by Ross Furlong | Feb 4, 2016 | Bespoke Suit, Bespoke Tailor, North by Northwest suit, Suit Making
Part 2 – lapels, cuff buttons, pockets & the cut
Now we had the cloth confirmed, there’s just the small matter of trying to match the various components that make up a suit – lapels, cuff buttons, pockets, along with deciding on the cut.
While I was committed to remain faithful to the original suit as much as possible – and the jacket looks surprisingly modern for something cut 50 years ago, the high waisted, wide legged, four pleated trousers would have made the suit look a little too old fashioned for everyday wear in 2016.
Chris suggested we go for a modern interpretation of the cut, still with pleated trousers, but slightly narrower in the leg and lower waisted with a marginally more fitted jacket than the original. This will mean I can wear the suit day to day, without looking like I’m auditioning for a period drama. (more…)
by Ross Furlong | Nov 30, 2015 | Bespoke Suit, Bespoke Tailor, Fabric, North by Northwest suit
Part 1- Finding the cloth
The blue/grey plaid suit Cary Grant wears in Alfred Hitchcock’s film North by Northwest was recently named the most iconic suit in cinema (by Esquire) – narrowly beating Sean Connery’s grey plaid three piece from Goldfinger. Both of course have Savile Row origins and both, like the best suits, have aged well. Esquire pays tribute to the ‘timeless design’ of Grant’s suit describing it ‘as fresh today as it was in 1959’. (more…)
by Ross Furlong | Sep 22, 2015 | Bespoke Suit, Bespoke Tailor, Film & TV
The promotional image for new Kray Twins biopic ‘Legend’, starring Tom Hardy (playing both Ronnie and Reggie), is just about everywhere you look at the moment – posters, magazine covers, online pop ups. So ubiquitous is the advertising that you get a sense of what it must have been like being pursued by the twins themselves.
The best thing I’ve seen so far is a slightly sinister piece of graffiti art in a doorway in Bateman Street, Soho. It’s not a stretch to imagine the actual Krays in a Soho doorway in the ‘60s – which is presumably the effect the graffiti art is aiming to achieve – rather successfully. (more…)
by Ross Furlong | Jul 21, 2015 | Bespoke Suit, Bespoke Tailor, Film & TV
Christoph Waltz will play ‘the coolest Bond villain ever’ (according to GQ) in ‘Spectre’ due to hit cinemas on November 6th. You can’t see what he’ll be wearing yet – in the teaser trailer, he’s masked in shadow but in the long tradition of Bond villains, a dinner jacket and possibly even a Nehru jacket are likely to feature somewhere.
In conversations with Chris recently, it turns out, between his father and himself, they’ve made suits for no fewer than four Bond villains. (more…)
by Ross Furlong | Jun 17, 2015 | Bespoke Suit, Bespoke Tailor, Film & TV, The History of Bespoke Tailoring
Chris Kerr is the oldest bespoke tailor in Soho, now in its 56th year and third generation of Kerr family involvement.
The business was established in 1960 as Len Wilton at 52 Berwick Street, where it remained for 50 years (eventually moving to 31 Berwick Street in 2010). In 1963 a young Eddie Kerr joined as an assistant cutter and by 1970 had been made partner, eventually buying the business outright in 1990.
In the early sixties ‘Mr Eddie’ as he became known by customers began to make bespoke suits for the new pop & fashion scene emerging around Carnaby Street including stars like Matt Monroe, Procol Harem & The Swinging Blue Jeans. (more…)
