In our constant quest to offer our customers even more choice, this month we have introduced the King & Allen Fabric Pledge: We pledge to use our knowledge and the contacts we have at our extensive collection of cloth merchants to find the fabric that you want.

Cloth bunch by Holland & Sherry

So if you have a specific cloth in mind and, after looking through the 2000+ cloths in our range you do not find it, we will go that extra mile to get it for you – whether that means sourcing from our existing merchants such as Holland & Sherry, Dugdale, Dormeuil and more, or forming an agreement with a new merchant.

So if you get inspiration from an off the peg suit you have seen or an image in a magazine and want to have a bespoke version made for you – let us know. If you’ve received a quote elsewhere for a bespoke suit and you think it’s too high – let us know. If you once came to see us and couldn’t find the cloth you liked – let us know!

Most men would like to look and feel a little taller, and whether it’s in business or in our relationships height is associated with power, confidence and all round good genes.

Suit wearers have an advantage in this arena, in that there are a variety of steps one can take to produce a narrower, more elongated silhouette.

Below are the King & Allen top 20 tips for looking taller.

1. Jacket: When choosing the width of your lapel err on the side of narrow (around 7cmW). A narrow lapel looks longer than a wide one. For the same reason request a high gorge. The gorge is the point where the collar meets the lapel.

King & Allen staff member Maeson getting it right: slim lapels, high gorge, fitted jacket, slightly long collar and a waistcoat.

2. If you’re ordering pinstripes keep them narrow (less than 10cmW). Narrow vertical stripes elongate the body.

3. Opt for a 2 or even a 1 button jacket (but never 3!). The longer skirt (the empty space between your button and the bottom of the jacket) will make the jacket look long without affecting the balance between jacket length and trouser length.

4. When considering jacket length err on the side of short. The back of the jacket should finish at the exact point where the bottom of your buttocks meet the top of your leg. This will ensure that your legs look as long as possible.

Getting it right: 1 button fitted jacket, well fitted sleeves, narrow pinstripes, waistcoat.

5. Trousers: Ask your tailor for the most narrow trouser that will compliment your body shape. A narrow trouser looks longer than a wide one. Also, a wide leg will swallow up a small shoe.

6. The waistband of the trousers should sit snuggly on your waist – not low on your hips. The longer the trousers the taller you will look. Of course you must take style into account as well. You mustn’t wear your trousers too high (Mr Cowell!).

7. The trousers should drop straight to the heel of the shoe without breaking when you stand upright. At the front here should be a single break and no more. Multiple breaks will create the illusion that your trousers are too long for you, and that you are therefore short.

Getting it wrong: the jacket is too long and baggy. The trousers crumple at his heels.

8. Never wear a belt. A belt will split the body into two halves, which is to be avoided. A suit that fits you doesn’t need a belt.

9. For the same reason, avoid contrasting colours. It doesn’t mean you can’t wear separates (different colour jacket and trousers), but you should keep the colours similar. This rule also applies to shoes and socks.

Getting it right: subtle complimentary colours, 1 button, high gorge and a perfect fit.

10. Sleeve length. It would be easy to think that tall people wear their sleeves shorter. This is not their choice – it’s just that they have long arms! We would recommend that you show approximately 1cm of shirt cuff when your arms are by your sides. Any shorter and you may look like you’re wearing a jacket that doesn’t fit you. Any longer and you will look like a short person in a tall person’s jacket.

11. Make sure the jacket fits you well – not just around the trunk and waist but also on the shoulders. The narrower you look the taller you will appear to be.

Getting it right: King & Allen staff member Sam - perfectly fitted jacket and trousers. 1cm of sleeve cuff showing at the break of the wrist.

12. Waistcoat – highly recommended. A waistcoat makes you look slimmer and anything that makes you look slimmer will make you look taller.

