Could Chittleborough & Morgan be the world’s most extraordinary bespoke tailor? Join Joe Morgan as he shares the secrets behind their bold designs, innovative details, and the precision that defines their Savile Row legacy.
Video Transcript [Lightly Edited for Clarity]:
Raphael: Welcome back to the Gentleman’s Gazette! Today, I’m here at number 12 Savile Row with Joe Morgan from Chittleborough & Morgan. Joe, thanks for having me.
Joe: My pleasure. It’s a joy to be part of your trip today.
Raphael: Well, thank you! You know, one thing that immediately struck me when I came here was that what you do is very different than elsewhere in the Row. The lapels are wide, the shoulders are kind of there, and there’s canvas all over. Walk us through how you came to create a style like that is so unique.
Walk us through how you came to create a style that is so unique.
Joe: Well, it really started in 1969 when I was… my first boss—well, not my first boss, my first boss in Savile Row—Tommy Nutter, was allowed to come to Savile Row. And the reason he was accepted is because he did the same quality of work as all the other bespoke tailors. What they did was create a lovely, beautiful gentleman’s suit, but it was just a little bit ordinary. So, when Tom came, he allowed men to express themselves—not only with brighter blues and brighter pinks and greens—but in the way that the actual suit fitted them.
He had a stronger shoulder line, a very close, high armhole, and a much more hugging body shape. So the gentleman could complement his wife or his partner, and they both looked fantastic—as opposed to the gentleman saying, “My wife looks fantastic; I don’t worry about me.” Sir, it does. You both look fantastic now. And this is how everybody wanted a Tommy Nutter suit.
Raphael: Well, and to really understand how kind of revolutionary it was at the time, let’s have a quick look at that blue suit that you said men wore in the ’50s and ’60s.
Joe: So, this is an archive piece. You can see that the lapels are three-and-a-quarter inches, and the shoulder line is soft. This suit is like 25 years old, 30 years old. So, it still has a way of being worn, but the shape and the model is not what we’re doing today. So, if I could show you something from 1972—would you like to see that?
Raphael: Yes, yes! That would be amazing.
Joe: So, this is something coming from where gentlemen were wearing the suit that I just showed you. Whereas this is an archive piece that we made for a gentleman—not Tom—but a gentleman, in 1972. Consequently, the shoulder lines are different. The armholes, again, are very high, close in the waist. And this is a lapel that everybody from ’69 to now has, from now, sort of model, if I may. We have these nice, long side vents. This is a piece made in 1972, but Tom wears it now for a party, and it’s good fun.
Raphael: I mean, just—you know—you see the belly of the lapel. The lapel tip is almost at the kind of—you know—really, you know, roped sleeve head. There’s hardly anything there on the other side. It basically overlaps your chest pocket. And this originally was a black color. It’s just faded from some UV rays. And the fabric is lovely, too. It feels like a mohair, right?
Joe: It is, correct.
Raphael: Very nice.
Joe: But the whole idea is that this is sustainable. People—you know—we have gentlemen bringing their clothes in that were made in the ’70s, getting altered for their grandchildren. So, how cool is that? That’s just so good-looking.
Raphael: Absolutely. And you see the flaps here, quite oversized, piped as well—piping in the front. So, it’s a very unique style. And in a time when people go with soft, you’re like, “No, we’re going to go with structure.”
Joe: Quite in definition.
Raphael: Appreciate you.
Joe: So, this is the whole thing about bespoke. We’re competing with ready-to-wear, which has very little sustainability and fills landfills. But we have our clothes that stay with us—they’re all-natural fibers. If you were to get one of our suits and throw it out of the car, letting it fall onto the sort of forest floor, it would biodegrade. Just whereas, you know, we get man-made fibers coming in from around the world, and they’re here for landfills.
Raphael: But you were kind enough to kind of get some things out of the archive here for us. This is like Nutters—Nutters Christmas greetings with the Nutters soccer team. You didn’t call it a football team but a soccer team.
Joe: Well, this is Tom and his influence with the United States. He was a great fan of the US, and this is what he sort of put together. So, yeah, turn it ’round. A good group. We didn’t win, I’m afraid, and we weren’t very high up the league, but it was just good fun.
Raphael: Your jerseys look great.
Joe: And why not do this?
Raphael: All right.
Joe: And this is again 35a, where we were originally. Now, it’s been demolished and is no longer, so we’ve relocated.
Raphael: Interesting. So, here we’ve got a little brochure from 2011—a Tommy Nutter, Rebel on the Row.
