Thanks for all advice. one issue that puts me off a bit is that my waist measurement fluctuates by as much as 4 inches over a year. Can adjustments be made at all?

Elastic.

Only to your diet one would suggest.#



Chortle.

Absolutely, just tell the tailor which end of your fluctuation you are at (i.e whether you need plenty of spare at the seam or are at maximum size at the moment).
Plus you can get adjustable thingies at the side of the waist, for up to (I think) a two-inch fluctuation resulting from a full-on blow-out dinner etc.
My last Made to Measure has those.

Commonly known as DAKS tops (as in the were first used by DAKS Simpson), if they're good eneough for this chap, they should be good enough for anyone:



Try asking for belt loops on "The Row" and see what the reaction is

Suits and belts ... simply not right, is it?

When I worked in Madrid, there was a shop on Castellana near the Bernabeu where you could get bespoke shirts about the same price as UK shop-bought and a colleague and I decided it would be churlish not to get a couple.
Our Spanish was crap and [iEl fabricante de las camisas[/i spoke no English ... but he made it very clear that he simply refused to put a pocket on a double-cuff shirt.

It was my colleague, not me, that wanted the pocket, just thought I'd mention that.



That was 1997 and I (reluctantly) only got rid of them this year.
Qualiteh !

Seeing as I flogged suit cloth from No2 Savile Row (Fine Woollen Company/Wain Shiell) to the trade, I had suits made by such luminaries as George Crossman, John Kent and Ray Thorn, in the 80's.



They got plenty of free suit lengths in return, courtesy of my employer.

Emma's just come back from a charity shopping expedition with what has turned out to be my Christmas pressie. It's a bespoke John Lester (Jermyn Street but works out of Harvie & Hudson), SB 2 btn blue pinstripe, with working cuffs, fishtail-back pants with DAKS tops etc. I'm gonna need about 1.5" disappearing off both the coat chest and the pants waist but I shall be calling on my ex-Row seamstress to sort that out for me.

I can now eBay my own Crombie blue pinstripe and the Cerruti blue pinstripe that I was originally going to keep for myself.

I'm interested in this ebay suit business Mr. cod'ead Esq.

However, I'm useless at ebay and from reference to your well dressed posts rather lacking in knowledge of tailoring any tips?

Get the zebra pi[is[/ised, you'll learn more from him in one evening than I could impart on t'interweb. Other than that, watch eBay and see what sells and what doesn't, that's the best way to learn. The biggest barrier is spotting knock-offs and "Thai or Singapore bespoke", that only comes with practise and even now I can still get fooled.

About this time last year I sold a Huntsman tweed coat and a CP Company R.E.M. coat. One is unique Savile Row costing >£3k + VAT, the other is a football hooligan-wear. The Huntsman fetched £250, the CP realised £360. No accounting for taste in any of this.

The only other tip I'd give anyone is: unless you are absolutely sure that what you are selling will fetch mega-bucks, don't start anything at 99p, that might be as high as it goes. I've currently got snipes in on two eBay items that are currently on 99p and from the crap listings, I doubt they'll go much higher.

Huntsman were very elitist, even within the [iRow[/i Dave.
Them, Henry Poole and Anderson & Sheppard would have been top of the Premier League.

You can imagine a young, council estate whippersnapper, being thrown into the lions den of old school tailory, especially when I didn't know a worsted from a piece of linen.



Learning on one's feet would be an understatement.
It's just as well my MD, Mr Patrick Dormeuil took me under his wing.

French millionaire aristocracey, and now I'm namedropping.

I'm leaning away from a suit now and I'm instead on the lookout for a tweed jacket. Anyone got any experience of www.vintagewhistles.co.uk? I've also found this shop on eBay: stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-ENGLISH-SQ ... 4340.l2563 Some extremely reasonable prices, almost seems too good to be true considering the price of new jackets, which I appreciate are a rip off in most cases.

I'm leaning away from a suit now and I'm instead on the lookout for a tweed jacket. Anyone got any experience of www.vintagewhistles.co.uk? I've also found this shop on eBay: stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-ENGLISH-SQ ... 4340.l2563 Some extremely reasonable prices, almost seems too good to be true considering the price of new jackets, which I appreciate are a rip off in most cases.

My teeth set on edge whenever I see someone describe a suit or jacket as "tonic"



When what they really were trying to say was Tonik - a Dormueil trademarked mohair fabric. You just know that they're trying to flop out some man-made [is[/ihit.

