Solaro for Summer

The travelling English tailors will be visiting America again beginning next month, and I'm starting to think about queueing the next suit. One thing I know is that I want a bit of sheen in the cloth, as great summer suitings should gleam when the sun is shining. And to that end I'm pondering a Solaro suit for summer (our summer starts in September so it's the right time to be ordering clothing for that season).

A trademarked weave of Smith and Co (Woollens), Solaro is an open weave 11/12 ounce cloth that's actually heavier than most men's winter suits. It's the open weave that's important for summer wear in mild temperatures (I'm using the term summer in the English sense - Solaro would be too warm for truly scorching temperatures but that's OK as it never gets truly hot in the City) because it lets air flow through the cloth so it wears cool. Notice the red tinge to the weaves in the photo from The London Lounge)

That's because the underside of the weave is red to reflect the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Some unknown traveller first observed that natives in the tropics often used red and orange linings in their clothing to protect their skin and the idea eventually made it to Smith's, which turned it into a hard finished suiting that resists wrinkling. This photo is also from The London Lounge.


The final photo is one that I borrowed from the web site of Marc Guyot. His suit's styling is a bit extreme for my taste, but it illustrates how sunlight brings out the red threads in the cloth. It's a sophisticated look that's rooted in the past, just as I like it.


Of course, I won't be getting hacking pockets or cloth covered buttons, and I may be able to resist the lime green necktie. But I'll take the sunshine and the sea to show off my Solaro.

New Cloth Club Deliveries

To my delight, two packages containing the newest completed projects from Michael Alden's Cloth Club arrived recently.

The photo, which was posted by The Doctor to the Cloth Club and Limited Edition forum at the London Lounge, shows the Club's blue-gray triple overcheck flannel at the top. It's a 14/15 ounce suiting that I'm seeing in my mind's eye as a vested suit, single breasted, with peak lapels and hacking pockets on the jacket.

The bottom cloth is a 650 gram (19 ounce) gun club tweed. I'm thinking about a three button single breasted odd jacket, half lined, with buttoning patch pockets and leather button.

In addition, M. Alden has two tweed and three flannel projects under way, The flannels are the Eden in Paris windowpane, a very light gray flannel with blue accents for Spring, and a black on gray reverse chalk stripe. The tweeds are a check patterned after a favorite country suit of the late Duke of Windsor, and a modified tweed version of the Club's original flannel project, a tan glen check with a blue overcheck.

For more information. contact Alden at the London Lounge.

The Cloth Club

About two years ago, Michael Alden of The London Lounge web site wanted a flannel suit in a large format Prince of Wales check and couldn't find suitable cloth anywhere. He solicited a dozen other London Lounge members to join him and have a length of the cloth woven to his specification. The success of that first project was the stimulus for The Cloth Club, perhaps the world's only informal organization commissioning custom weaving of cloth for classic men's clothing.

Fifty years ago, tailors accounted for much of the consumption of suiting cloth, and the cloth merchants offered them a wide variety of patterns and weaves. Today, the cloth suppliers focus on the ready to wear market, whose long production runs are incompatible with unique fabrics. They weave plenty of blues and grays but fewer of the patterned suitings of the past.

By commissioning its own cloth, The Cloth Club is doing what some of the large tailoring houses have done for years. Savile Row's Anderson & Sheppard usually offers several specially commissioned worsteds and Huntsman is famed for its house tweeds while Mariano Rubinacci of Naples is known for his house hopsacks. The difference of course is that Cloth Club members can take their fabric to the tailor of their choice for a "cut, make, & trim, " the tailoring term for the process of making a garment from customer-provided cloth.

Since the first commission, The Cloth Club has delivered a large scale black and white glen check tweed, and a gray flannel with a large blue overcheck, pictured in the drawing at the upper left. Current projects include a gray flannel with a blue windowpane called 'Eden in Paris' after the drawing to the lower left, a gun club tweed for odd jackets, an off-white flannel trouser cloth with blue and gray accents, and a striped worsted suiting.

To inquire about participation in The Cloth Club, contact Michael Alden through the web site.