Gianni Cleopazzo of Sartoria Vergallo is one of those tailors that is always interested in new ideas. He was intrigued, therefore, by the bells and whistles I suggested putting on this houndstooth jacket we made last year.
I wanted, primarily, to give it a casual touch, so we put grey suede under the collar and in the overlap of the cuff – to create very subtle changes in texture. The change under the collar will be much more obvious, of course, when it is popped up, and we deliberately cut the foreparts of the jacket so that it buttoned all the way up, with a high third button and then a fourth under the top of the lapel.
Most ready-to-wear jackets use an extended collar or throat latch to achieve this, but that is rarely satisfactory – the collar is often uncomfortably tight and the lapel below it bows open. Far better to make use of the lapel buttonhole and put a button underneath the opposite side to attach it to, cutting the lapels of course so that they join cleanly up the chest.
The cloth is a loosely woven silk that dates back to the 1960s – thanks are due to Richard Wainwright of Choppin & Lodge for selling me that. (Choppin & Lodge now has its own store on Cornhill in London, by the way, which opened a couple of weeks ago. Suits are not being cut by Russell at Graham Browne anymore, but by another cutter offsite and have all the advantages of GB, including the price.)
Shirt, sweater and trousers as on previous posts in this series.
Photography: Luke Carby