Joe: So, this was an exhibition in Bermondsey at the London Design Museum.
Raphael: So, Tommy Nutter was the visionary of those lapels when they were built up?
Joe: Yes, yes, yes. And he gave men that sort of ability to express themselves. And who else was there? I don’t think, with respect, that England looks after its sort of icons because they, you know… He was just forgotten, really. And it’s just unfortunate that, you know, Italy has its Armani, and France had its Karl Lagerfeld. And Tom… there’s nobody here for you to say that Tom’s, you know, in that category.
Raphael: So, Tommy Nutter and Edward Sexton, did they have very kind of defined roles?
So, Tommy Nutter and Edward Sexton, did they have very kind of defined roles?
Joe: Oh, indeed.
Raphael: Did they both do the same? Or like, walk us through that.
Joe: Yeah. Well, with Tom, he would go out to dinner with John Schlesinger and Bianca Jagger, and they’d just say, “Tom, we just have to have one of these suits.” He’d come back, and Edward would cut it. That was a unique sort of balance between the two—one very creative and the other very practical, able to define Tommy’s designs into everyday clothes.
Raphael: Well, I see here you have, like, it says, “Elton Wembley 84.”
Joe: Well, this is one of Tom’s designs that he put together for one of Elton’s.
Raphael: It’s like a tailcoat in black and white. One pant leg white, the other one black. Shoulders really built up.
Joe: Quite, quite.
Raphael: Did that actually get produced?
Joe: Yes. Oh, yes. I think there’s a whole catalog of productions that Tom worked on throughout his life.
Raphael: Wonderful. And so, what was your part in all of it?
And so, what was your part in all of it?
Joe: Well, I joined Tommy and Edward in 1970 as an assistant cutter, and I worked with Edward and Tom from then on. Unfortunately, Tommy left, then Edward left, and we’ve just stayed on with the company, developing it and creating, let’s say, a brand that competes with the best in France, the best in Italy, and the best in the world. So, we think we’re doing that, and we’re just promoting London because, you know, such wonderful patrons come here to London to visit us and have clothes made.
Raphael: So, everything is made here on the premises?
Joe: Yes, sir.
Raphael: Is that right?
Joe: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. To a very high standard.
Raphael: Do you cut every single suit?
Do you cut every single suit?
Joe: Yes. Yes. Yes. Everybody has a pattern. We have, you know, lots of patterns and lots of fittings here.
Raphael: Wonderful. So, you also brought some books here. What’s in the books?
Joe: Well, unfortunately, we don’t have them from the very early days because they got lost, but we’ve just got these ones picked up from ’74. This is where Mick Jagger came in to see us, and he had a blue gabardine suit.
Raphael: How do you make H blue?
Joe: That’s blue.
Raphael: Yeah.
Joe: A blue gabardine, and he had a single-breasted jacket, trousers, and something else.
Raphael: Black gabardine maybe?
Joe: And then, we had other gentlemen come in—Elton John. So, we have Elton there with something here, and this is all in Tommy’s handwriting.
Raphael: Because, at the time, people just noticed Tommy Nutter did something different. People wanted something different. It was fashion-forward.
Joe: Yes, not necessarily fashion, but he gave men the ability to express themselves. And I think this is really what the style icons of the day saw in Tom—they wanted to be part of what he was doing. So, we have here Elton John, a red gabardine. This is a red gabardine that we’re working on for a gentleman.
Raphael: Inspired by the original Elton John?
Joe: Not quite, but yes, gentlemen still want to express themselves.
Raphael: Interesting. So, we see here, this is the canvas flapped over here, made in England. Very nice. And then the collar. Yeah, it all feels very substantial, but it’s also not military stiff.
Joe: Oh, no. No, no. I think, actually, you know, it’s unfair to say they’re military because they do make one sort of stand up and express their body shape, but—
Raphael: Well, you notice when you wear the suit, it kind of helps you and your posture as you stand up.
Joe: Yes, and it gives you a good, strong empowerment of your shoulder line and your chest area. So, something from going to—well, probably 1974—we’re still making things in that sort of silhouette.
Raphael: So, one thing I noticed with your gorge line is it’s a little lower than maybe some Italian suits today. The big lapels, you know, don’t stand up over your shoulder.
Joe: Oh, no, we don’t do that. When we take our measurements, and we fit, we measure our point from the shoulder seam to where we feel that it’s stylized. Then, what we do is create this long line into the body shape. The whole emphasis is into the waist and then out again to give it that sort of body shape.
