A British Wool Tweed Suit: A Collaboration with Woven In The Bone & McCann Bespoke

Sam Goates of Woven in the Bone weaves cloth in Scotland. She has wide experience of the industry and designed merino wool products in Australia before returning in 2007 to Scotland, where she was born. While developing training for Harris tweed weavers, she experienced at first hand the Hattersley looms (see last week's blog feature on Harris tweed) which, despite (or perhaps thanks to) their Victorian engineering, enable craftsmen to weave high quality cloth at home. She decided to bring together all her experience to weave cloth herself.

Above Sam Goates at her loom and the British wool tweed

I was lucky enough to meet Sam and we decided to collaborate to produce a British suit, made from wool produced from British sheep. Originally the plan was to have the suit entirely made in this country. In the event it was beautifully tailored by McCann Bespoke (see below), albeit not in the UK, giving me a suit that represents the multiple skills that go to make a suit, from the farmer who raises the sheep, the shearer, the industries that wash, dye, blend, card and spin the yarn to prepare it for weaving to, finally, the skilled weaver, warping the yarn and then, in the spinning process, adding the weft and producing a cloth of beauty and character for clothes, interiors or other uses. (All links are at the end of this feature).

A suit from British wool, woven by Woven in the Bone, tailored by McCann Bespoke

Sam, who still spends some of her time at Harris Tweed Hebrides, is a master of her craft. Her cloths are being discovered all over the UK, and from Savile Row to the provinces, tailors are discovering her products. She also offers bespoke design and manufacture and the rich colours and patterns of her clothes give the possibility of owning a suit made from a cloth made to your specifications - a novel and unique side to suit ownership.

I asked Sam to tell me more about marketing her cloths: 

"From my perspective, I hope that what I am offering to tailors and ultimately their clients, is complimentary to the traditional cloth offering from the British cloth merchants, encouraging clients to explore options for bespoke tailoring outside of traditional city suits.

"My cloth is handcrafted using traditional, artisan skills and production mthods, but provides a contemporary alternative, offering a softer, more relaxed Saxony tweed reflecting the trend towards more flexible office/social wear.  

With personalised and transparent small batch production, it is ‘cloth to connect with’…. for added value to a truly bespoke experience. I offer a design service to tailors & their clients and custom-design cloths in lengths from 6m-60m can be commissioned for those looking for a truly unique and individual piece or for a business wanting to develop their own house cloth".

I selected a beautiful oatmeal herringbone tweed for my suit (pictured above). Undyed, its colours are from the natural colours of the fleece. As Sam describes it:

"I think the “Native” quality cloth that David selected works particularly well for promotion of bespoke suits for the huge market in more rustic, ‘field weddings’... Its made from 100% naturally coloured British wool and in an authentic British classic herringbone tweed that comes straight from the land (I’m tempted to sa, with no artificial colours or preservatives!)"

McCann Bespoke (link below) is on Shaftesbury Avenue London and Neil McCann has a healthy clientele among professional sportsmen, who appreciate quality when they see it. As with many tailors, they offer different grades of tailoring, with the higher end, fully bespoke, involving a very high percentage of hand stitching. 

Images taken at the basted fitting of the suit at McCann Bespoke

They made my suit beautifully, the quality of construction, fit and stitching is very high. Their shop is a lively and fascinating place and at each fitting I bumped into a well-known sportsman. Tweed suits are becoming popular for weddings in particular and McCann's enthusiasm for my slightly unusual request - a suit made from Sam Goates's artisan tweed - was positive and genuine. I can't recommend McCann Bespoke more highly and their flexible pricing enables you to have a suit made at a variety of price points.

Tailoring detail and the finished suit

This feature was a collaboration with Woven in the Bone and McCann Bespoke. All views are mine alone.

Harris Tweed: A Journey to the Heart of the Hebrides

Looking into a piece of Harris tweed with a magnifying glass is like chasing down a fractal: you never quite seem to reach the end of the colours and textures in its depths. The cloth reflects its origins on Scotland's beautiful but exposed western Atlantic fringes. From the vast peaty moors of Lewis to the beautiful beaches, mountains and inlets of Harris, the Outer Hebrides are so interwoven with the tweeds they produce that its hard to appreciate the one without the other.

The white beaches of Harris

Harris tweed colours

Earlier this year I was privileged to be a guest of The Harris Tweed Authority on a journey to discover this most wonderful of tweeds. I knew, of course, that the cloth is woven in the homes of islanders, but the details of its story had escaped me. I gave a visual tour of its production on my Instagram account at the time and reproduce a few images here. 

