We were privileged to be invited to make the shirt, waistcoat and trousers for this young gentleman for his wedding day. He selected a crisp white shirt, with the fabric from Acorn Fabrics in Lancashire, a double breasted waistcoat, using a luxurious Scottish cotton from Harrisons of Edinburgh and a pinstriped pair of trousers (with a subtle orange tinge to the stripes). The combination looks great and his bride seems happy with the result!
A Henry Herbert suit for a young London based solicitor for his wedding day. The suit was made from a splendid Super 120’s cloth from Thomas Fisher, from Huddersfield and looks smashing with the accompanying lounge waistcoat…and his new wife.
Fabric: English wool
Fabric source: West Yorkshire, England
Cut: Elegant, Three Piece, Single Breasted
Occasion: Wedding
Notes: A great looking Henry Herbert suit modelled extremely well by its customer, Mr Tom Duxberry. The fabric is from Bateman & Ogden in West Yorkshire and sits sharply on top of the single button waistcoat. Tom is owner and chef of the lovely Marneys Village Inn, in Weston Green, Surrey.
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A great looking waistcoat we made, using a rare fishtail lining for Freddie Smith who, with Phil O’Farrell, is part of the band Freddie Smith & Phil O’Farrell. (We made Phil a great looking shirt too, which you can see under our shirts section). They play uplifting Irish inspired tunes and you can listen to some of their music on their MySpace account here.
A special brown waistcoat, made even more special by the very difficult sewing surround of the last button! (The colour matches the lining). This was part of an incredibly difficult three-piece suit that took Henry Herbert 37.5 hours of tailoring to complete, but well worth the toil. The fabric is a splendid Super 100’s wool from Holland & Sherry.
An example of an excellent and very fine cloth from Taylor & Lodge of Huddersfield, England, in a recent Henry Herbert three-piece suit. The secret is, “always keep the style simple and the cloth special.”
Henry Herbert was invited to make a morning suit and waistcoat for the gentleman pictured above – a young lawyer from London, who married in the South of France. We chose the traditional trouser cloth from Bateman & Ogden (a Yorkshire mill) and the cloth for the coat and the waistcoat was made by Dugdale Brothers, of Huddersfield. A great looking morning suit to match his splendid looking bride.
As bespoke tailors, Henry Herbert can offer any cut and style of waistcoat you wish. However, we have found that the styles below tend to be the most popular.
The Pocketwatch Waistcoat
The Pocketwatch Waistcoat is very similar to the Oscar Lafontaine Waistcoat (see below) with the exception of its pockets, which were originally designed to accommodate a pocketwatch or a stopwatch.
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The Edwardian Line
The Edwardian Line was a reaction to King Edward’s Waistcoat. Both
waistcoats have clean symmetrical lines defining their shape, but the Edwardian Line has a sharp line punching through the area around the tummy – a provocative but subtle style reaction to the King’s favourite.
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The Horse Shoe Sccop Waistcoat
The horse shoe sccop waistcoat is designed to be worn with a black tie. The low slung body hides it discreetly behind a buttoned dinner jacket and tuxedo shirt, but quickly reveals itself when the jacket is unbuttoned. It should be worn without a cummerbund and the waistcoat buttons should remain fastened throughout the evening.
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The Lounge Waistcoat
The Lounge waistcoat was once always a key characteristic of the three piece suit, but today it has been adopted as a popular choice amongst the youth of Britain, such as the style icon Kate Moss and the members of indie band Razorlight who wear them over casual shirts and jeans for a day-to-day fashionable look.
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The Oskar Lafontaine Waistcoat
Oskar Lafontaine is a German politician and former German Finance Minister. During his short tenure as Minister of Finance, Lafontaine was a major bogeyman of UK Eurosceptics. He is famed for always wearing a waistcoat, with two large, front pockets and five buttons, thus the Oscar Lafontaine Waistcoat.
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Why do we leave the last button of a waistcoat undone? We can trace this back to King Henry VIII. It was considered a huge insult to Henry because he couldn’t see his toes, let alone fasten the bottom button of his waistcoat. His courtiers took it as a style ‘initiative’ and followed suit, hence it becoming ‘the’ way to button a waistcoat. It remains a point of style even today and most well dressed men will leave their bottom button undone.