Love the Italian sideboard, fantastic styling.
I want it so much but my house couldnât accommodate it :
This is the lapel point of a morning coat order I have in hand at present. I took a picture of it earlier as it struck me how beautifully precise it is.
The âcoatmakerâ (anything with sleeves is a coat) is the last of a long line of Italian craftsmen who used to work for Kilgour French And Stanbury, which is where we met. He is now 74 and lives back in Rome ( I Fedex him work!) having made enough money out of the trade to open a hotel. His family have now grown up and run the place for him and he makes coats for a âhobby.â What is amazing is that this is a really light weight cloth and it is made in the old fashioned way where the facing ( the face of the lapel) is laid on top and then folded in by hand. How he gets the point that fine is a mystery to me but slowly I am pulling bits of info out of him and you never know one day he may share! Later, the entire thing will be sewn down by hand once from underneath and once from the top. Hundreds of stitches. It is kind of engineering by hand and the other side is exactly the same! Real shame but there is no one else working this way in London anymore.
17 Likes
Donât the temporary stitches leave a number of visible holes in the cloth or do they close up again?
That looks superb. And also looks very expensive.
The basting stitches are put in with a special soft,weak cotton thread which comes in a variety of thicknesses and weights. It is made slightly hairy so that it grips the fabric. It can leave an impression, so the correct thickness must be used for any given task. Silk facings on a dinner coat for instance must be basted on with very light thread and then removed before it is pressed. Also, removing them is tricky and they should be cut every couple of inches so that there isnât too much tension in them as they are pulled out, as this can lead to them cutting the fibres in the fabric and making a hole. A mistake you only make once!
The bastings in the pic will come out and leave a little impression but when the garment is finally pressed (as long as it is done properly with just the right amout of heat, weight and moisture) it will disappear.
Not sure what it looks like to anyone else because I am in the trade but donât think that hours and hours are spent putting a pair of facings on. Gino only touches anything once and does this at such a pace that it is easy to miss what he is doing. He makes it look very easy. There is a huge amount of work in a morning coat but if I needed it in a day, I expect he could turn it around in twelve hours at a push and with no compromise at all in the quality. He would probably be shot for the rest of the week though!
9 Likes
This may be the skill level that we lack. 
Awe and wonder at the surrounding firmament. What are the resonances of an infinite sphere?
(AE Baker, Northamptonshire Words & Phrases, 1854)
Graphics
1 Like
Environmental sculptures by Martin Hill.
http://www.featureshoot.com/2014/11/mesmerizing-environmental-sculptures-in-nature-by-martin-hill/
1 Like
What a work of art so much thought and precision. Nothing beats tailor made clothing made by someone who really cares.
Bah, humbug !
Only joking, Iâm sure its mother thinks itâs gorgeous 
VB
2 Likes
Its mother being photoshop, lol
What the hell is that?