To be a true Harris tweed, stamped with the Harris Tweed Authority seal of approval, the Orb, various legal requirements have to be met; in particular the need for it to be woven at home in Harris and Lewis, rather than in a mill. It's a product of a close partnership between three mills and a group of individual weavers who produce the cloths which are so appreciated around the world.

I visited one of the mills that prepare and dye the wool (Harris Tweed Hebrides in Shawbost; see images below), spin it into yarn which is warped onto beams which are sent out to the weavers for the cloth to be woven. The weaver adds the weft to the warp and returns the cloth to the mill to be finally washed and checked, stamped with the Orb and distributed. This isn’t a mass-produced product, it’s a home-made cloth that contains the essence of the islands in which it’s made. The depth of colour results from the wool being dyed before spinning, rather than the yarn being dyed after it's been spun. The process is illustrated below:

Dying the wool

Blending colours to make the tweed required

Spinning the yarn

Warping the yarn onto a beam to be sent to the weavers to complete the cloth in their homes

Once back from the weavers the cloth is carefully finished (washed to make it softer), checked for defects and has the famous Orb applied before being packed and despatched all over the world.

The weavers return the woven cloth to the mill for finishing and checking

Checking the cloth to ensure it's perfect

The orb is applied - I was given a length of this very cloth

I also visited some of the weavers in their homes (below). Most work in weaving sheds next to their houses on modern looms that weave full width cloth. Some still use older Hattersley looms, which produce half width cloth. Some carry out the whole process, from warping to weaving, rather than relying on a mill to deliver the warped beams. These few produce limited runs of unique cloth that are much sought after. 

At present the future of Harris tweed and the craft of weaving looks secure; but it would be more so if we all appreciated the value of this product and went out of our way to support it by buying Harris tweed off-the-peg clothing, furnishings and accessories or by asking our tailors for it by name

Weaving the cloth

A Hattersley loom

Donald John McKay MBE, with his Hattersley loom (top) and his own tweeds, used by tailors such as Brita Hirsch

I was pleased to be given a length of Harris tweed during my visit to Shawbost. I'm collaborating with bespoke tailor Brita Hirsch to make this into a jacket showpiecing the best of tailoring and the best of Scottish tweed; but that's another story: keep an eye on my Instagram account and on here for more.

I'm grateful to Leica UK for lending me a Leica Q for the trip. I'm no photographer, but the quality of the images it captured, often in dark weaving sheds, was quite outstanding. The top two and final three images here are taken with the Leica Q, the remainder with my Fuji X100S.

I'm very grateful indeed to the Harris Tweed Authority, whose guest I was. I received no payment. All views are my own.

Links:

Harris Tweed Authority - here you can find out more about how the tweed is made

Harris Tweed Hebrides

Leica Q

Brita Hirsch Tailor

Books:

Harris Tweed; From Land to Street by Lara Platman - a photographer looks at everyone involved in making the cloth.

From The Land Comes the Cloth by Ian Lawson - a sumptuous photographic record.

The Tweed Run 2017 and Cordings of Piccadilly

I was invited to take part earlier this month in The Tweed Run, that annual tweedy/vintage bicycle ride around London, by my friends at Cordings* who sponsored the event.  Here are a few images in case you'e looking for tweedy/vintage inspiration to replace those Lycra shorts:

With Hillary of Cordings. I'm wearing all Cordings except the vintage Fair Isle jumper (image Cordings)

A very dapper gentleman. Image Grey Fox

Am I allowed to show smoking on a family blog? Fine 'tache if I may say so, Sir! Image Grey Fox

Tweeders and tweedlets crossing Westminster Bridge. Image Grey Fox

A handsome couple on The Tweed Run. Image Grey Fox

*Cordings is one of my favourite menswear suppliers. The original store has been on Piccadilly, London for decades. Stocked with tweedy and country goodies, and much more besides, it combines a comforting old-school approach to service (and store decor) with products that veer from very contemporary to heritage menswear.

My favourite pieces are their genuine heritage rubberised cotton mackintoshes (made in Scotland), the Cordings x Grenfell Shooter jacket, their tweed suits, pocket squares, colourful well-fitting chinos and.... well, you get the idea. Visit their lovely new website here or, even better, make the journey to their Piccadilly, London or Harrogate, Yorkshire stores.

I was a guest of Cordings, Piccadilly.

E Tautz - gritty grey and Terry Street inspiration for AW15

A paper handed out at the E.Tautz show at London Collections:Men earlier this month featured extracts from Douglas Dunn's poem, Terry Street and contained grainy black and white images of factory workers from the mid-twentieth century in the context of a Northern industrial town (Hull?) with back to backs, murky mists, grim canals and distant smoky chimneys.

