A friendly reminder: the order window for this year’s summer tweed re-run closes this Friday, August 30th. Since introducing it in 2016, I’ve been happily surprised to see it pop up in some unexpected places. It’s shown up in GQ, The Sartorialist, and Permanent Style. Bespoke shoemaker Nicholas Templeman wore it in a Last Magazine feature. Dionisio D’Alise, the head cutter at Sartoria Formosa, sometimes wears it at fittings. Anderson & Sheppard trained coatmaker Lee Oxley says he loves the cloth. The best response, however – and I mean this genuinely – has come from readers, who email me to say how much they like their resulting suits and sport coats.
I originally designed the fabric because I was looking for something like the silk jacketing you see on Taka from Liverano & Liverano above (the photo above is from The Armoury, my fabric is pictured below). There was once a time when raw silk jacketing was a bit more commonly available. The material has the same slubby texture you see in raw silk ties, but it comes in a weight that’s suitable for tailoring. Today, however, it’s all but impossible to find outside of vintage fabric vaults. So I designed my own.
This is a mid-brown, 9/10 oz fabric made from a 60/ 40 blend of linen and silk. Despite having a bit of silk, the cloth is matte and breathable. It has a semi-open weave that’s suitable for the heat. It holds a crease and is hard-wearing. Most importantly, it has a bit of irregular texture and slight flecking, which makes it look like your favorite Donegal tweeds. It can be hard to find a good spring/ summer fabric once you get past your basic tropical wools and linens. Most are a bit too flat-looking, or too crisp to hold a pattern (on a clear-finished worsted, sometimes a pattern can look too vivid). This allows you to add a bit of a pattern to a summer outfit while still making it easy to wear.
Later this year, Spier & Mackay will also offer summer tweed suits and sport coats through their online custom tailoring program. Their made-to-order program allows you to adjust some basic measurements off their ready-to-wear block patterns (e.g., sleeve length, coat length, waist, and shoulder width). The clothes are made in China but to impressive standards. For this summer tweed run, suits will be $898, sport coats $688, and trousers $298. Their MTO jackets are half-canvassed, although they offer a full-canvas and Milanese buttonhole upgrade for just $150 more. The offering will be available on their site this December, once I deliver this fabric to them in November (which is when other subscribers will get their lengths). You can read more about Spier & Mackay’s tailoring at Put This On.
So, in summary:
- Summer’s Tweed: 60% linen, 40% silk. 9/10 oz cloth. Fabric is 54 inches wide. Price is $70/ meter, and shipping is $47 worldwide (unless you’re in Western Europe, which will be cheaper depending on your location). The fabric is being run on pre-order and will be shipped in late-November, once it’s been woven. Order deadline is this Friday, August 30th.
Readers interested can email me. Those interested in Spier & MacKay’s tailoring should contact them directly. Below are photos of people who have commissioned garments made from previous runs of summer tweed, which hopefully will give you an idea of how it can be worn. In order of appearance: Peter, Max of The Armoury, Mitchell of Menswear Musings, Andy, Nicholas, Kenji of Brycelands, Dionisio of Sartoria Formosa, and a coat a reader had made at A. Caraceni. Finally, Trunk Tailors made the one-button cuff sport coat pictured above.