Raphael: That waist suppression.
Joe: Which is really important because it gives height and presence.
Raphael: So, you also favor a single button, it seems. Is that right?
Joe: Yes, sir.
Raphael: And it’s right on your natural waist?
Joe: Yes, if not, sometimes slightly higher. What we want to do is give you the sling into there and then flare out the jacket a little bit. It gives you height, body shape, and presence.
Raphael: Interesting. And then all your sleeve heads seem to be roped.
Joe: Slightly roped.
Raphael: To different degrees? Do you have sometimes more rope, sometimes less?
Joe: So we do. It’s so exciting working with people who adore clothes. We just say, “Look, you know, we can give you this.” And they say, “I can deal with this.” And then, if we don’t like it, we take it off. But, yes.
Raphael: So, how many suits do you have with turn-back cuffs on the sleeves, would you say?
Joe: A lot.
Raphael: A lot. Is that the house style?
Joe: It is the house style, but it’s also handwork. And how nice it is to, somewhere in London, “Let’s make it elegant.”, “Let’s make it adventurous.”, “Let’s make it stylized.” So, when you’re at a party, and you’re shaking hands or holding a drink—who else has got a cuff?
Raphael: So, do you try to match the height of the cuff on the sleeve to that of the trouser hem?
Joe: This is two inches.
Raphael: Two inches?
Joe: And our turn-ups are two inches. Two inches. Flaps, two and a half. Lapels, four and a half, five, four and a quarter. So, we mark everything. We don’t just say, “This is our house style; you’re wearing it.” If you’re comfortable with this—like our trousers—we like to put our trousers high on the waist.
Raphael: So, belly button about?
Joe: Possibly. There’s a hip bone here that we all have, so if we can get the seam roughly on that, we’re comfortable. At the fitting, we always say to our gentlemen, “If you’re comfortable with this height, we’d love to put them there.” Because lots of people, they don’t get anything else. They get trousers that fit around here, so their legs are long, but the proportions from the shoulder line to the waist are too low. There’s an imbalance there. So, we try to balance the whole body shape so it harmonizes together.
Raphael: What are the materials you like to work with typically?
What are the materials you like to work with typically?
Joe: So, this is an English fabric. It’s what they call a golden bell. It’s two warp, two weft—lovely to tailor because we call it tailoring, but we bully and brutalize the fabric to get our shape to what we want to do. This is tailoring for us, so we need a fabric that can work with those demands. This is a unique fabric. They use staple lengths, which are much, much longer.
Raphael: It’s a nice worsted. It’s not lightweight, but it’s also not heavy.
Joe: No, quite. This is like an 11-ounce fabric, which is fine for us. They make it in a 13-ounce, but it’s like all English fabrics. The quality is getting smaller, and we’d like it to get bigger and with fewer designs. The Italians we work with, they do two warp, one weft, and it’s not so easy to tailor. So, if we ask our fellows who work with the clothes what they prefer, they always prefer an English fabric. No question about it—an English fabric.
Raphael: Interesting. And so, if you’re in the market for a suit, and you see the suit and say, “I like the lapels, I like the belly, I like the long skirt,” what’s the process of ordering a suit from you? And how long do I have to wait?
And so, if you’re in the market for a suit, and you see the suit and say, “I like the lapels, I like the belly, I like the long skirt,” what’s the process of ordering a suit from you? And how long do I have to wait?
Joe: Well, sir, we need you for fittings. If you’re flying in and then flying out again, we have to see you next time. We’ll get a fitting prepared, put the fitting on you, and then we do not go to the next stage until we’re comfortable and you’re comfortable with it. It’s a process. People come to us for a reason, and they’re fortunate—they’re quite happy to wait because they’re not going to get what we give them from anywhere else. Hopefully, at the end of it all, they have something special in their wardrobe amongst all their other clothes.
Raphael: So, how many fittings do you typically have? Two, three, four?
Joe: A lot more.
Raphael: Yeah?
Joe: Yeah, a lot more.
Raphael: Because you want it to be perfect?
Joe: It has to be. It needs to be as good as we want it to be and as good as the gentleman wants it to be. It’s very, very difficult to give people things that are not quite right. It’s very important.
Raphael: So, for people in the US, let’s say, do they have to come here to London for the fittings, or do you travel?
So, for people in the US, let’s say, do they have to come here to London for the fittings, or do you travel?
Joe: I used to, but I can’t get out of the country now—primarily because I just don’t have time. I used to go to New York and stay at the Carlyle Hotel in the spring and autumn, but I don’t get time now. I don’t get time.
