Much Ado About Cloth

It seems to me that there's a fundamental misunderstanding about Super-numbered cloth. People are worrying over it because they are concerned that it doesn't "wear." I have to ask, "Compared to what?"

Luxurious feel (known as the "hand") is what has made the Supers so popular and the suit is a luxury item for many men. They own a few that they wear on special occasions and aren't worried about them holding up for years under a once a week pounding. As more and more men indulge themselves in more expensive suits with a more luxurious feel, the wool industry has been encouraged to take greater care of Merino sheep that yield the finest fibre and to sort those fibres into separate lots. The finer the hair, the higher the Super number and the higher price for it when it becomes cloth.

Now walk into the nearest Nieman Marcus and look at the suits on the rack. Some may be cashmere, or cashmere blends. The rest, at least the ones worth discussing, are made of wool. And, until the invention of the Super grading system, "wool" was the only information the consumer was given. The supplier of the cloth doesn't matter at the point of sale because it is not specified, but the Super number does matter because the higher the number, the higher the price. At the high end, the Super 170s suit from a good source commands thousands more than the unlabelled one in the next rack. And if you don't care about Super numerology, the only other cloth-related considerations are color and pattern. The only thing a consumer can do to compare the expected life from one maker's Super 120 cloth from an anonymous mill with another maker's Super 140 from another anonymous mill is guess, and probably guess wrong.

He'll guess wrong because where there's money involved there's a lot of mis-labelling and mis-direction. The UK has a grading system but the Italians, Chinese and Indian mills often don't pay any attention to it. And the width of the fibre is but one consideration in durability. Weave, for example, is another. I'll take Barbera cloth of any Super number for durability over Loro Piana versions any day because Barbera uses a traditional 2x2 weave and Loro Piana sometimes compromises. I had one of those compromises split, unstressed, at the hip on the third wearing.

Leaving Nieman's, walk into the nearest bespoke tailor and look at the cloth selection. Every bunch is identified by source, weave and weight. Most men of my acquaintance spend more time considering the choice of cloth for their next bespoke suit than they do any other detail. They're not thinking just about color and pattern either, but weight, weave, surface interest, guts and the reputation of who made it in addition to the hand. If they want a Super they can have one (many tailors charge no more for most of them than they ask for non-Super cloth), or they can make their choice based on the other criteria. Most do.

I have to conclude that the Super number provides useful information for ready to wear suits, in that it's just about all the information that a buyer can get his hands on. And it's one of a portfolio of considerations that a man can take into account when he is choosing his own cloth. But in my opinion, questioning its durability is much ado about very little for the ready to wear buyer that represents 99% of the market for suits.