Measure of a man
Style director Teo van den Broeke appraises Canali’s Su Misura luxury tailoring service
In the UK, brides spend an average of £913 on their wedding dress. Grooms, on the other hand, spend a comparatively measly average of £84: an amount which
— to Esquire’s mind at least — wouldn’t buy one good shoe.
With weddings, whether you’re the groom, an usher or just an everyday bloke in the pews, it’s important to look like you’ve made an effort. Drag out your old winter suit for a summer wedding and it will look like you’ve dragged out your old winter suit for a summer wedding, only with added sweat patches. Buy something cheap
(for £84, say) and it will look just that.
One sure-fire way to ensure you’re dressed correctly is to invest in a made-to-measure suit. Unlike bespoke services, which allow customers to select every detail, but also tend to be prohibitively expensive, made-to-measure services allow suit buyers to pick from a series of blocks to best fit their frame, have all elements tailored to their measurements, and select fabrics, linings, buttons and finishing details.
This summer, with several weddings on the horizon — and me being ensconced firmly in the role of everyday bloke in the pews — I turned to Canali for a madeto-measure suit. The brand’s Su Misura (handmade) service offers a choice of six blocks, ranging from the slim-cut Venezia Contemporary to the soft-shouldered Firenzi.
Each suit is completed in Canali’s Italian factory with many aspects, such as the sleeves, hand stitched, taking six-to-eight weeks.
Elisabetta Canali, group communications director at Canali, says, “Our Su Misura service represents the highest expression of that preoccupation with quality, attention to detail and focus on the client that lay at the heart of the Canali way of doing things. The resulting suit is personalised in every detail to create a garment which expresses the taste and elegance of the man who wears it.”
Under the watchful eye of Canali’s Bond Street boutique manager, I selected a single-breasted Kei jacket with a slim notch lapel paired with a tapered Venezia trouser with a turn-up. The Kei is more breathable than other styles, and the shoulders are finished with minimal padding. From the 500 fabrics on offer, I opted for a rich, petrol-green wool/silk/linen mix (71, 15 and 14 per cent respectively).
Despite popular belief, if wool is spun finely enough it can be extremely breathable. The combination of the crisp, high-twist wool, ultralight silk and super-breathable linen make it the perfect fabric choice for summer. The off-kilter shade will make just enough of a statement without overshadowing the groom — unless he’s wearing an £84 suit.