Vintage Suitings: Discussions of, and sourcing modern equivalents, etc.

[Guttersnipe]

Are the nephews actually tailors or do the run the front of the shop? I've never met a tailor who loves working with the supers as they can be very persnickety.

The younger one is the cutter's apprentice and the older one runs the front shop.

 

[Fastuni]

New additions to my fabric vault:

Salt & pepper fleck tweed for a three-piece sports suit, beige herringbone for plus-fours or other sporty stuff and brown fresco for a summer suit:

Light cream-white flannel marked "Flanell de France". If someone is interested in half of it... send me a PM.

Also got a bunch of lovely caramel corozo buttons. They look like candy... mmh.

Cheers

 

[Two Types]

Another great selection. You need to get sewing!

 

[Fastuni]

I know, I know! But I fear not before summer... studies and all.

 

[Barmey]

Beautiful hoard Fastuni! Very jealous.

 

[Tomasso]

Stellar cloth, Fastuni! Love the buttons as well. I have a nasty button fetish, spending more hours than I care to admit perusing the selection at Tender Buttons in NYC.

 

[Fastuni]

Thanks. Selecting buttons is sometimes like putting together a box of pralines.
I have to credit the Germans for making the most beautiful buttons during the 1920 - 50's.
In French, British and American tailoring the rimmed flat button (sometimes from dreary plastic) was almost ubiquitous,
whereas in German/Central-European tailoring the bowl-shaped button was standard. But also numerous variations of delicate riffled surfaces or rims.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

While this is generally true - the plastic buttons that everyone used in the UK at the lower end of the market are quite iconic; I love the bowl-backed shape of these British buttons - there is A LOT of corozo around too in British 30s-50s gear. I see probably about 50/50 use of plastic buttons and corozo. For me, the beauty of corozo is in its subtlety. Those above, btw, are they marked corozo on the card? It doesn't look like the typical corozo pattern. Too streaky, not swirly enough.

In French, British and American tailoring the rimmed flat button (sometimes from dreary plastic) was almost ubiquitous,
whereas in German/Central-European tailoring the bowl-shaped button was standard.

 

[Fastuni]

there is A LOT of corozo around too in British 30s-50s gear. I see probably about 50/50 use of plastic buttons and corozo.

Yes absolutely - but whether plastic or corozo, outside the greater "Germanic" tailoring sphere, they are mostly just flat with a rim.
Of course there is something to be said about the aesthetic qualities of corozo itself, also in most plain shapes.

There is nothing written on the card. I guessed them to be corozo. What would be the alternative? Horn maybe?
Note that the top row of small buttons is swirly, while the lower ones are streaky.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

There is nothing written on the card. I guessed them to be corozo. What would be the alternative? Horn maybe?
Note that the top row of small buttons is swirly, while the lower ones are streaky.

Yes I've seen a lot of that kind of swirl button. I'm not convinced those are corozo. They could be an early plastic or celluloid horn-effect button (or even horn?). A corozo button, whether natural cream, caramel, black, whatever, will have this kind of concentric swirl effect more or less centred, caused by differential distribution of dye as the nut shrinks before cutting.

Yes absolutely - but whether plastic or corozo, outside the greater "Germanic" tailoring sphere, they are mostly just flat with a rim.
Of course there is something to be said about the aesthetic qualities of corozo itself, also in most plain shapes.

While I'm a great fan of the big bold chunky German overcoat buttons, I shy away from the bowl-shaped jacket buttons in anything other than sober solid tones. They tend, to my aesthetics, to be a bit too flashy.

 

[Fastuni]

While I'm a great fan of the big bold chunky German overcoat buttons, I shy away from the bowl-shaped jacket buttons in anything other than sober solid tones. They tend, to my aesthetics, to be a bit too flashy.

Vot!? Are you suggesting zis double-rimmed brown-in-black button is too flashy?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Rather beautiful, but for menswear a bit too fruity. More a ladies wear button, that

 

[Tomasso]

Gotta agree with the Baron on that one.

 

[Fastuni]

No love for Teutonic flamboyance... :cool2:

 

[Two Types]

I like buttons to be subtle - as soon as I see decorated buttons I think 'cheap market stall Versace knock-offs'.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

With very rare exceptions (like your Kaiser Bill suspender buttons) … no. :spider:

No love for Teutonic flamboyance... :cool2:

 

[Fastuni]

So that others get an idea what we are talking about :

ca.1908 Kaiser Wilhelm II. suspender rivet buttons.

The double-rimmed double-color button at the top of the page was a rather extreme example, of course.

I'm going to catch a few photos of slightly more respectable and in my opinion quite wearable German button variations tomorrow.

 

[Two Types]

When are you gents going to start a 'Show us Your Buttons Thread'?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Doeskin

I get most of my fabric from a chap who clears warehouses and old fabric shops. I couldn't resist buying this old German (?) "Doeskin" fabric. It wasn't particularly cheap, but this is the stuff of which German 1920s suits are so often made, and there's enough for a suit!

Pronounced nap and more than a little bit of mohair give this a distinct sheen so typical of those suits. It's difficult to capture adequately in pictures. I think this stuff is quite old. integral to the roll of fabric is a strange innovation - a lightweight paper ruler that tells you how much fabric is left! It is cut off a bit short, at 3m 80cm. There is actually 4.5 metres or so left. I took some images of the maker's marks. Any of the Germans seen these before? Maybe the typography gives some indication of age?

 

[Two Types]

Good stuff. What sort of weight is the cloth? Nice and heavy, I trust.