1924 three piece suit

[Two Types]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mens-3-piece-bespoke-Saville-Row-1920s-3-piece-tweed-suit-size-38-reg-/230867365873?pt=UK_Men_s_Vintage_Coats_Jackets&hash=item35c0c46ff1

HBK: You are looking for a 1920s suit, aren't you? In a size 38? Do you like the £950 price tag?

 

[herringbonekid]

my voodoo's working.

no way i'm paying £950 though, even though i'd love an original 20s suit.

 

[Two Types]

How beautiful is the fabric though?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I must say I'm not a great fan of that fabric.

A truly wonderful suit.

bk

 

[herringbonekid]

i love the fabric, but not very excited by the lapels.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

What I do like is the contrast of the caramel buttons and the base fabric colour. I also like the ticket pocket and lack of breast pocket.

 

[herringbonekid]

couple of other curious things;
-the front edge looks topstitched but in the close up it seems it has been pick / stab stitched by hand.
-the facing which inside goes right along the shoulder seam and down the armhole front as an unlined summer jacket would.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

That armhole looks TINY!

 

[herringbonekid]

looks like the body lining is rucked up over the lower bit of armhole.
notice where they've added a small section beneath the pocket where they ran out of facing; you won't find Anderson and Sheppard doing that !

 

[Baron Kurtz]

It is a strange waste of fabric, tbh. Or they had enough leftovers … just about … for the facings, and so rather than toss it in the trash, might as well use it for the facings.

 

[herringbonekid]

that sort of facing (which i believe is called 'French facing') will give a very firm and warm front to the jacket which may be the point. it's usually done on unlined jackets (as i'm sure you know) not on heavy tweed, but then i haven't seen enough 20s tweed jackets to know if it was commonly done.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

yes, I have a number of 20s suit jackets - typically summer weight - with this kind of front, more or less elaborate. I haven't seen a British one before, though.

 

[Qirrel]

-the facing which inside goes right along the shoulder seam and down the armhole front as an unlined summer jacket would.

This was more common on on jackets the further back you go. Described by WDF Vincent ca. 1898 as "not what we would consider good form", with no further explanation given.

 

[herringbonekid]

Q, i've found the text you're referring too and you've misread it. he's actually saying that the wider facing (as this 20s suit has) is the ideal:

...almost certainly a case of older methods being replaced by cost-cutting modern ways which are seen as inferior by the older members of the profession.

 

[herringbonekid]

...i think the part he considers 'not good form' is the fact that the lining in Dia.17 is 'plain' i.e. undarted.

 

[Qirrel]

I should learn to check that what I wrote actually makes the point I intended, before I post it... Of course I meant, as the text actually says, that the narrow facing is "not good form" and the wide facing the ideal.

 

[Qirrel]

...i think the part he considers 'not good form' is the fact that the lining in Dia.17 is 'plain' i.e. undarted.

Yes, that might be it. (Important to note that it is a cut/v, not a dart.) There is a lot of talk in magazines of the "crooked era" of the importance that the lining is put in full enough in the shoulder so as not to interfere with the shape of the canvas and cloth. I once did the mistake of putting the lining in "plain" on a crooked cut coat (i.e. with lots of stretching and shrinking in the shoulder area), and it showed all kinds of ugly folds in the shoulder area.

 

[herringbonekid]

it's interesting to me that some tailors were still doing a wide 1898 style facing as late as 1924.

 

[Qirrel]

it's interesting to me that some tailors were still doing a wide 1898 style facing as late as 1924.

A stroke of British conservatism? I have made a couple of jackets with this type of facing, but only because I had too much cloth. Recently I have been experimenting with another style of inside pocket placement and facing which I found on an old dinner jacket. Narrow facing, and inside pockets entirely sewn in the rather heavy cotton lining, placed much lower than usual, almost as low as the outside pockets.

 

[herringbonekid]

A stroke of British conservatism?

just the slow pace of change in Britain pre streamline/deco/modernism i think.