Peter Harvey of Fallan & Harvey was in San Francisco this week and I had an appointment for a basted fitting. Fallan & Harvey are tailors based on Sackville Street in London, near Savile Row (there is no web site).
I'd come to Peter last year on the recommendation of a friend after I decided to find a second tailor, one who would make me single breasted jackets with a traditional three button front. I commissioned a summer odd jacket of ten ounce fresco that will have a minimum of lining for our hot wine country summers.
The jacket, which at this stage is held together with cotton basting, felt as light and airy as I'd hoped it would be when I ordered it. I'll need to be careful putting it on as the unlined fresco grabs at the shirt sleeves a bit, but I elected to experiment with unlined sleeves in the hope that they will be cooler.
Since this jacket is from a new pattern, I expected it to require adjustments and it did. In the first two photos, Peter is noting that the lapels are a bit off at the top and the quarters are too straight at 
the bottom.The armholes are also too high and in the third photo Peter is marking the adjustment before he removes the sleeves.
Once we were comfortable with the work that is to be done before my forward fitting in London this coming July, Peter let me know that the gilt buttons I'd requested (there will be two gold buttons on each sleeve) are no longer available from Holland & Sherry. In the fourth photo he's showing me substitutes in the same pattern that he'd found from another source.
I've learned the hard way to limit myself to one jacket or suit at a time until a tailor's pattern is perfected but I'm hoping that the coat will need little more than sleeve buttons at the forward fitting so that it can be delivered no later than this Fall. That will be a year after I ordered it. I'm not traveling to Europe monthly any longer and delayed gratification is the new name of the game. It comes from living in a city without much in the way of local tailors, but that's been true all the time I've been living here.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
A Basted Fitting
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2 comments:
Have you tried Manuel's Custom Tailoring in San Jose? He's probably not Saville Row, but he's a lot closer than London.
I've had him make me a pair of trousers, and will be commissioning a vest and trousers next time I have the cash clear for it.
From the number of listings that mention him in the San Jose area, Manuel is a well established tailor, but I've not used him nor seen any of his work, and there don't seem to be any photos on the web.
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