Raphael: So yeah, truly a London experience. And you have to come here if you want.
Joe: People adore coming here. London needs them back. It’s something that—we have something to offer. And fortunately, at the moment, it’s bespoke clothes.
Raphael: Yeah. I mean, it’s nice. You have like the Milanese buttonhole here. It’s very neat, very nice, and on a double-breasted jacket, you add them on both sides.
Joe: Indeed, sir. Indeed.
Raphael: All your lapels—there’s no Strobel padding—it’s all neatly padded by hand. Even your boutonniere loop—it’s not just a few loops strung across. This is, what do you call this?
Joe: It’s a buttonhole stitch, and it’s normally a little crescent. We make a little crescent out of it. What we don’t want to do—it’s like a pocket. My trousers are sewn by hand, the zips are in by hand; there’s a lot of handwork everywhere.
Raphael: And even the oversized flaps—if you open your jacket, I saw on the inside, the pockets are usually quite big. They’re like big triangles. So, it’s a very distinct silhouette and style.
Joe: What happens when I used to travel, I used to put an airline ticket in there. Invariably, you can’t have it too deep because it impacts the waist. So, we go up two inches, here, like so, up into there.
Raphael: Oh, so you can fit an airline ticket in there.
Joe: And then you can fasten it, so you’re not going to lose it if you throw it down or take it off in the cabin.
Raphael: Yeah, that’s interesting—you go up. I hadn’t thought about that.
Joe: It’s small things, but I think people now… I don’t know. Things are a little different. But the emphasis for us is on detail. We give people an extra phone pocket or small accessories they might need. For instance, we just put in a glasses pocket lined with velvet, so the glasses are softened and polished when they go inside. Small little things that we can work on.
Raphael: Interesting. So, you don’t do just men’s tailoring, right? You also have women’s?
Joe: We do some.
Raphael: So, what’s the ratio for them? How many men versus women?
So, what’s the ratio for them? How many men versus women?
Joe: Oh, we do quite a lot more men’s than women’s, but they’re made in the same way. Everything’s the same. For our ladies, we impact the shoulder line and tend to make it just a little bit more empowering. The padding stitches on the inside are in Suffragette colors—purple, white, and green. All the paddings are done this way, so the ladies have some sort of storyline within the model. Nobody sees it, only us and them, but it’s important that the structure is as important as the visual look on the outside. Clothes need to be sexy. They need to be energized. What’s the point of having them if they’re not?
Raphael: So, do you make more suits, overcoats, tailcoats, or hunting attire? Is there anything you focus on?
So, do you make more suits, overcoats, tailcoats, or hunting attire? Is there anything you focus on?
Joe: Basically a boring blue suit. But we make jackets, overcoats, top coats, morning coats, dress coats—the lot. We’re gentlemen’s tailors. That’s it.
Raphael: You offer the whole program?
Joe: We look after gentlemen, yes.
Raphael: Very nice. Do you offer shirts too?
Joe: We do, but shirting in London is a little difficult. We have some Italians who work on our shirts, but it’s very difficult getting them.
Raphael: Okay.
Joe: It’s an Italian shirt.
Raphael: Wonderful.
Joe: We cut a very close, high armhole. In our canvas, we put a front side dart and a shoulder puff. This allows us to concave the shoulder and get a straight shoulder line. The front side dart in the canvas lets us push the chest forward, so we don’t have the width here—just flat—and we push our chest through the lapel. It’s very technical, but we don’t want our gentlemen to look bigger than they have to. One needs comfort, but we can give them comfort, but also get them to look pretty cool.
And again, we’ve always cut a side body, which means that from the underarm cut, we go right through the forepart. We take a lot away from the waist and flare it out at this point. The adage is: if we can’t take it in any more at the waist, we flare it out.
Raphael: So, you get the more hourglass shape.
Joe: Exactly. The same applies to the back as well. We angle our vents into the waist to give it that hourglass shape and dynamic image from the back.
Raphael: Hourglass—a kind of more attractive feature. And your front quarters, they’re quite straight and then have somewhat of a larger radius.
Joe: Yes. Like all things with our trousers—because we put them high—we like them to hit that sort of point and gradually flare out. When one moves and uses the pocket, they open up. But we tend to keep the line quite straight through here.
Raphael: And for your trousers, you typically have two inward-facing pleats. Is that your standard?
And for your trousers, you typically have two inward-facing pleats. Is that your standard?
