Found And Tailored – The Gray Suit For Spring 2010
It’s sad when a suit can be put away in the TO BE TAILORED pile only to be completely forgotten about.
Case in point a fine gray 3 button suit I purchased at Daffy’s for a mere $95. At first it fit like a box, there was a really awful neck roll, and after two tries at a shitty dry cleaning tailor (this is before I met Matt at Imparali), I got this as an end result:
While not completely terrible, the armholes ended up being too tight, the pants were bunching in a really sloppy manner, the neck roll actually got worse, and the arms were still totally uneven. Completely frustrated with the results, I ended up bagging the suit only to forget about it as part of my tailoring list.
After the apartment redo, I came across the ugly duckling and realized that with the aid of Matt and his staff, I would most likely be able to transform the suit into something along the lines of this:
And while it’s not a bespoke Kilgour, at least I could have my own version of the classic, lightweight gray suit that Grant wore without having to take a small loan out from the bank to pay for it.
I began to make a mental checklist of what I love about CG’s suit in North By Northwest and came up with the following to do’s for the staff at Imparali:
1. Fix neck roll.
2. Since the pants are slightly pleated, add a cuff at the bottom and fix bunching at the same time.
3. Since the waist is a perfect fit, have belt loops removed.
4. Fix the uneven sleeves.
5. Fix the tightness around the armholes.
6. Keep top button rolled over.
I wish I had a better before photo or maybe you just had to see the way it fit in real life but Imparali did a miracle job on it. For example, the neck roll is completely gone:
Like I said, in just the photos you can’t see a huge difference from the before shot but believe me, the way the suit FEELS on me has completely changed.
That funkiness on the legs got fixed towards the bottom and although there is some bunching on the thighs, it doesn’t show at all in real life. It may have something to do with the weight of the fabric as it is extremely light wool. Also, the sleeves are completely even now although it doesn’t look like it in the photo. I had shifted just as the camera snapped which explains why they look a little off.
The only thing that could not be done from the list were removing the belt loops because they were sewn on too tightly.
And while I am in no way Cary Grant, here’s how great the suit looks if I were to be chased by a crop duster plane in an open field.
The shoes I am wearing are a deep chocolate brown by Kenneth Cole:
The suit is fused, not canvassed, yet it holds up pretty nicely when pressed.
I’m excited to have this one back in my wardrobe because of it’s lightweight wool. It will be perfect on those semi-warm spring days.
I rather like the cut as it is a departure from my normally tight fitting suits. This may be a new direction for me in terms of tailoring…possibly.
