For today’s Monday inspiration we will focus on my newly found favorite color, chocolate brown. This color is just not easy to match, but it is also less formal than other colors such as blue and grey. Due to this, it will have an advantage when worn with leisurewear such as polo sweaters and shirts, t-shirts and loafers. Here is how I would wear a chocolate brown suit this spring, how would you wear it?
For this Sunday we will talk about an online store that has been a favorite since long here on To Quote. This is an unique store with the one of the widest selection of high quality accessories that I have encountered during my days. The online store we will talk about today is Exquisite Trimmings and the process of ordering a bespoke tie.
Shaya Green has always had a passion for fashion clothing and during his younger years he was always wearing the most popular brands and clothing. His passion quickly evolved to an interest for tailored men’s clothing, and especially for the craftsmanship behind handmade garments. He slowly started to explore different brands and after some time he finally decided to start his own brand in 2011 when he lived in Brooklyn, New York.
Exquisite Trimmings was founded and the vision was clear from the beginning, to be able to offer the finest accessories for men, that are handmade by the best craftsmen in the world. And at the same time offer this to affordable prices, and a complete experience with a spotless customer service combined with a fast and secure shipping to your doorstep.
The online store’s main focus are on accessories and carries a wide selection from well renovated brands. We are also able to find a fine selection of clothing, such as shirts from Liverano & Liverano and G.Inglese, knitwear from Scott & Charters and outwear from Vetra. For the accessories we can instead find everything from ties, pocket squares, leather goods, socks, umbrellas, shoes and much more. In this wide selection of accessories we are able to find brands such as their own private label, Drake’s, Rubinacci, Christian Kimber, 19 Andrea’s 47, Tie Your Tie and E.G Cappelli. This could possibly be the largest selection of high quality accessories that can be found in one place, it is a collection that few stores even gets close to in terms of variations and quality.
What makes Exquisite Trimmings even more interesting is their own private label which offers great quality accessories to affordable prices. Here we are able to find pocket squares and ties, starting at £35 for the pockets squares and £55 for the ties. We can find high quality prints from the world famous silk mecca, Macclesfield in England, that are only used by the best accessories manufacturers in the world. In addition to this we have some of the most affordable grenadine ties available to date that are priced at £55, and also cashmere ties for £85 (right now on sale for only £55). The ties are manufactured in Italy by a well known manufacturer and delivers great results with the majority of the ties sewn entirely by hand.
I decided to try Exquisite Trimmings bespoke service for ties, as I have been very pleased with all my other ties from the brand. I chose to try the bespoke service because of several reasons, but the main one was that I was able to choose fabric and my own preferred measurements. The bespoke service itself is simple to use with various of options to choose from. Let us walk through all the different options below to sort out any questions.
Step 1 – Fabric: First of all, head to the bespoke service page here. Pick you fabric of choice in list that will be visible on the page. I chose the solid cashmere fabric, a versatile choice that can be used for fall, winter and early spring.
Step 2 – Color: When you have chosen you fabric you will end up at the selection page as above. I decided to go for the navy cashmere fabric, a color that can be matched will almost everything in your wardrobe.
Step 3 – Folds: Next up is decide how many folds you want for your tie. 3-folded is included in the base price of the bespoke service, but if you want to add more it will cost extra. 3-fold is the most common choice, but 6 and 7-folded are often seen in ties made by the best manufacturers. More folds will use more fabric and it also require higher expertise by the tailor who is sewing the tie. I choose a 9-fold construction for my tie to try something new and exciting.
Step 4 – Length. One of the biggest benefits of the bespoke service is that you able to choose your length for your tie. The standard size is around 147 cm and could be too short or long for some people, which makes this a real savior. I chose to do my tie 148 cm, a length that I honestly can shorten in the future due to my high waisted trousers.
Step 5 – Width: Next up is the width of the tie. The most common choice nowadays is 8 cm, but I have started to like a bit wider ties due to my liking for wider lapels. I therefor decided to go for the 9 cm option.
Step 6 – Interlining: The interlining will have an impact of for the feeling and the size of the knot. Regular is the common choice among many manufactures but I personally prefer the light alternative. Due to that I chose the 9-fold construction, the extra folds will act as an interlining and no extra interlining will be added.
Step 7 – Tipping: The tipping will decide the formality of the tie, but is as always a personal choice. Ties are normally seen with the silk tipping choice, where self tipped comes in second place. My personally choice is without any doubt the untipped alternative, as this adds something extra to the tie.