13. Shirt – once again, vertical stripes (if chosen correctly) can lengthen the torso. Also, a slightly longer collar will make your neck look more slender. As with the suit, it’s very important that the shirt fits you well. Any bagginess will make you look wider and smaller than you truly are.

14. Make sure that the shoulder seam meets your shoulder bone. If it is too low your arms will look short.

15. Sleeves – the end of the shirt sleeve should meet the break of your wrist. If it rests further down onto the hand you will look like you have short arms.

Getting it right and wrong! Perfect jacket - terrible shirt sleeves!

16. The tie should be relatively slender, with a small, neat knot. The end of the tie should rest just above the waistband of the trousers. It should definitely hang no lower or you will appear too short for it.

17. Shoes – it goes without saying that the height of the heel can have an effect on your overall height. Just don’t go overboard with those Cuban heels (Mr Sarkozy!).

18. Wear insoles in your shoes and you could gain a couple of centimetres as well as improve your gait. They are also more comfortable and hygienic. Top tip – once you have found a pair of insoles that you like, take them with you shoe shopping and add them when you try on shoes. You may feel that you need a half size larger.

19. Hair – make sure your hair is kept neat and short – especially at the sides and back.

20. Work on your posture. Avoid stooping, instead standing proud whenever possible, with both feet planted equally on the ground.

On this blog we are always encouraging our readers to dress better, look smarter and generally take more care of their appearance. We’ve seen the impact it can have on our customers – so we speak from considerable experience. But is there actually any scientific evidence to prove that a suit really makes a difference? We looked into this and found a study by Professor Adam D. Galinsky of the Northwestern University in the US which revealed that wearing certain clothes really does ‘altar cognitive performance and perception’ – a field of research that has become part of what is known as ‘enclothed cognition’.

Fascinating stuff, but does any of this matter in the real world? We decided to conduct a survey of our own to get to the heart of the matter – is a man more attractive in a suit than in casual clothes?

We decided that the best place to conduct our survey was on a dating site – where potentially life changing judgement calls are being made every second – entirely based on a single photograph. They say a picture tells a thousand words – never has this old adage been more applicable than in the harsh world of online dating…

The Experiment

Our experiment had two main goals – impartiality and accuracy.

Same expression, same background, same lighting - different clothes!

1. We chose 20 men from a diverse age range (23-38), encompassing a broad variety of body shapes and sizes, as well as classes, colours and cultures.
2. We photographed the men using the same lighting and the same background – asking them to maintain the same facial expression and body language for each photo.

The only thing we changed was their clothing.

We took 6 photos of each man – 3 in suits and 3 in casual clothes, and had all the photos rated by hundreds of women aged between 18 and 38 – using existing online dating tools only – to ensure our results were as accurate as we possible.

The Results:

Attractiveness in suit vs attractiveness in casual clothes - The Results

The results were a landslide. 80% of the women surveyed found the man in the suit more attractive. Moreover, they found the man, on average, 6% more attractive in his suit than in his casual clothes.

But the results didn’t stop there…

We decided to analyse the data further, to establish exactly which demographic of women found the men in suits more attractive. The results were very interesting indeed –

Demographic Results based on age

It became very apparent very quickly that the younger women were particularly interested in dating the man in the suit, finding the same man as high as 12% more attractive in his suit.

Conclusions

We believe that four factors have come together to produce such conclusive results:

1) Suits are more flattering to the body shape – making the wearer seem thinner, taller and more well- built.
2) Suits are extremely fashionable at the moment. They are popular with young and old alike.
3) A man in a suit projects himself as someone who is successful and reliable – and therefore good boyfriend material.
4) Wearing a suit for a profile photo shows that the man takes care and pride in his appearance. There is an assumption, therefore, that he will take care and pride in other aspects of his life – including his relationships!

King & Allen suits range from £299 – £1299. . Call 0800 0274430 or contact us here for more information.
We have fitting locations in London: Liverpool St, Savile Row and Charing Cross; Nottingham; Leeds; Wilmslow and Surbiton.