Joe: Yes. We have two pleats, and because we like to ease fabric into the pleats without showing, we put a small dart between them. You don’t see it, but it allows us to give more fabric into the band, and then it bursts open like so.
Raphael: They’re quite deep pleats too, right?
Joe: They are. You don’t want your pleat to pull over. We give a reasonable amount of cloth so it falls reasonably well, but you don’t want big, baggy trousers like an elderly gentleman.
Raphael: But even on this side, I could see your flap.
Joe: Well, this is our fob.
Raphael: It’s very nice. It’s like a coin pocket, but the flap is very elegant. It flares out and is rounded like that. It’s beautiful.
Joe: This is why, in London, we want to stylize things. It doesn’t have to be a boring square flap. It’s like, “Hey, let’s create something.”
Raphael: Let’s create something. It’s the same with your side adjusters here. You pull them back a bit, and you can see it’s just, you know, you can see there’s some fun in there. It’s not just a run-of-the-mill standard. You really like to create a very defined shape that’s very dynamic.
Joe: Yes, yeah. And this is an open seam. On this here.
Raphael: Oh, interesting.
Joe: Normally, they would finish at the pocket, but we take it right to the very, very top. It’s just, it’s a bit sporty for a formal suit, but we do this quite a lot.
Raphael: Yeah, it’s a highly unusual detail. I haven’t seen that. So it stops here? No, it continues all the way down… So, does it help you when you walk at all?
Joe: No, sir. It’s purely a style detail, and it’s something that if you have clothes made by lots of people around the world, we have to give you something that’s a little different, but something that’s sophisticated, a little bit more handwork, and we can do that. This is what we do.
Raphael: I’ve never seen it. What are other details that make you unique?
What are other details that make you unique?
Joe: Well, I think the intensity of the canvases that we, you know, they’re all natural sort of fibers.
Raphael: Is it like horse hair?
Joe: We do. We have an Irish linen. We have horse hair. And then we have a domette. And we put cuts into our front side and our shoulder to give this presence that when you’re standing, the suit, the jacket would tend to give you a lot more structure.
Raphael: And you feel, I had a jacket on, it was maybe a little too small for me. So I felt it from the tightness, but it’s, yeah, it’s kind of, it feels like it builds you up.
Joe: Quite, quite. It also gives you a visual impact, which is quite nice, because some people, you know, go to a party or go to a function, or they’re giving a presentation, they need, they don’t want to be lost, they need to have this sort of empowerment, they can just present themselves. We help with the clothes.
Raphael: Lovely. I noticed your flaps at the back are quite angled, which again gives them a bit of a dynamic look. Do you cut your pockets straight or slightly like, you know, angled?
Do you cut your pockets straight or slightly like, you know, angled?
Joe: Yeah, our pockets are straight, but we do make clothes with jackets with angled pockets. It’s not sort of sporty anymore. It’s not sort of weekend country. It’s something that we can do as a feature. And, but again, the side vents are pretty long.
Raphael: They are pretty long. I mean, normally, you know, they align with, you know, if your pocket is straight, sometimes they come up all the way there. It’s already long, but yours go, you know, like an inch or two even above that. And it all comes from this idea of, I mean, if I look, it’s almost at the buttoning point, really.
Joe: Yes, yes.
Raphael: Wow. And the idea is just what?
Joe: Yes. From the back, if someone doesn’t have an acute waist, we start from here, bring it into the waist, and then flare out again to the shoulder. This creates the image of a waistline, which I think is very important, and it gives height as well.
Raphael: One thing I notice here too is your sleeve, you know, and you can turn around again if you want, and your sleeve—there’s quite a bit of room, which is something that I like, because I think, you know, upper arms oftentimes are quite constricting or restricting, so you don’t have that. You go for a high armhole, but then a bigger—
Joe: Our sleeves are, in actual fact, quite narrow, but because we cut on a high armhole, because of our shoulder line, which is higher, the armholes are not that small. So, we need a sleeve to go into the armhole, but then we slim it down as we get further down to the cuff, because our cuffs are sort of like probably about ten and a half, which is, you know, in order.
Raphael: And you’re wearing like a barrel cuff here with buttons.
Joe: I’m wearing a button cuff.
Raphael: There’s not much space here for like a double cuff.
Joe: No, but I think a French cuff would be fine. But with the, again, you know, the fitting, we will measure this. But you’re powerfully built. You’ve got strong structure here, and that’s why you need, you know, your deltoids here coming through. You need sort of like movement when you’re on a telephone.
