Summer jackets 4: tailored in England from Favourbrook and Susannah Hall, Tailors

The jackets featured today have a more tailored structure than some we have featured this week, giving a slightly squarer, more shaped look than the softer jackets from Richard James, Hardy Amies and Brunello Cucinelli, featured throughout this week. In the latter, the shoulders and chest are unpadded and often unlined too, giving a more casual, Italian style and look. 

Favourbrook Hertford jacket (left) organic cotton £560
Shirt (left) Tripl Stitched
Shirt (right) Thomas Pink
Chinos Spoke
Shoes (right) Ohw Footwear
Socks Pantherella

Something of the difference can be seen in the image above in which I (on the right) am wearing a Hardy Amies jacket (to be featured later this week) of unpadded and soft-shouldered look, while Shaun wears a Favourbrook jacket which is more padded and squarer in chest and shoulders. 

The jackets featured today are from Favourbrook (where they can form part of a suit) and Susannah Hall, Tailors. All are tailored in England (suppliers' details below). They would be more suited for use at a wedding or warm weather business use than more casual styles. Clearly padding and lining will make the jacket warmer to wear, but lightweight cloths, like linen, cotton or fine wool, will alleviate that.

Summer jacket from Susannah Hall, Tailors
Pocket square Age of Reason Scarves

Favourbrook Hertford jacket organic cotton £560
Pocket square Dancys
Tie Augustus Hare

Favourbrook Trevelyn jacket, 100% linen £590
Shirt Thomas Pink

Suppliers

Susannah Hall, Tailors

Favourbrook

Thomas Pink

Tripl Stitched

Ohw Footwear

Age of Reason Scarves
Dancys
Augustus Hare

Spoke chinos

Pantherella

With infinite thanks to:

Styling - SartoriaLab

Photography - Nick Maroudias

Crisp black and white

I visited tailor Susannah Hall shortly after London Collections:Men. She showed me bunches of beautiful fabrics from Johnstons of Elgin which contained one of my favourites, a Prince of Wales, or Glen check. I also saw a limited edition black knitted silk tie, specially made by Augustus Hare. Inspired by the many monochrome geometric checks on display at LC:M, we put together this image of black and white crispness. 

Just imagine yourself in the check suit with this shirt and tie and a pair of smart, Northampton-made shiny black Oxford shoes. I'm sorely tempted.

Shirt, made in the UK, from Susannah Hall (£95).
Prince of Wales check suit fabric, made in Scotland by Johnstons of Elgin (for tailoring prices contact Susannah Hall).
Knitted silk tie made in Italy, by Augustus Hare  (Limited edition £70 at Susannah Hall).

Shirts Made in Britain from Susannah Hall now include Liberty print fabrics

Susannah Hall has been selling her high quality British-made 'Office Smoothie' shirts for a while in a wide choice of plain and stripes. But sometimes a man wants to break out from the conventional office shirt with designs more colourful and interesting. To cater to these, Susannah has added shirts made from Liberty prints, available off-the-peg or bespoke.

Susannah Hall told me: 

'I designed the Office Smoothie fit to be slightly neater that your average shirt with the collar that works well both with and without a tie. It sits proud when undone, which is very important! 

We have been making the stock shirts in Northern Ireland and originally started with some classic colours and designs. This year I decided, at last, to go ahead with the Liberty print shirts. We have four fabric designs and only two in each size available to make them more exclusive. We have 15" to 17.5" collar sizes in stock.

When Dauvit Alexander (pictured above) saw them he immediately got in touch and asked if I could find a specific Liberty print to make up a bespoke shirt. I managed to find the cloth and, as you see, has the fabulous shirt pictured above, bespoke-made in Manchester.

Liberty prints £150.  Office Smoothie stock shirts £95. Bespoke from £130. Available from Susannah Hall, Clerkenwell, London.

Navy blue - the colour for every man

I realised recently that the major part of my wardrobe is navy blue. For a man, younger or older, navy blue is the new black. It goes with any colour, from your crisp white shirt to the favourite acid-green trainers. My favourite pairings are to put navy blue with grey (see the image below from Crew Clothing) and with orange (here's a link to a previous post on this topic).

Overcombe jacket, grey Oxford jumper Crewe Clothing Co. - blue and grey together

Navy blue suits a wide spectrum of formality, from dinner jackets to jeans. The last few years have seen the rise in the deep blue evening suit (or tuxedo), popular because it shows up as a luxurious midnight blue under artificial light. For work, a navy blue suit is ideal. A classic of simple elegance, it looks superb with a striped shirt and silk Paisley tie. For casual wear, dark navy is the colour of raw denim jeans or of a wool or waxed-cotton pea coat. 