Step 8 – Loop/Keeper: Pretty straight forward, do you want a tie keeper? Some prefer this, others do not. The keeper keeps the other end of the tie in place.
Result
The delivery time for a bespoke tie will vary depending on many things but it normally takes 6-8 weeks. I ordered mine in in December and it ended up at my address in late March. It was a bit delayed because of the holidays in December which I do not mind at all.
The tie itself ended up exactly how I wanted and the 9-fold construction is absolutely gorgeous to look at when you open up the tie. As this is my first 9-fold tie, I do understand why these are made without any linings. There are more than enough fabric to cover up for the loss of the interlining and the knot will still end up nicely.
Overall I’m very pleased, both with the service from Exquisite Trimmings and with the end result. I can without any doubt recommend this service to anyone who wants to order a tie with your own personal choices.
After a short break on the blog, we head straight back into business with our weekly lookbook coverage. Today we will take a look at the latest collection from one of the oldest bespoke tailoring companies in the world, Gieves & Hawkes.
Gieves & Hawkes is a well-renowned bespoke tailor that are located the in the venerable 1 Savile Row, London founded in 1771. This makes Gieves and Hawkes one of the oldest continual bespoke tailoring companies in the world. Today the company still offer their bespoke and military tailoring service, but also a full ready to wear collection. For this spring and summer, we can find tailored clothing, shirts, accessories and a new and exiting capsule collaboration with Orlebar Brown.
The collection is photographed by Vincent Peters with the model Charlie France in front of the camera. We can see the aesthetics of the British tailoring combined with leisure wear worn in the tropical heat of a holiday in Havana. This is a different and interesting collection from a prestigious company as Gieves & Hawkes, but they deliver a good combination of casual and tailored garments without going too far from their heritage.
During this weekend the sun paid a visit here in Stockholm and the spring is getting closer. Today’s main inspiration comes from the colors of spring, with focus on bottle green, brown and blue tones. A outfit that I would gladly wear for spring, would you wear it?
In Sweden we are officially about to turn over to spring, but you still have to wear your coat for another week or two. What I do like about this midseason period is that you are able to wear just a sport coat and a turtleneck. Whatever you do, do not forget the umbrella as it has a tendency to rain a lot in March.
Monochrome inspired outfits have been a favorite lately, and today we will take a look how to combine different shades of grey. Grey is probably the easiest color to create monochrome outfits with, and will create an elegant and subtle look. Try to use at least three different shades of grey, as this will create a deeper and more interesting color palette.
Jacket – Boglioli, Shirt – Fray, Cardigan – Scott & Charters, Tie – Berg & Berg, Pocket square – Rubinacci, Trousers, – Suitsupply, Shoes – Edward Green
We continue to talk about persons who inspires me, both on a style and personality level. Today we will head to Berlin in Germany, where we will be able to find the humble gentleman Niels Holdorf.
I met Niels Holdorf for the first time during the summer edition of Pitti Uomo 86 in 2014. Niels was wearing a blue double breasted jacket combined with a pair of light grey trousers and subtle accessories, a sight for sore eyes among all the colorful peacocks at Pitti Uomo. It was at this moment where Niels style got my attention, and I clearly remember that he continued to deliver strong outfits during the whole fair. I’m sad to say that we did at most exchange one or two words during that edition of the fair, something that I regret today. I think that people understand when I make an excuse that it is often hard to hang out with all the interesting person that you meet at the Pitti Uomo fair. The time that you spend at the fair is not enough to do this and the days just runs past you. The evening’s are often fully booked by dinners and events, which also contributes to this.
Navy double breasted suit in a beautiful cut and with subtle accessories (photo credits to Shibumi).
Details for the same outfit (photo credits to Shibumi).
I began instead to follow Niels through his Instagram where he posts daily outfits and accessories from his brand Shibumi. Shibumi is a brand that Niels founded together in 2012 with his partner in crime, Benedikt Fries. The brands main focus are accessories, with some gorgeous ties, pocket squares and braces. What I think make Shibumi stand out even more from the other accessories companies are due to their so called sen collections. Sen means selection or compilation in Japanese, and are small collections that they put together with some of the best manufacturers in the industry.