Most readers of this blog own a bespoke suit, or are very familiar with the process. You therefore know that once you’ve had a suit tailored for you, all off the peg suits pale into insignificance – instantly relegated to the lowest divisions of the wardrobe.

But have you ever wondered why? How is it that a suit we have tailored for us fits, and feels, so much better?  The stalwarts of Savile Row will tell you it’s a combination of tiny adjustments and calculations that add up to create an alchemic combination of style, fit and comfort. And they’d be right. But they’d never tell you how they did it. They’d sooner fall on their shears than disclose the tricks of the trade.

In the following post I’m going to let you into some of the tricks of the trade we use to make clients look thinner, taller and more muscular…

Long before scissors meet cloth decisions have already been made on your behalf...

Variety, as they say, is the spice of life. And when it comes to body shapes this old adage could not be more resonant. After all, we need Kylies as much as we need Angelinas! The homogenous ‘fashion’ stores that line our high streets, however, have different ideas for us – especially when it comes to suits. Each season they roll out the same stock sizes that are inevitably too big in the jacket, too small in the trousers, or are simply cut for a different shape. They produce as few variations of size as possible in order to reduce costs. Then they train their sales people to flog the customer the closest size.

In the past this tactic worked well – mainly because most men didn’t care or notice. The modern gentleman, however, is far more sartorially savvy. He knows how important it is to look sharp in the office and beyond – and he has learnt what fits him and what doesn’t. As a result he has spurned the chain stores for a more personalised experience – choosing instead to take the bespoke path.

Once you’ve decided to go bespoke you’re already 90% towards creating a suit that looks great on you. You’re going to have over 20 measurements taken and detailed posture observations will be noted.  Do you stand upright or slightly slouch?  Does one of your shoulders drop lower than the other? etc. Then a team of craftsmen with a wealth of experience is going to spend 40+ hours analysing those details and cutting a suit that they feel is as flattering to your body shape as possible. Finally you’re going to have fittings in front of an expert to ensure that if any further improvements can be made your suit is appropriately measured, pinned and altered.

However, many aspects of how the suit looks on you are decided long before scissors or chalk come anywhere near cloth. They are the notes the tailor takes during the time we spend with you at the initial consultation. We are constantly making judgment calls that will go on to shape the finished product.

Below are just some of the secret tricks we use to make sure your suit looks as good as it possibly can:

• If the client has narrow shoulders and they want to look broader and more muscular we add 1-2cm to their shoulder measurement and encourage them to choose a ‘peak’ lapel. The peak lapel draws the eye away from the centre of the body creating the illusion of width.

• If the customer has a paunch we help hide it with slanted pockets rather than straight. They accentuate the curvature of the jacket. We also recommend a waistcoat – which can hide a multitude of excessive lunches sins!

• If a client with a fuller figure wants pinstripes we would advise narrower, fainter stripes. They draw the eye inwards and elongate the body.

• If a client is tall and slim we often recommend a double breasted jacket. It creates shape even where there is none. We then don’t make the jacket too fitted.

Double breasted jackets compliment the leaner figure

• If the client has short legs and wants to look taller we suggest cutting the jacket a few centimetres shorter, creating the illusion of longer legs.

• If the client is particularly tall we make sure that there is at least a single break at the foot of the trousers. It is always such a welcome change to have trousers that sit well on the shoe.

• Similarly, if a customer has long arms we err on the long when we’re cutting the sleeves to ensure that they end at least at the break of the wrist – if not slightly beyond. This will create the illusion that the clients arms are perfectly in proportion to the body.

• If a customer has a narrow torso we advise a slightly slimmer lapel than usual. The jacket then looks broader than it actually is.

This is by no means a definitive list (we have to keep some secrets for our clients after all!). Nor are these points set in stone. There are a number of factors that we consider throughout the consultation process. The taste of the customer, for example, can have a dramatic impact on the final design. Our clients’ tastes are as individual as their measurements. Our job is to listen and advise, and ensure that the final product is a balance of your style and our expertise.

