Notes From the Atelier

Super 100s, 130s, 150s — the number describes the fineness of the wool fibre, not the quality of the suit. Finer yarns feel silkier and drape beautifully, but they bruise more easily. For a suit worn four days a week, Super 120s to 130s is the intelligent choice; save Super 150s and above for occasion wear and evening tailoring.

Week twelve: consultation and cloth. Week ten: measurement and pattern. Week seven: baste fitting. Week four: forward fitting. Week two: final fitting and pressing. Week one: rest, and let the tailoring wait for you rather than the other way around. Grooms who begin late always compromise on cloth, never on time.

A fused jacket glues an interlining to the cloth; it is fast, cheap and eventually bubbles. A canvassed jacket floats a layer of horsehair between cloth and lining, hand-padded into the chest and lapel. It breathes, it moulds to your chest over a year of wear, and it survives a decade of dry cleaning.

Woven on antique Jacquard looms in Como, grenadine is an open mesh silk that reads as texture rather than pattern. Garza fina is the finer mesh, garza grossa the larger. It knots with a perfect dimple and works with everything — the single most useful tie a man can own.

Rest a suit twenty-four hours between wears. Hang it on a broad wooden hanger. Brush it after every wear with a natural bristle brush. Steam rather than press. Dry clean no more than twice a year. Done properly, a hand-canvassed suit will outlive the trends that surround it.

If the jacket will stay on all day and the setting is professional, a two-piece is complete. If the jacket will come off — a reception, a long dinner, a wedding — the waistcoat keeps the outfit finished and the shirt disciplined. That is the whole decision.