During the latest edition of Pitti Uomo that was hosted in January, I had the opportunity to meet Niels once again. This time I made contact with Niels in advance to make room in our calender’s to able to meet. And I regret that I waited so long to make the decision to spend more time with Niels. We had time to talk about his personality, where he finds his inspiration but also about the ongoing journey with Shibumi. What really hitted me is that Niels is such a humble and down to earth guy, a true gentleman but with a lot of humor. I truly admire people who have this kind of personality, people who are able to be professional and talk business without any fuzz. When this is taken cared of, they can instead let lose and be who they truly are and not pretend to be something that they are not. Niels is exactly like this and something that makes it natural to be friends and business partners at the same time.
Niels shot by myself during Pitti Uomo 89 wearing one of his more colorful jackets.
Close-up for the same outfit as above.
Niels style is not something that stands out from the crowd, and I think this makes his style even more inspiring.
There is no news that my personal style reminds a lot of Niels, I like subtle and down to earth colors that creates a harmonized outfit. Niels shares the same philosophy and he is very seldom seen with something that that is colorful and having a lot of heavy patterns. He is often seen in perfectly cut suits and jackets that are made by some of the best tailors in the world such as Sartoria Corcos and Dalcuore. These garments are often worn in colors such as navy and brown and combined with accessories in earthy colors from Shibumi.
This is my words and thoughts about Niels Holdorf and I hope that I will be able to spend even more time with him during my future journeys. Niels knows how to dress and how to combine colors and patterns, and have a humble personality like few others have. The combination of these makes him a true style icon in my eyes.
Here we can clearly see how Niels use the tie to pick up colors on both the shirt, pocket square and trousers (photo credits to Shibumi).
A lot of textures in the same outfit but combined in the right way which does not make it too busy (photo credits to Shibumi).
A colorful tie combined with the shirt and pocket square in a great way (photo credits to Shibumi).
Normally I do not like jackets with too bold colors or patterns, but for today we will do an exception. The key to be able to wear a jacket with a busy pattern is to combine it with other garments that are the opposite. I have chosen a jacket with a windowpane pattern that consists of the color combination blue, brown and white. At first sight these may look like an odd combination, but all the three colors belongs to the easiest ones to combine. If the cream colored trousers are too much for some of you, try to combine the jacket with a pair of brown or blue trousers instead.
Jacket – Eidos, Shirt – Shirtonomy, Trousers – Private White V.C, Tie – Berg & Berg. Pocket square – Christian Kimber, Shoes – Church’s, Watch – Patek Philippe 3597 Beta 21
We continue to look at the upcoming spring and summer collections and today we look at an all time favorite on To Quote. We head to London, and more precise No.3 Haberdasher Street, where will find the accessories specialist Drake’s.
Drake’s spring and summer 2016 takes us back to the 1950’s and brings us a collection full with washed out colors and textures. We can see different and unexpected color combinations such as pastel colored jackets in light blue combined with orange accessories. Linen dominates the tailored clothing, a material which creates comfortable and interesting textures for the shirts and jackets.
In the other end we have Drake’s more classic printed ties and scarves that are still the foundation for the collection. No other company has come close to deliver the same amount of interesting accessories as Drake’s, and the spring and summer collection does not disappoint. For this collection, Drake’s has also announced that they will do series of pocket squares in collaboration with Luke Edward Hall.
Drake’s succeeds to deliver a collection with garments that are both elegant and relaxed at the same time. The only thing we need now is the spring.
The full lookbook can be seen on Drake’s website here.
A polo jumper is the great way to dress down a jacket.
The pastel light blue jacket stands for the collection most colorful jacket.
Tobacco colored linen jacket.
Business casual with jeans.
Here is an perfect example how to combine heavy patterned ties with your outfit.
White polo jumper.
Block stripe linen shirt that will be a perfect companion for the beach this summer.
Colorful combinations.
Burgundy could possibly be one of the most versatile colors for a tie.
A shirt with an interesting texture.
During late last summer I chose to do a pair of made to measure trousers from the Malmö based company Pelote. I decided that I wanted to explore Pelote once again and see what they are capable to create. This resulted that I made an order for a suit with both classic and modern influences, and the time has come to see the result.
I have mentioned Pelote earlier a couple of times here on the blog. The first part of where you can read about the history of the company can be found here. If you are looking for the second part where I made a pair of made to measure trousers, it can be found here instead. For today we will talk about my latest creation with the company, a complete made to measure suit.
My intention was not create the perfect business suit, but instead something that I will be able to use at many different occasions. To be able to achieve this I put a lot of weight into the choice of fabric. My choice fell eventually on a navy 290 gr/m fabric with a subtle birdseye pattern from one of Pelote’s own fabric books Pelote Supérieur. This felt like a good choice as I also wanted to be able to wear the suit at as many seasons as possible. Something to think about when choosing a four season fabric is that many of the fabric options can easily look formal and lack of texture. Try to choose a fabric with some kind of texture to it, like the birdseye pattern as I chose.
