebrides mill (L) and the Adamley design for the silk lining (R)

A classic coat for outdoor pursuits, the Norfolk calls for a lining that is hard wearing, breathable and quintessentially British to perfectly complement the weather-resistant tweed. It might come as a surprise to some, but not to the connoisseur, that the material of choice is silk. The toughest natural fibre available, coming with a molecular structure that is similar to that of wool, silk combines toughness with excellent climate balancing properties, whilst being soft and lightweight. 

But what about the 'quintessential British' part? Well. Macclesfield, in official UNESCO terms the Western end of the historic Silk Road, is home to wonderful silk printers Adamley Textiles. The company supplies many of the big names in the fashion world with the most beautiful silk fabrics and is proud guardian of the David Evans [no relation to Grey Fox's David Evans!] archive of graphic print designs. What, then, could be more appropriate than to use a silk lining for the Norfolk and let David pick the design for his custom print?"

So, we selected tweed and silk as the main materials of the coat. I told the story of Harris tweed here so there's no need to repeat it here. Brita mentions the silk lining from Adamley Textiles. I was surprised when she suggested a silk lining to the coat as I hadn't understood just how tough a cloth it makes, but its robustness, ability to take bright designs and colours and its breathability make it an ideal lining material. Brita and I visited Adamley in Macclesfield (for centuries at the heart of the English silk industry - see images below). 

Brita and I look through the David Evans silk design archives at Adamley in Macclesfield

Screen printing at Adamley Textiles

I looked through dozens of old archive books and I selected a fox head silk dating from first half of the last century. Adamley very generously redrew and printed off a few meters of silk, using the traditional silk screen method, for the lining introducing the colours we specified to go with the conker-coloured Harris tweed. In a future feature I'll show just how perfectly this lining matches the tweed.

The next in this series will be the measuring and cutting stages of the bespoke process.

For other features in the Exploring Bespoke series here on the blog, click here.

Links:
Brita Hirsch of Hirsch Tailoring
Adamley Textiles
Harris Tweed Hebrides
The Harris Tweed Authority
My trip to Harris Tweed: A Journey to the Heart of the Hebrides

With thanks to photographer Fiona Bailey whose images appear throughout this project.