Laundering linen suits

[nightandthecity]

I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve finally got something I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve wanted for years, an original 1930s British colonial white linen suit. It came from a family of former tea planters in India, and is labelled to Whiteaway and Laidlaw ?¢‚Ǩ?ìthe Harrods of the far east?¢‚Ǩ? (cynics used to say the Marks & Spencer of the far east).

Excellent condition, hardly worn, and for the moment quite clean?¢‚Ǩ¬¶however, its going to get dirty, no way that can be avoided.

Linen has a high rate of shrinkage. And white linen shows the dirt. So I presume that these were meant to be hot washed and that it is made from pre-shrunk cloth ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú or am I presuming wrong? Opinions welcome, and I won?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t hold you responsible if you turn out to be wrong! Anyone got any other tips on care and maintenance?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Where on God's green Earth did you find that? Wow

bk

p.s. I have no idea how to launder linen. I heard you shouldn't put it near water. or was that Palm Beach cloth?

 

[nightandthecity]

ebay, where else! And the seller only lived about ten miles away.

I've seen a few on ebay over the years but always (get this!) TOO BIG! And me Mr Average circa 1939!

Actually, even this one is a little too big, I'd say its for a 40R and I'm 38R but beggars can't be too choosy.

I have always heard that linen shrinks but there's no way dry cleaning would be adaquate for a suit like this. In fact the linen websites I've checked do recommend washing but of course, they're talking about table cloths not vintage suits.

My gut feeling is that this will have been made from pre-shrunk cloth, but i wouldn't like to be proved wrong the hard way.....

 

[Veronica Parra]

Photos of your suit .... PLEASE!!!

 

[nightandthecity]

hey Veronica, I sold you the ideal hat to go with this suit about a week before I found the suit!

I'll try and get some pix taken today.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

And I -- Veronica's husband -- am very glad you did sell it! I love that hat. It's an example of great, eternal style that could be had at any store of the time for a reasonable price, and then discarded after a couple of summers. (Thank goodness nobody tossed out this particular one!)

Raymond Loewy, the '30s product designer, would have been proud. He believed that the masses deserved access to great style.

 

[nightandthecity]

Glad you like it! I might have guessed you'd know who designed it.......

So that is supposed to be a discardable hat! Puts the modern junk well in perspective...

I'll try and post some pics of the suit though I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m afraid the pictures are crap. I have real trouble getting a decent pic in this house at the best of times, let alone at night, the light is terrible here. I need to spend time experimenting with camera settings, but I reckon life is too short.

Watch this space...

 

[nightandthecity]

OK, here goes?¢‚Ǩ¬¶

The first two are the seller?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s pics, I used them as they capture the cream/ivory colour of the unbleached linen better than mine.

 

[nightandthecity]

You might also find it interesting to compare the fit on the seller and on me. She was 5ft8 and 42 chest/36 waist. I am same height but 38 chest/34 waist. I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢d say the suit was originally meant for someone in between - same height but 40 chest/35 waist (trousers adjust from 34 to 37). Actually, it does fit me a lot better than it appears here, the sloping camera angle shortens my legs and makes the jacket appear longer than it is. The main problem is the jacket width ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú it could do with taking in a couple of inches. I was tempted to simply move the buttons but that would spoil the positioning of pockets etc.

Incidentally it seems to demand that all three buttons be fastened.

Sorry about the hat and shoes but I sold the hat to Ms Parra and I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m still looking for the white buckskins! Couldn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t be bothered shaving either!

Whiteaway and Laidlaw started as a drapers shop and ended up as a major chain of department stores across the far east with branches in Calcutta, Delhi, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore etc. Their period was the first half of the 20th century. They are long gone, though I haven?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t been able to find out exactly when they folded - presumably post-WW2 with de-colonization. If I remember rightly W&L is where George Orwell went to be kitted out in Burmese Days.

The family who owned the suit owned tea plantations in India. Possibly the suit was made or purchased further east as the only marking apart from the W&L label is on the waist hook which is marked to the Tang Kun Fee Co. who were based in Kowloon/Hong Kong and made metal fittings.

 

[herringbonekid]

unstructured garments like shirts and trousers are ok to hand-wash, but a suit jacket with shoulder pads and inter-facings should be dry cleaned. you risk getting a screwed-up crumpled jacket that you could have difficulty re-pressing into shape.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Nice looking suit. Wish i could get one at a decent price :rage: Those things go nuts in my size.

Incidentally it seems to demand that all three buttons be fastened.

How so?

bk

 

[nightandthecity]

Thanks Herringbone! Keep the advice coming chaps....

Actually the jacket has no shoulder pads and no lining apart from a lighter weight linen shoulder yoke. As long as the linen is pre-shrunk I think you could wash it, though it would certainly be the devil to iron. Of course, it is the pants that are going to get dirtiest especially near the foot. Maybe I could wash the trousers and dry clean the jacket!

Clearly a suit like this would have soon got very dirty worn around a dusty tea plantation or in the back streets of Hong Kong....I would have thought dirtier than dry cleaning could cope with?

Baron, the button thing could simply reflect the fact that the jacket is too wide on me. As things are it it simply looks much better than the fashionable single button. I might try and hunt down a few web pics and see how people actually wore these.

 

[herringbonekid]

if its an unstructured jacket then you should be ok, and yes, it probably has been hand-washed before. but with structured wool suits in the days before dry-cleaning...people just didn't wash them.
funny thing is, i think dusty crumpled linen suits look cool.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Gotta love those colonial suits!

I sold the one below a few months ago. Ribbed cotton (not linen, alas). Cream color. High armholes. Unpadded shoulders. Patch pockets. From the early 1930s; custom-made in Trinidad, which was then a British colony.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

My God, man. Do you have/sell any suits that aren't stunning??? I drool at every suit picture-bearing post you submit.

bk

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Thanks! I started collecting in 1986, and I've been very picky. Learned a lot along the way. "It's not the years; it's the mileage."

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

That suit looks a lot better on you, than it did on her. It really was designed to fit a man's body rather than a woman's.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Definitely!

 

[nightandthecity]

well, I do have the advantage of being a man, that's true! Plus it is easier to get away with too big than too small.

Still need advice on the laundering! Will this have been pre-shrunk?

Marc, your Trinidadian SB peak lapel is a mighty suit! I wish I'd seen it on ebay....I'm saving for a laptop (boring) so been avoiding looking, its the only way to stop buying.

I watched Casablanca over the holidays and the main characters seem to go for what look like lightweight, light colour, wool or cotton rather than white linen. It's the bit parts that wear the linen suits. Wonder if there's a message there!