Raphael: You know, one thing I have sometimes issues with is like a prominent seat, right? Like my hips or my bum is, it’s a lot bigger than my waist. And so, having long pleats, they lead to like a gapping. Is that something that you found or, you know, do you put like reinforcements or like, you know, horsehair or interlining in the back?
Joe: No, we have quite a few gentlemen that have 50″ waists, so we work with them, and so it’s just a case of giving you the back, the width that it needs. Lots of people come to us and say when they wear anything, sort of, they think they can’t put their arms forward. So, we give them just that little bit more back so they can bring them forward.
Raphael: They can bring the arms forward. So, is there anything that you’re particularly proud of here at Chittleborough & Morgan?
So, is there anything that you’re particularly proud of here at Chittleborough & Morgan?
Joe: Only that we’ve taken the Nutters name forward, Nutters of Savile Row Limited, where Tom and Edward sort of started and created something. We still have their DNA in our brand here, and we’re small—not many people know about us—but the people that do know about us, you know, have the best suits in London.
Raphael: Awesome. So, I’d be curious to see, you know, a few more garments, and then we could go through them.
Joe: If you wish, we could bring them through. This is our ladies’ model. So again, sort of reasonably powerful shoulder, a rope sleeve head, a narrow sleeve, cuffs.
Raphael: You’re nicely roped, and you can feel it all the way.
Joe: How nice that is. For me, it’s really important if you’re at a party, and you arrive and you think, well, who’s here? And then you see this back structure with the rope sleeve ends and the pretty cool—
Raphael: The hourglass shape is very attractive.
Joe: Yes.
Raphael: Very kind of flowing lines, and I can see the skirt here with the flare, as you mentioned earlier. Beautiful. And even the vents here, I mean, they’re not straight—they’re flaring.
Joe: Yeah, they’re, we angled those on.
Raphael: Yeah, a little nice detail. And look at the overlap. So, I can see why it doesn’t gap much. Because really down here. I mean, you have solid, like, five inches.
Joe: It’s something that—the whole process is something that’s made exactly the same way as our gentlemen’s. But we hope our ladies, when they wear it, they get this empowerment that makes them look and feel good. And it’s not a man’s suit. It’s a lady’s suit, which is—we’ve moved on from what they call the boyfriend jacket.
Raphael: I’ve seen on Anna, she had lapels that were so wide that you would hardly see the chest pocket.
Joe: Let me bring her through just a minute.
Raphael: Hi, Anna, thank you for modeling.
Joe: So Anna’s working on now, wearing a vintage piece at the moment, and this was made in 1970.
Raphael: For a woman or a man?
Joe: A gentleman. But now it’s a boyfriend jacket for Anna. So consequently, the armholes are a little bit high, but the actual concept and the line are just what we do today. This has a center vent.
Raphael: Oh, a center vent.
Joe: As opposed to side vents.
Raphael: Okay, not a hook vent, but even there, it’s quite a bit of an overlap there.
Joe: Yes. So, but you’ve gone to side vents mostly.
Raphael: This was our original Nutters of Savile Row model, with a center vent, with the two cross flap, out ticket flap, and—
Raphael: That’s almost like three inches, though, you know?
Joe: Yes. This was three.
Raphael: And I noticed, you know, that the button was set over quite a bit. So, the idea was that the lapels would really overlap. And so, when, you know, we see here not much space between the sleeve head, but it’s a really strong belly. So, when you have a striped fabric or like a checked fabric, do you try to drape it with the iron, or do you just cut it off?
Joe: No, we—No. What we do is we follow this section, which is straight with the stripe. And then this goes to where we want it to go.
Raphael: And so, the stripe would just, like—
Joe: Beat off, yes.
Raphael: Okay. Yeah, yes.
Raphael: Very nice.
Joe: But what we’d like to do, if we may, is we could pop a blue jacket on Anna, and we, you can see what the contemporary, so 1970. And if we could look at what we’re doing today.
Raphael: This fabric is also quite nice because I see it’s probably a fiber dye.
Joe: Yeah, it’s a whipcord, and yeah, it makes up nicely. For a suit that’s quite old, it’s still looking pretty good. And it’s something that, you know, a lady could go to her husband or partner’s wardrobe and think, you know, it’s a handmade buttonhole.
Raphael: And with big lapels, you also go for a big, long buttonhole. Is it difficult to sew? Do you need very long arms? Because the thread has to be so long.
