Reader Questions

I get questions by email and by PMs on message boards in addition to the ones posted here. Whatever the source, some of them ask questions that are of general interest. Here are two.

From Williamson

I was very pleased to see your thread on overcoats. When I was much younger, someone whose opinions I still respect told me that the outer coat is in a sense part of the suit, not an extra solely for wear in cold or wet weather. Someone wrote in The Style Forum that he is seeking an overcoat not so much for warmth as for "feeling finished" when he leaves the house. If this strikes a chord with you, I'd be interested to have your opinion.

As I mentioned, many stylish men in Naples agree with you. The climate there is mild, with temperatures typically ranging from lows of 40 to highs of 85 degrees Farenheit (4 to 30 degrees Centigrade) during the year. Neopolitan tailors do a healthy business in topcoats made from 13 ounce cloth. That's just barely enough weight to drape and give a man a coat that finishes his look when it's as much as 55 degrees F. Living as I do in Northern California, I approve.

From David

As a suggestion for a future blog entry, you might talk about why you use two different tailors. Are you looking for a variety of styles? Do you prefer to go to one tailor over another for certain items? Does it cut against building a relationship if you spread out your orders between different houses?

Many men use more than one tailor. This year is the first time in my life that I'm trying two new ones at the same time, but I normally work with two or three. One of them makes country clothes for me, one specializes in "soft" tailoring, my preferred style, and I use another to make what the other two can't or won't.

For example, one of my Savile Row tailors prefers not to work with cloth lighter than ten ounces, and seems to have have little experience making minimally lined jackets for hot weather. They also make a straight cut jacket that looks great without a vest, but shows too many vest buttons. I'm trying Peter Harvey for a coat that will show just one button above the coat closing.

I don't think it hurts the relationship to use more than one tailor. Once your pattern is perfected, it's there to be used as long as you maintain your weight. And in the larger houses, you may remain loyal but your cutters now come and go faster than they once did. Each cutter has his own idiosyncracies within the broader outlines of the house style, so you can lose some consistency while remaining loyal to one house.