I paid over £300 in 1971 for a genuine Tonik suit, I was earning £12.50 a week at the time

You'll be after a gun and a hunting dog next.

Tonik was huge for Dormeuil.

That and [iSportex.[/i

Quote ="Dave Lister"I'm leaning away from a suit now and I'm instead on the lookout for a tweed jacket. Anyone got any experience of www.vintagewhistles.co.uk? I've also found this shop on eBay: stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-ENGLISH-SQ ... 4340.l2563 Some extremely reasonable prices, almost seems too good to be true considering the price of new jackets, which I appreciate are a rip off in most cases.'" If you can't find a decent Savile Row tweed at reasonable money, then go for a Harris Tweed or a Donnegal at a push. They're woven by crofters and if you look hard, there's some stunning Harris patterns

Quote ="Dave Lister"I'm leaning away from a suit now and I'm instead on the lookout for a tweed jacket. Anyone got any experience of www.vintagewhistles.co.uk? I've also found this shop on eBay: stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-ENGLISH-SQ ... 4340.l2563 Some extremely reasonable prices, almost seems too good to be true considering the price of new jackets, which I appreciate are a rip off in most cases.'" If you can't find a decent Savile Row tweed at reasonable money, then go for a Harris Tweed or a Donnegal at a push. They're woven by crofters and if you look hard, there's some stunning Harris patterns

At the moment I'd kill for Nucky Thompson's wardrobe, if it wasn't for that skinny bastad Steve Buscemi

One down, one to go.

Just won an auction for two BNWT Seaward & Stearn silk ties at their starting price of 99p

Quote ="Dave Lister"I'm leaning away from a suit now and I'm instead on the lookout for a tweed jacket. Anyone got any experience of www.vintagewhistles.co.uk? I've also found this shop on eBay: stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-ENGLISH-SQ ... 4340.l2563 Some extremely reasonable prices, almost seems too good to be true considering the price of new jackets, which I appreciate are a rip off in most cases.'" Oh, now you've done it ... I hadn't seen The English Squire. I can now imagine me turning up at a client's site in a Norfolk jacket ... or maybe not. Had a look at Bookster? at ---> www.tweed-jacket.com/ Some nice tweed cloth there.

Quote ="Dave Lister"I'm leaning away from a suit now and I'm instead on the lookout for a tweed jacket. Anyone got any experience of www.vintagewhistles.co.uk? I've also found this shop on eBay: stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-ENGLISH-SQ ... 4340.l2563 Some extremely reasonable prices, almost seems too good to be true considering the price of new jackets, which I appreciate are a rip off in most cases.'" Oh, now you've done it ... I hadn't seen The English Squire. I can now imagine me turning up at a client's site in a Norfolk jacket ... or maybe not. Had a look at Bookster? at ---> www.tweed-jacket.com/ Some nice tweed cloth there.

James Mason at his finest.

[iThe Shooting Party[/i

He would have looked good in the 1950s vintage Moss Bros bespoke Crombie overcoat I'm currently flopping out.



Cut on military lines with full-working cuffs, football buttons etc etc

Another Yorkshire lad was James Mason.
Once had a chat with him on platform 1 at Wakefield Westgate.
Yes, I am that old.

He was, of course, immaculately dressed.
I'd put money on his suit having been woven in Huddersfield.

Possibly supplied by Dugdale Bros out of Huddersfield.

They weren't anywhere nearly as established as the outfit I worked for in London in the mid 80's but Dugdales daughter 'Bobby' used to come down to the smoke and rep for them around the West-end.

She was rather trim, and in her mid-20's, similar age to me, and I regularly bumped into her at shared customers.

I walked into Vigos Wine bar round the corner from Savile Row one mid-week afty and she was in there, deep in conversation with Edward Sexton (he had his own outfit on Savile Row and thought he was the bees knees), who was obviously sniffing round her, filling her full of bollox.
She'd obviously had a couple of vinos and I was stood at the bar and it wasn't long before she was rubbing her stillettos up and down my suit trouser leg. (this sounds better than Mills & Boon

).

Anyway, cut a long story short, we ended up in the Piccadilly Hotel, across the road on Regent Street, about 4pm in the afternoon banging the fook out of each other.

Plus she paid for the room on her daddys piece of plastic.



Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesult!!!

Can anyone namee some good quality branded double cuff shirts?

Can anyone name some good quality branded double cuff shirts?