King & Allen suits range from £299 – £1299. We are currently offering a £200 discount on our Crispaire range for Spring / Summer 2013.  Call 0800 0274430 or contact us here for more information.

We have fitting locations in London: Liverpool St, Savile Row and Charing Cross; Nottingham; Leeds; Wilmslow and Surbiton.

Choosing your wedding suit can be a difficult process. It’s probably your first time (and hopefully your last!) so even the most experienced suit buyer will need advice and off the peg shops will always try and sell you whatever they have in stock.

There are three key elements to the perfect Wedding suit:

The first of two suits I wore on my wedding day!

1) A Perfect Fit

The eyes of all your loved ones are on you – and the photos will last forever – so you need to look the best you’ve ever looked. The suit needs to show off your best features and hide your worst. It also needs to be a reflection of you as an individual and the wedding as an occasion.

The Groom's waistcoat matches the Bride's dress perfectly

2) Co-ordinating the style features

This is the tricky bit. There are so many facets to a wedding that you may or may not wish to consider when it comes to designing your wedding suit. Some are quite detailed such as: the colour of the wedding dress, the colour of the bridesmaids’ dresses, the colour of the ushers’ suits, the style of the ushers’ suits, the colour of the flowers and the estimated temperature on the day.
Some are more of a reflection of the overall style of the wedding. A large Georgian country house setting, for example, may favour a more traditional suit – possibly a morning coat. A wedding in a modern London registry office will invite something a little more cutting edge.
The secret is to communicate fully with your tailor. They will use their experience to guide you in the right direction. With over 3000 cloths to choose from and an infinite combination of style choices available, they will ensure that your wedding suit is as special to you as the dress is to the bride.

Personal Embroidery inside the jacket

3) Adding personalised features (for free!)

A bespoke wedding suit offers the possibility for you to add fantastic bespoke features that make the suit special to you. For example, you can have anything you like embroidered on the inside of the jacket, such as Kate & Will 29.04.11 – a lovely touch that you will treasure forever (especially when it comes to remembering anniversaries!!). Other bespoke additions include coloured stitching on the boutonnière or sleeve buttons, specially designed waistcoats, extra pockets – the list is endless.

If you see something you like in a magazine or on our LookBook page please do bring it to your consultation – we would love to discuss your ideas.
Finally, we believe that: A bespoke wedding suit is for life – not just for your wedding!

We want you to be able to wear your bespoke suit to work or to other events in the future – and we have many ingenious ways of making this possible –without compromising on your wedding style. This offers you even better value for money.

If you would like a FREE consultation with one of our experts please do get in touch. We look forward to hearing from you.

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Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is impossible to avoid. This year, why not embrace it and use it as an excuse to take someone you love (or would like to love!) out on a hot date. Whether you’re trying to create that all important first impression, or you just want to remind your partner that you’ve ‘still got it’, it’s important that you’re dressed to perfection.

Here are our top 5 Do’s and Don’t’s for dressing to impress on a date:

Do

1. Keep the suit classic – this is no time to be breaking fashion boundaries, unless you’re 100% confident your date will approve. A well fitted two piece (one or two button) in a fairly conservative style is ideal to create a good first impression. Navy blue is the best colour for portraying warmth and establishing trust.

2. Add a twist. Show you’ve got some style!  A pocket square is ideal for this as it adds a flash of colour. Or if you’re wearing a tie you could add a tie pin or a collar bar.

3. Match your socks to another colour that you’re wearing eg pocket square or tie.

4. Shine your shoes. It’s the little differences that often count the most.

5. Groom: Wash, shave, brush, snip, pluck. Do what you need to do! That way you don’t have to worry about any stray hairs.

Don’t

1. Wear the suit you clearly wear in the office. You should own a suit that you wear for weddings and other social occasions. Wear that. If you don’t own a lounge suit and you’re dating you need to see us urgently!