And with big lapels, you also go for a big, long buttonhole. Is it difficult to sew? Do you need very long arms? Because the thread has to be so long.
Joe: It just takes a little longer. We don’t mind. It’s all about the sewing, the craft, and this is what we do.
Raphael: All right. Could we see the blue jacket?
Joe: Yeah, let’s look at it. If you want garments, it’s lovely.
Joe: So this is like from 1970. And, you know, you’re looking at over 50 years, and you think, well, we’re still taking this model now and utilizing it. Like with Tom, you know, he can wear his jacket at a party and still look cool. This is what we want from our clothes.
Raphael: So, I mean, you’ve been around since 1970. That’s 54 years.
Joe: Yes.
Raphael: That’s quite a while.
Joe: Yes.
Raphael: So, what’s your vision for the future of Chittleborough & Morgan?
Joe: Well, it’s just a case of—we’ve got a very small brand, and we’ve just been very disciplined. It’s the same with Tom, you know. Tom had all this visionary ability, but he was never really looked after, unfortunately. And this is what happens in England. So, you have to go out and do what you want to do.
In Italy and France, it’s very different. We’re competing with ready-to-wear, and they throw their clothes at people. You know, we don’t do that. We’re here for ladies and gentlemen who want to come and have something beautiful that they can’t buy anywhere else. And this is where we are.
Raphael: How long do they have to wait?
Joe: A little while, sir. A little while. But, you know, most of our people have a wardrobe, and they come to us for that something a little bit special.
Raphael: Okay. How much do I have to invest in order to get a…?
Joe: We have patrons that, you know, our prices start at 7,000 pounds. So, you know, we’re not cheap, and we’re in a luxury market. But, you know, this is what we have to charge. We’re training young people, too. So, again, this is the boyfriend jacket of today. And, again, we have a Milanese buttonhole here.
Raphael: Very nice.
Joe: Again, it’s very slim sleeves, good strong shoulder line.
Raphael: The lapels have a little bit less of a belly. They’re very elegant. I think the other ones are definitely more 70s. I think this is a very good transition into this day and age. And the flaps are just, you know, ever so slightly smaller but still oversized compared to ready-to-wear.
Joe: Sir, they are.
Raphael: Can you turn around again?
Joe: So now we have side vents on here. So again, the shoulder line is pretty neat, a little bit snug through here. But this is something that one could wear and enjoy wearing at a party.
Raphael: Wonderful. And this wasn’t made for you. You just put this on for us to—
Joe: No, it’s just so we can see.
Raphael: Illustrate us through it.
Raphael: Thank you, Anna. Are there any other garments you’d like to show us and walk us through?
Joe: Well, we have some extreme garments that we work on. And I’ll show you one if I may.
Raphael: I can see this jacket is quite—it almost looks to me like, you know, a runway. There’s these aircraft carriers, the British ones that go up a little bit, and it reminds me a bit of that. Would you mind turning the camera this way?
Joe: Yeah, so this is what they call a pagoda shoulder. And again, for someone that wants that—someone who’s got lots of clothes and they want something a little bit different. Or for some young, cool fellow, you know, when you’re at a party and you see the back. It’s pretty neat.
Raphael: I mean, this obviously wasn’t made for you.
Joe: No, it’s just—
Raphael: It doesn’t fit you perfectly. But one gets the idea. I like that the lapels are still present.
Joe: Quite.
Raphael: And they’re big, but they’re not 1970s big. So I like the silhouette. I like where it’s taken.
Joe: This is a Loro Piana.
Raphael: Seersucker?
Joe: Yeah, it has silk with the cotton. So it gives it just a little bit more presence. It’s a beautiful blue. And again, the cuffs, the flat pockets, same front edges.
Raphael: Yeah, I think earlier you said you had like a very expensive piece of silk velvet. Will you just use it for the lining for the glass pocket, or is that something that you’ll make the entire jacket?
I think earlier you said you had like a very expensive piece of silk velvet. Will you just use it for the lining for the glass pocket, or is that something that you’ll make the entire jacket?
Joe: Oh no, we’re making a gentleman a lovely tweed jacket. We want to fit that, so when we go and cut the velvet, we know where we are. But some gentlemen do tend to alter, so we want to have this fitting. Then, once we’ve altered the pattern, we’ll cut into the velvet—French velvet.
Raphael: Excellent! Was there anything else that you’d like us to see?
Joe: No, everything is apart from the red gabardine, which is not a boring blue suit.
Raphael: Yeah.
Joe: We have a dress suit here that we’re working on.