A navy flannel made to measure suit from Susannah Hall Tailors

The CEO of Whistles, Jane Shepherdson, has said: "When I see someone in navy, I think they are sophisticated, effortless, not trying too hard but with an innate sense of style," and she continues, "It is more forgiving than black, less harsh and carries with it a subtle whiff of sophistication. It stripes better than any other colour, and looks both classic and sharp at the same time." 

Smart: blue business coat. Hackett AW14

Casual: Navy and tan from Crew Clothing Co. Abingdon navy gingham shirt

The colour flatters a man so well that it was selected by the Royal Navy as the main colour for its uniforms many years ago. The Navy, keen to keep everything shipshape, recognised that Jack would look good in blue; and certainly women seemed to agree. The nautical look is now popular with both high street brands like Whistles (below) as well as retailers with one foot genuinely in the sea, like Crew Clothing Co, which started in water sports.

Whistles textured pea coat - the nautical look

So, navy blue is a useful colour for a man, whatever his skin tone or hair colour. It covers a range of hues from midnight blue to a cobalt or dark royal blue, so adding to its flexibility. The only problem is that, as in my case, it can become the easy option and you find your wardrobe has become too blue. In that case relieve the effect with contrasting textures (as below) or with colourful accessories; bright socks, ties, pocket squares and sweaters. Alternatively, play with different shades and tones of blue, the overall effect can be striking.

However you do it, use the versatility of navy blue as a base for more daring sartorial adventures.

Oliver Spencer SS15 - shades and textures of blue

Links to suppliers -

Crew Clothing Co. (to whom I'm grateful for their sponsorship of this post.)

Susannah Hall Tailors.

Whistles Menswear.

Hackett.

Oliver Spencer.

Grey Fox's Hunter's tweed suit by Susannah Hall, Tailors

Well, here's the (almost) final result. I've never felt so comfortable in a suit; in fact, after a tiring day at Best of Britannia, I felt no need to take it off and change into jeans as I crashed on the sofa afterwards (sorry Susannah, it came to no harm). I recommend the bespoke/ made-to-measure route to anyone.

This has been a significant step in my search for style and I've enjoyed every minute of it. I've loved being a client of Susannah Hall's and have asked her to make me a blazer - that will be another story.

I'm grateful to Susannah Hall, Tailors, for making the suit, to Hunter's Tweed from whom I obtained the tweed and to Heather Amos, photographer, for taking these shots at Best of Britannia, .

Photography - Heather Amos

Grey Fox's new suit

I've been reporting on the progress of my three piece tweed suit from Susannah Hall tailors. Today I went for the final fitting - here's the result. A few tiny tweaks yet to be done, but I will be wearing it at Best of Britannia at the end of this week. I will be there on Friday all day and Saturday morning and I hope to meet many friends while there (I will be at Susannah Hall's stand for some of the time).

The quality of the cut and tweed (from Hunter's Tweed) is obvious. It feels very comfortable to wear, I felt immediately at home in it. The checks meet precisely and the details, such as beautiful horn buttons, add to the overall look of the suit. Contact Susannah Hall with tailoring queries.

See Hunter's Tweed for information on their range of estate and other tweeds. Here's Best of Britannia.

I'm grateful to Susannah for doing a bulk deal for me and my three identical twin brothers; we're pictured admiring our suits below.

For my reports on the making of the suit see here.

Susannah Hall Tailors - the unbearable excitement of having a suit made

Earlier this week I went to Susannah Hall Tailor's for a further fascinating and fun fitting for what has now become a tweed suit (rather than just a jacket and waistcoat, as originally planned).

The jacket is unfinished, covered in temporary stitches (basting) and with only one sleeve (Susannah reassured me that the final version would have two). Ultimately the checks will match across the jacket and side of the trousers - and the shoulders will be slightly narrower. I've opted for a classic double-vented two-button style with a bright silk lining. The next fitting with Susannah will show if further adjustments are needed before the suit is finished. The tweed is from Hunter's Tweed, about whom I will say more another time.

Susannah wrote on her Facebook page as follows -

We...had The Grey Fox in for his suit fitting. He had brought in a length of cloth which my tailors in Yorkshire have cut and made into a fitting for both his jacket and waistcoat. We nipped, tucked and chalked and have now sent them back to be finished off. We are also ordering a neat classic cut trouser to complete the look

Photo Susannah Hall Tailors

Bespoke at Susannah Hall - Grey Fox is measured up

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.