We love cloth with every fibre of our being; it is the very essence of a suit. The first, and incredibly exciting, step in creating your bespoke suit is picking the cloth from which you want it to be cut. It’s a big decision, but an exhilarating one, especially when you see the incredible range of fabrics we maintain at Jack Davison Bespoke. We have quite literally thousands, which come direct from our very carefully selected cloth merchants and mills in Italy and the UK. The cloths are collected together in what we call bunches, books of similarly constructed cloths. We obtain these on a regular basis from the mills that we work with, so that our selection is constantly changing. The bunches are organised by type - for example, one bunch may contain that mill’s selection of flannel, whilst another may include its cashmere blends. So, the question is... which to choose? And, how? Let’s start from the top and see how we narrow it down.

Jack Davison Bespoke

First things first, purpose. We need to consider what the suit is for. Is it for an occasion, for work, or for casual wear? We need to determine how often you’re likely to wear it, to establish how hard-wearing the fabric ought to be. If you’re buying a suit primarily for work, you’ll probably want a more durable cloth, unless you already have a number of suits in rotation. Perhaps the suit is for business travel, or there is a lot of activity in your day, or a lot of sitting; in these cases, crease-resistant cloth with some give is perhaps most suitable.

We’ll also think about the climate in which you plan to wear your suit, or the time of the year, so we can establish the appropriate weight of the cloth. Cold weather calls for wool, flannel, tweed and cashmere; in warmer environments we’ll look to linen, cotton, silks and lighter weight wools. The climate is very likely to influence the choice of texture for your suit. Perhaps you would like to be able to wear it all year round, wherever you may be travelling, in which case, along with other factors, we’d consider how much you generally tend to respond to temperature -whether you particularly feel the heat, or the cold. You’ll probably already know whether you prefer a lighter or heavier feel to your everyday attire.

Jack Davison Bespoke

Once we have established the purpose of your suit, and when and how often you plan to wear it, we will still be left with a great number of options for colours and patterns. Do you want to stick with a classic navy or charcoal? Perhaps you want something a little different for a wedding, a colour you wouldn’t normally choose? A pinstripe or a check? Maybe a tweed? We’ll find the right cloth for you. Of course, your choice of cloth may also be determined by whether or not you have other bespoke suits in circulation, and whether (as we hope) you’ll choose to have more made with us in future. For a first, multi-purpose, all-round suit, we’d always recommend a mid-weight navy or grey wool suit. As you build your wardrobe, you might then want to consider stripes, or checks, and so on.

Having threaded our way through these considerations, we’ll have our shortlist in front of us, which we’ll discuss a little more, along with the price points and, of course, the lining (but then that is a whole other story!). It’s up to you to make the final decision. Your fabric will be ordered from the relevant mill... and your suit’s journey will begin.