The mid-brown Prince of Wales check fabric features a blend of 93% vicuna and 7% silk. The buttons are made from buffalo horn.

Whilst I am responsible for the design and cutting of the garment I am supported by a team of world class professionals in Sydney and it would take one of our coatmakers 48 hours of hard work to have produced such a jacket.

You can see a number of examples of garments from J. H. Cutler by visiting the Clothing Gallery on our website at www.cutlerbespoke.com

The 305g tweed with a heather green, purple and orangy red check design comes from the excellent English company Dashing Tweeds. It features a fly front, buffalo horn buttons, a pure silk purple lining, slanting welted pockets on each side and a special additional pocket that’s ideal for carrying the paper, or a bottle of grog if you are that way inclined. This is topped off with a matching tweed cap, which have become very fashionable of late.

Car coats were originally designed for driving in open topped cars which could get nippy in winter, or at high speeds at other times. Today I think they make a stylish and useful addition to any gentleman’s wardrobe. They can be worn with business or casual suits, and with casual weekend wear. I would certainly encourage my clients to invest in one, particularly with some of the exciting new fabrics that are now available from the likes of Dashing Tweeds and would be interested to hear your opinion on this oft neglected garment.

Incidentally more information on my friends from Dashing Tweeds can to found at http://www.dashingtweeds.co.uk/

I look forward to sharing my thoughts on bespoke tailoring and other topics from the broader world of luxury with you in 2012.

The event started in Covent Garden and included a tea stop as riders wended their way through some of London’s most famous streets. Prizes given out at the end of the day included Best Vintage Bicycle, Most Dapper Chap and Most Dashing Dame. Money raised from the event was donated to charity.

Being a great lover of tweed I am delighted to see it reappearing as a major influence in more contemporary fashion. Long may the trend continue.

Tweed Run London November 2011 from sheffieldcyclechic on Vimeo.

I don’t think I have previously mentioned who is making these bespoke fabrics for us. The name of the company is William Halstead Limited who have been making fabrics in Bradford, Yorkshire, in the north of England since 1875. These fully bespoke fabrics are being woven on their 100 year old sample looms by their highly skilled pattern weaving team, and I am pleased to say J. H. Cutler have an exclusive arrangement with them for these fabrics in Australia and New Zealand.

Each suit length is limited edition and comes numbered with a certificate of authenticity and special woven label inside a presentation gift box.

I RECENTLY POSTED A STORY ON ZEGNA’S NEW ‘COOL EFFECT’ FABRIC THAT I NOW HAVE AVAILABLE HERE IN SYDNEY, BUT ANOTHER FABRIC TYPE THAT HELPS TO MEET THE DIVERSE CHALLENGES OF OUR SUMMER WEATHER HERE IN AUSTRALIA, WHERE IT CAN BE SUNNY ONE MINUTE AND POURING THE NEXT, ARE THE HIGH PERFORMANCE WATER REPELLANT FABRICS THAT ARE NOW AVAILABLE FROM MOST OF THE WORLD’S LEADING FABRIC HOUSES.

For example the French company Dormeuil, who I have done business with for many years now have an excellent fabric called ‘Aquaplan’. The lightweight woolen weave has a finish that doesn’t absorb water. Instead it allows it to form into small beads and roll off the surface. Just give it a quick shake and it’s perfectly dry.

The seven and a half ounce pure wool 130’s fabric is soft, light and comfortable and the fabric’s qualities make it an ideal choice for a suit if you do a lot of travelling. ‘Aquaplan’ comes in a range of colours, pinstripes and checks and I have fabric samples available in my private showroom on Level 6 at 12 O’Connell Street in Sydney’s CBD is you would be interested in looking at them.

New bespoke fabrics

It allows the client to personally design their very own fabric, which can feature any colour or combination of colours and design and a wide varety of weights. I of course am there to offer advice, based on my more than 47 years in bespoke tailoring, and help guide them through the whole design process.

I then arrange for the fabric to be produced on a wooden 100 year-old sample loom at a mill in Bradford, Yorkshire in the north of England where they have been producing woolen fabrics since 1875. It’s the old style loom that allows me to order the relatively small amount of cloth required for an individual suit.

It’s an exciting development as many of my clients have become increasingly interested in where and how their garments are made. This new service allows them to get much more involved in the process and it gives new meaning to the idea of personal style. It could be termed “bespoke from the beginning.”

Bespoke fabrics such as this have featured in Hollywood blockbusters and celebrity fashion shoots and on fashion catwalks in Europe.

I am pleased to say that an esteemed gentlemen from the legal profession here in Sydney, and a Cutler client of many years standing, has already ordered J. H. Cutler’s first length of bespoke fabric. It has just arrived at our premises in O’Connell Street and is ready for cutting. I can’t wait to see the finished result.

Ideal for both suits and jackets it is available in a selection of colours and patterns and I am selling it in Sydney to customers of both my bespoke tailoring business J. H. Cutler, and my made to measure London Style by John Cutler range.

It’s a perfect fabric that’s, excuse the pun, well suited to our Australian summer, which is now only a couple of weeks away.

However bespoke is now being attached to so many things it is losing its true meaning. In recent weeks I have seen mention of bespoke jewellery, bespoke apartments, bespoke legal services and bespoke perfume. Now Virgin Atlantic are offering bespoke cocktails and in a recent newspaper article I read that gastro pubs are now offering bespoke scotch eggs!

Is it just me or have we already lost the true, and very powerful meaning, of the word bespoke? As a bespoke tailor of many years standing I would hope not, but I fear the worst.

J. P. Thornton

The book was published in 1893 by J. P. Thornton, whom I know very little about other than the fact that he was apparently a professor. If any of my readers know more I would be fascinated to hear from them. He wrote at least two other weight tomes on tailoring. “The International System of Garment Cutting Including Coats, Trousers Breeches and Vests” and one on ladies tailoring, “The Sectional System of Ladies Garment Cutting”.

In “The Sectional System of Gentlemen’s Garment Cutting” he lists the different body shapes of gentlemen, including the “fore and aft hump man”, the “prominent hips man”, and the “corpulent” and “pigeon breasted” figures and explains how to conceal these shapes with tailoring, aided by diagrams and illustrations.

Whilst maybe no man would really like to consider themselves as fitting one of the above templates it perhaps explains why the prominent UK restaurant reviewer A. A. Gill recently stated in one of his reviews that, “I have no idea what I weigh. I eat what I like and trust in a good tailor.”

Naturally I consider this to be very sound tailoring advice indeed.