Fabrics
Over 500 cloths across worsteds, flannels, tweeds, linens, mohair blends and velvets. Weight, twist and weave matter more than the label on the bunch.
Two suits cut to identical patterns in different cloths are different garments. Weight changes how it hangs, twist changes how it creases, and weave changes how it catches light. We choose the cloth against how you will actually wear the thing — not against how it looks folded on a table.
Super 100s – Super 180s
The backbone of suiting: smooth, fine and slightly lustrous. The Super number describes how fine the fibre is. Higher is softer, lower is tougher. For a suit you wear weekly, Super 110s to 130s is the sweet spot.
Best for · Business, weddings, year-round
Wool · Tweed · Cashmere blends
A broken twill that forms rows of V-shaped chevrons. From a few steps away it reads as texture rather than pattern, so it is much easier to wear than a check but more interesting than a plain cloth.
Best for · Odd jackets, overcoats, autumn suiting
Worsted wool
Tiny dots made by interlacing light and dark yarns. Close up you see the texture, from a distance it reads as a soft solid. A good choice for a second navy or charcoal suit.
Best for · Business, interviews, everyday
Windowpane · Glen check · Houndstooth · Prince of Wales
Checks range from barely there to very bold. Windowpane is a wide open grid, while glen check and Prince of Wales are denser and more traditional. Scale matters more than colour, and larger checks suit taller men.
Best for · Odd jackets, character suits, country
Chalk stripe · Pinstripe · Brushed flannel
Flannel is brushed to raise a soft nap, which gives it warmth and a matte depth worsted does not have. Chalk stripes have soft edges, pinstripes are crisp and narrow, and both lengthen the body.
Best for · Winter business, formal city suiting
Cotton velvet · Silk velvet · Barathea · Mohair blend
Evening cloth is chosen for how it behaves under artificial light. Barathea stays completely matte so silk facings shine against it, mohair blends add a subtle sheen, and velvet absorbs light and looks extremely rich.
Best for · Black tie, dinner jackets, parties
How to choose
Measured in grams per metre. 220–260 g is a true summer cloth; 260–300 g is the year-round standard in Sydney; 300 g and above is winter and overcoating.
High-twist yarns resist creasing and recover their shape after a day of sitting. Worth paying for in anything you commute in.
Pure wool for resilience, wool–cashmere for softness and drape, linen and cotton for heat, mohair blends for sheen and crease resistance, velvet for evening.
Hopsack, fresco and tropical wool are loosely woven so air moves through them. The single best answer to an Australian summer in tailoring.
We hold cloth bunches in the workshop from a range of Australian and imported mills. Bring in a colour you like — a photograph, a paint chip, a garment — and we will find the closest cloth we can get, or order it in.
Colour
Photographs only get you so far. Nothing replaces putting the bunch over your arm and seeing it in daylight.
