bespoke

Take your time: the bespoke shirt



Turnbull and Asser bespoke shirt for women

The French may have Charvet, but we have Turnbull & Asser. In matters of sartorial excellence, a bespoke shirt has to be one of life’s great not-so-little luxuries. So in the name of research, I took up the offer of trying out the service.

Shirts factor big in my book, The New Garconne: How to be a Modern Gentlewoman and they’re also enjoying a major fashion spotlight moment, especially those of gargantuan, deconstructed proportions. And yet here’s a fascinating fact: only about 1% of Turnbull & Asser bespoke shirts are made for women. (more…)



Personalised fashion: the update



1 3X1-custom-jeans

So have you been wondering how my 3X1 custom jeans turned out? Well I hope you like details because there’s a lot to take in. After my appointment at Selfridges with the 3X1 team at the beginning of August in which they let me modify their W2 Boyfriend jean with my choice of denim, thread, pocket details, buttons and zips, I took delivery of the finished article four weeks later. Like my Smythson experience, the choice was quite overwhelming at the time but the results are nothing short of superb. (more…)



Personalised jeans? this way please…



MIH-monogrammed-jeans

More on the denim personalisation front. Last weekend I spent a happy hour at Selfridges playing with denim swatches, buttons, rivets and zips to build my own version of 3×1 boyfriend jeans. The New York-based denim brand owned by Scott Morrison (founder of Paper, Denim Cloth and Earnest Sewn) sells its RTW jeans at Selfridges’ Denim Studio (which you can read all about here), but for three days only was also offering its custom service to London denim heads.

I chose my favourite cut of jeans, then configured the best denim, thread colour, pocket style, rivets, buttons and zips to make them up in. It was a truly indulgent experience. (My jeans should arrive in three weeks from the 3×1 denim factory in New York). [UPDATE: This way for the finished article.]

Not quite as intensive but still a fun self-branding service is the monogramming that’s being offered by MIH jeans and Mother Jeans. Both use traditional hand monogramming to stitch initials onto a new pair of jeans.

For your monogrammed Mother denim, head to Selfridges Oxford Street’s Denim Studio this weekend only, where you chosen Mother jeans will be embroidered free of charge while you wait (roughly 30-40 minutes depending what you have done). For your MIH Hawthorne & Heaney embroidered jeans, order the ones you want online and follow the instructions. Your monogrammed jeans should be delivered in two weeks.

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