Raphael: Morning coat?
Joe: This is a dress suit. It’s for evening.
Raphael: Oh, evening.
Joe: So, you’re wearing a white waistcoat. And again, this is our padding in here.
Raphael: So, you make the waistcoats and everything through the Marcella Pique. Oh, wow. Look at this. Does it always look this beautiful?
Joe: Not always. Our ladies, we have the Suffragette colors. But this is what we’ve generally done—we’ve just put the purple and the red. That’s the intensity of the padding that we have. We have another jacket that’s in pieces at the moment, but we’ve put pleats along the back.
Raphael: So here we get some pleats that would be a pleated back?
Joe: Yes, and Tom invented this in 1970. He used to make them in plain gray suits like this with a pleated back. So, you’re at a party, and you’ve got a boring gray suit on. Then, when you turn around, you’ve got this pleated back, which is incredible. It’s absolutely incredible.
Raphael: Well, it’s even harder to do with this patterned fabric.
Joe: It is. Yes, it is.
Raphael: You look here—you’re very kind of consistent. The entire fabric is in here, so you have to be very precise.
Joe: Indeed. This gentleman’s from Spain, and he’s having this made. So, we’re working on this at the moment.
Raphael: Now, you mentioned a boring gray suit. A little earlier, you showed me a not-so-boring gray suit. Do you think we could have a look at that again?
Joe: This is a Loro Piana, cashmere, silk, and linen.
Raphael: Very nice.
Joe: So, this gentleman has a waistcoat with this. And again, we have a Milanese on the lapel.
Raphael: Oh, on the waistcoat?
Joe: Yes.
Raphael: Ah, that’s lovely. So, all of your waistcoats seem to have a lapel?
Joe: Yes.
Raphael: And it’s designed like that from the get-go, it’s not like a faux lapel?
Joe: Oh no, no, no. It’s just like exactly the same as our jackets.
Raphael: And then the other thing I like is they’re all basically fabric-backed, so it’s the same thing. And then, even here, the flaps on the waistcoat—beautiful.
Joe: And also, we have a small pocket on the inside. So, should you want something for security, like a passport…
Raphael: Oh, even on your waistcoat? Beautiful. Beautiful. And this—is this like cupro lining? Do you use silk?
Joe: Yes, it is. Well, we normally use silk, but we had to use this because of the color tones.
Raphael: So, what do we have here?
Joe: We have a gray Loro Piana, 14.5 micron cloth.
Raphael: So, very fine. It’s very soft.
Joe: It’s about a nine-ounce flannel.
Raphael: Is it like a worsted woolen flannel?
Joe: It’s a flannel. It’s virtually cashmere.
Raphael: It’s very nice.
Joe: Then we have a check waistcoat.
Raphael: With a lapel, again?
Joe: With a lapel. And it’s the same color tone in the gray. It has this white stripe—
Raphael: This windowpane?
Joe: Oops, sorry. And then we’re gonna make some noise here. But here we have the trousers, and the trousers are striped. So, we have a stripe, a check, and the plain cloth. It’s a combination suit. Consequently, it’s like a boring gray suit, but it isn’t. It’s a conversation piece when you’re with your contemporaries or your friends.
Raphael: It’s highly different. And here we see again the flap, and, even here, the pattern matching is really nice overall. So, very nicely done.
Joe: And this is cut for braces.
Raphael: The fishtail back, kind of?
Joe: Correct. That only goes to the front here. Then we have them.
Raphael: Oh, yeah. So, there’s basically no waistband in the back, just in the front. In the US, when they leave the waistband away completely in the front, they also call it the Hollywood waistband. Yeah, because apparently, that was the fashion of the day. Oh, yeah, you know, the buttonhole. So, you like the button flies? Is that the default?
So, you like the button flies? Is that the default?
Joe: No, it’s just a change. I think we—some of our gentlemen have buttons, and some enjoy the zip. In fact, we’ve had one fellow who’s had buttons since year one, and he just said, “Oh, can we change them? Can we put zips in them?” And we can. This is what we do.
Raphael: Well, Joe, it has been lovely to see all your garments. And I really like that you have a distinct, unique silhouette that is not just what everyone else does. This is very distinct, and I want to thank you for that.
Joe: It’s my pleasure. And could I just say thank you, because you understand what we do. Lots of gentlemen come and say what we’re right about, but they do not understand the process of bespoke. But you do. And I think you’ve got this infinite ability of detail, which I commend. Very important.
Raphael: Thank you. Thank you.
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