2. Wear a loud shirt. A clean crisp white shirt is all you need.

3. Wear anything that’s going to make you feel hot.  Sweaty is not sexy. If in doubt, layer. You just need to make sure that your bottom later is as sharp, clean and crisp as your top.

4. Combine your scents. They will inevitably clash. Only one product should smell and that’s your aftershave.

5. Experiment. This is not the night to be trying a style for the first time. Wear a look you’ve worn before and you know you feel comfortable with.

2013 is going to be another great year for men’s tailoring. The more de rigour it becomes to look smart and wear great clothes, the more men will have the opportunity to experiment without feeling like they’re trying too hard. With this in mind I have picked out three of my favourite new looks for 2013 that I feel balance the classic with the contemporary – that so exemplifies the style of the King & Allen man.

1. Bold checks and unique patterns in classic cuts.
The trend is very much towards patterned designs in a country ‘style’ but not necessary in classic country colours. These cloths would have traditionally been only found in a weight that was inpracticle for common, year round use (such as tweed). These patterns can now be found (if you look hard enough) in medium (10-11oz weights). This is exemplified by our Dashing Tweeds range, an example of which I wore at my recent wedding:

Click on the image to see the check in more detail.

and Jake (Allen) had a more conservative, but equally stylish, work suit commissioned recently :

Click twice on the image to see the check in more detail.

For general information on check suits click here, or if you’re particularly interested in Prince of Wales check click here.

2. High gorge Double Breasted Jackets
The gorge is the point where the collar meets the lapel, so a high gorge double breasted jacket is particularly formal and would inevitably have at least 4 (but possibly 6) front buttons. The result is an almost military style. As a suit it’s extremely conservative but if worn as separates (ie with different trousers) the result is striking and quite original. This is essentially double beasted worn as a blazer. This look is especially effective if you are tall and slim.

For more on double breasted suits, and which style might suit you click here.

3. Pin stripes, with a modern, post banker-bashing twist.
Pin stripes have come out from behind the sofa. The tents outside St Paul’s have long since moved on, and it now transpires that the financial crisis may not have been “all their fault” after all. As a result the proudest bastion of the bespoke suit can once again show his chalk lined face. But there’s a difference – men have discovered style in the last few years and it shows in their tie choices, the addition of the pocket square, the width of the lapels and the cut of the jacket. Pin stripes are modern again, thanks to some well thought out cutting and styling. But pinstripe does not suit all body shapes, so seek advice (from your tailor ideally) before taking the plunge.

(image courtesy of The Sartorialist) 

 

For more information about what style of stripe might work for you click here.

The start of a new year is the perfect time to freshen up your suit wardrobe. A new year should bring new enthusiasm for moving your career forward and achieving new goals.

"Because you never get a second chance to make first impression"

It’s very important that your appearance reflects this attitude. We know that the old adage about first impressions is true, so it goes without saying that it’s vital to wear a suit that is well fitted and up to date. However, it’s also about how you feel. It’s about putting a suit on each day that you designed: you chose the materials that went into it and you decided the style that would complement your requirements.

A bespoke suit gives you confidence in knowing that you are portraying yourself in the smartest way you can, and the most flattering to your body shape. The result? Increased confidence.
If you feel confident you exude confidence, and your chances of succeeding increase dramatically.

This is not sales speak or rhetoric mumbo jumbo. We’ve been witnessing the changes that a bespoke suit makes for a long time now (2013 is our 9th year) so we are certain of the difference one can make.

Wherever you buy your suits in 2013,  from all of us at King & Allen we wish you every success for the year.

A huge congratulations to Bradley Wiggins who has won Sports Personality of the Year 2012.