Talking of the men who live and work in Terry Street, part of the poem reads:   

They are the individualists of our time, 

They know no fashions, copy nothing but their minds, 

They long ago gave up looking in mirrors. 

It's interesting how Patrick Grant of E. Tautz has arrived at a collection for autumn/winter '15 that looks back at a menswear style prevalent in the middle of the last century, when few men were interested in fashion. Yet most men were then proud of how they looked, something that has now been lost. From a time when road and factory workers would wear ties, jackets or suits for work, we now have men caring little for how they look, even in work and formal situations - despite the relative cheapness of clothing now.

So E- Tautz has arrived at a style that looks back at the grey reality of a hard industrial life and reflects that impression in the monochrome nature of the clothing. To cement this link with the past, the collection is made in the UK, as were most clothes before later in the last century. Gorgeous tweeds and flannels in charcoal, dark blue, silver, grey, bottle green, white, black - Donegal, herringbone, Urqhart check - many made at Johnstons of Elgin. 

The impression was of  cloths, fabrics, tailoring of the highest quality. The cuts were generous, again reflecting menswear styles of most of the last century. Whether or not you'd wear such styles, the look was one to inspire, maybe toning down its monochrome nature with flashes of brighter colour in knitwear and accessories. It will certainly encourage me to dig out my grey trousers, white shirts and herringbone tweeds. For me, this was one of the most inspirational shows at LC:M.

I suspect we'll be seeing wider trousers on the high street in the not-too-distant future, so we're looking at what's coming soon in these images of the E. Tautz show.

At the risk of repeating myself, my one concern about this wonderful show was the complete lack of grey hairs on the models. How well a few gritty older faces would have fitted! Is the aim is to sell only to the younger man and exclude the older man from these wonderful clothes? I doubt it, but I still struggle to understand what the menswear fashion industry is up to here: excluding a huge and affluent demographic seems senseless. Older men should be wearing gorgeous clothes like these - and will do so with very little encouragement.

See E. Tautz and visit the store in Duke Street, London W1.

Carradice tweed bike bags - made in Lancashire, England

Carradice have been making cycling bags out of cotton duck for over seventy years in Nelson, Lancashire. They now have a special edition range of bags made from Harris tweed.

Anything that combines my loves of cycling and tweed gets my attention, and I love the variety of colours and shapes in these bike bags, ideal for the commuter, vintage cycling nut or tweed fanatic.

See the Carradice website for more information.

Norton & Sons make a Museum of London tweed suit for Tinie Tempah

The Museum of London's curator of fashion, Timothy Long, is on a mission to establish London as the historic creative centre of menswear. I mentioned the development of a Museum of London tweed, designed for the current Sherlock Holmes exhibition, in a previous blog post. For London Collections:Men, starting on Friday this week, a suit has been made for Tinie Tempah from Museum of London tweed by Patrick Grant's Norton & Sons of Savile Row.

Tinie Tempah with Patrick Grant at a suit fitting, image Museum of London

Tinie took a major role in the design and the suit features a horseshoe waistcoat, tapered trousers and a slim-fit single-breasted jacket with a flash of golden-yellow lining. He will wear the suit at LC:M and it will then be acquired by the museum for their fashion and textiles collection (which now contains over 20,000 objects and records London's place at the centre of the development of modern menswear).

Museum of London
Norton & Sons
London Collections:Men

Nigel Cabourn The Army Gym shop opens in London

Some weeks ago a reader from the US e-mailed me firstly with an offer to freeze my sperm (so that I could use it once I was too old to produce an effective product, which was very thoughtful of him) and secondly with a request that I visit Nigel Cabourn's new shop once it had opened. 

I'd planned to do the second anyway, so happily travelled to Covent Garden a day or two after the opening. Nigel Cabourn himself was there and he kindly showed me the collection. 

Nigel Cabourn outside his new shop - image © Grey Fox

Cabourn's inspiration comes from vintage military and expedition wear. From mountaineering and Antarctic parkas to tweed coats, hunting clothing and leather flying jackets, everything is beautifully-made (in the UK) and reflects the practical robustness of the originals.

I regularly wear a Cabourn Tenzing jacket, tweed with Ventile shoulder patches, for country and dog walks and can confirm that these are genuinely comfortable, well-made and weather-resistant garments - I've no doubt that the same goes for the whole range, reflecting the origins and pedigree of their design and manufacture.

The shop is beautifully designed; a cross between mountain hut, barrack-room, locker room and officers' mess, with bare wooden floors, vintage furnishings and books and magazines on show. 

Cabourn has worked on some interesting collaborations with labels such as Filson (below) and some of these are available downstairs in the shop.

For more on the London store click here to visit the Nigel Cabourn website.

Images by Grey Fox.