Pelote Supérieur 290 gr/m birdseye fabric, 7495 SEK. My choice fell on the navy on the top of the photo.
The options for choosing fabrics are nearly endless and Pelote carries most of the fabric books that you can think of. Among the fabric books you can find common brands such as Vitale Barberis Canonico (VBC), Loro Piana, Holland & Sherry and Scabal, but also a great selection of fabrics under Pelote’s own private label. These fabrics are well selected from mills from all over the world but to an more affordable price. I highly recommend to take a look at these before looking at other fabrics as these ones could save you some money, but without compromising on the quality.
After that you have chosen your fabric, you will have the option to choose which details you would prefer for your suit. Pelote offers three different types of constructions for their jackets, the semi, half and full canvas. The semi canvas construction, which is included in the quoted price, features canvas for the lapels and and has a fused front. This is the most affordable option but it will not give the same mobility as the other options. Half canvas do instead offer a canvas construction that will be sewn at the shoulders and down the second button where you close the jacket. This option is more than enough for most people and will offer great mobility thanks to more lavish construction. If you choose this alternative it will be an extra cost of 1000 SEK as this is a more time consuming task for the tailor to construct.
The most luxurious construction that Pelote offers is the full canvas construction. What this means is that there is a canvas construction made from horse hair from the shoulders and all the way down to the bottom of the jacket. This is the most expensive and time consuming method a tailor can sew, but it will in end give the bearer of the jacket the best possible movement. An extra cost of 2000 SEK will be added if you choose this option, but I can assure you that it will be well spent money as the jacket will mold to your body over time. I choose to do the full canvas construction as I wanted the best possible mobility for my jacket. A pleasant surprise is that the button hole for the lapels will be hand sewn if you choose the full canvas construction, something that is often considered to be a sign of great craftsmanship.
Wider notched lapels and the handmade milanese buttonhole.
A good sleeve length will show approximately 1-2 cm of the shirt cuff.
One of Pelote’s strongest sides is that they offer a lot of changeable details, something that is quite unique in this price range. The foundation of the jacket will be Pelote’s own silhouette, but besides that you have almost all thinkable possibilities to change whatever you would like. A few of the options that you will have possibility to change are the size and which type of the lapels you want, amount of padding in the shoulders, button stance for the jacket, height of the waistband, side adjusters, pick-stitching, pockets and much more.
For my suit I did not want to have too many details and I ended up choosing a lightweight silhouette with unconstructed shoulders, wider notched lapels, high rise trousers with single pleats, with a slightly extended waistband and side adjusters. I also chose to do a subtle pick stitching and added cuffs for the hem of the trousers. I would in the end call most of the these details rather classic and not too modern. With my choice of fabric, full canvas construction and details, the price ended up at 9490 SEK.
Back of the jacket and the natural shoulder.
Side adjusters and slightly higher waistband.
A no break length for the trousers, a personal reference for my trousers today.
Result and comments
Overall, I’m very pleased with both my suit and the service from Pelote. My measurements was taken by Gustav, the store manager of the store in Malmö, and he never disappoints. He opened the store after opening hours to able to take my measurements, as I was not able to make it in time during their ordinary opening hours. We sat down and talked about my expectations, looked at fabrics and discussed details for my suit without any kind of time pressure even that it was after business hours. After approximately four weeks I received an e-mail from Gustav that confirmed that my suit ready to be picked up. The timing was as promised and the end result met my exceptions.
I have now used my suit from Pelote for over two months, and I’m still very pleased with it. The only minor adjustment that I have done since I picked up the suit was to lengthen the trousers, something that is completely normal to do. Small details such as this is something that you will find out after wearing your garments for a while and will vary depending on many things such as choice of fabric.
My conclusion is that Pelote is a made to measure company that I can personally recommend to anyone who wants to do any kind of made to measure garments. Pelote has a wide selection of garments, fabrics and various of details to choose from, which means that everyone will be able to find something for their budget.
Pelote is also planning to open a second store in Gothenburg this spring, a store that I think have all the possibilities to become a favorite place to hang out for many people in Gothenburg for many years to come.
Complete price list:
Suits from 5495 SEK.
Jackets from 3895 SEK.
Coat from 4395 SEK.
Trousers from 1698 SEK.
Final result.