It certainly has been an amazing year for sport but ‘Wiggers’ was King & Allen’s favourite to win by a country mile, in part because of his sporting achievements this year, in part because he puts the ‘Personality’ into the term ‘Sports Personality’, but mainly because the man wears such extremely good suits! Indeed, winning SPOTY was not just the culmination of his sporting year – it’s also been a fantastic sartorial 12 months as well. Last night’s double breasted midnight blue evening suit was a celebration of the tailoring journey he’s been on – from classic mod to modern day style icon…

Let’s start at the beginning with a classic mod suit: high cut collar, narrow notched lapels, 6 button waistcoat, slim trousers and a button down shirt collar – all wrapped up in a sharkskin silver mohair. This is basically a carbon copy of the suit Sting wears in the seminal film Quadrophenia, and no self -respecting mod wardrobe should be without one.

Another absolute must for the aspiring mod – a photo with hair twin Paul Weller. This suit is also made from mohair – this time in royal blue (to compliment the occasion of meeting Mod royalty!). I particularly like the accessories: the white buttons, the aubergine brogues and the elongated shirt collar. Note as well that the trousers are about 1.5cms shorter than they ‘should be’ – another nod to the mod era.
Now things start to get really interesting as BW begins to experiment with high cut double breasted…

Bradley is 6 foot 3 and stick thin so his clothes need to give him shape that, to be frank, he doesn’t have. This suit is a stroke of tailoring genius, and here is why:

1. Broad, bold chalk stripes serve to widen the body. The heavy lines accentuate shape (most notably around the midriff) where truthfully he has very little. Very clever.
2. The broad lapels not only look great, but create the illusion of wider shoulders. The peak lapel works as an arrow pointing outwards, drawing the eye away from the neck to give more of a contrast between the shoulder width and the narrowest point of his torso (parallel to the ticket pocket). Once again this creates that hourglass shape that all men (and their tailors) aspire to.
3. The high buttons and resulting high gorge also trick the eye into thinking the body is shorter and wider than it truly is. (Imagine the opposite– a long shawl lapel leading to one button. It would make him look 70 feet tall.)
4. The double breasted style also widens the body, and by swapping the dark buttons for white ones the illusion is highlighted.
5. Finally, the look is truly striking: a modern day take on the classic mod style. It therefore suits Bradley’s ‘man about town’ personality.

Here we have a very similar outfit – this time in Prince of Wales (Glennurquhart) check. This, gentleman, is the kind of suit that gets you GQ awards and hugs from Liam Gallagher.

This suit sports large turn ups on comparatively wide trousers – again this is a clever tailoring trick to make Bradley’s legs look shorter and wider than they truly are. It’s also very cool.
You may have noticed that all of these suits sport a ticket pocket – a third pocket on the right hand side of the jacket. This is another nod to the mod era (all mod suits have them), but it is also yet another helpful tactic for the taller, leaner man. In short – a good rule of thumb is to avoid vast expanses of ‘empty’ cloth, and a ticket pocket (as well as the added buttons that double breasted provide) are a great solution.
And so to the suit he wore for SPOTY.

All the hallmarks were there: the double breasted jacket, the white buttons, the wide lapels… only this time he has taken the look one stage further and experimented with cloth, opting for a rich midnight blue velvet. This is essentially the ‘evening wear culmination’ of all the other suits we have looked at today and, like the night itself, and the year it represents, was an absolute triumph.

King & Allen salutes an icon in the ascendance – well done Wiggo!

If you are interested in commissioning anything you see on this blog to be tailored for you please do get in touch. We would be delighted to discuss your requirements.

Usually we wouldn’t lower the tone of From the Cutting Room Table by discussing the X Factor. However, it has been brought to my attention by a few of my (mainly female) friends how good some of the suits look this series… so I did some investigation…

For the most part we can dismiss the contestants’ sartorial attempts completely. Teeny boppers in Topman is not King & Allen’s style at all. Instead I would like to focus on the ‘adults’ of the show – most specifically Gary Barlow and Dermot O’Leary, who every week have been consistently producing some great looks that King & Allen customers would do well to emulate.
Below are some highlights of Gary Barlow’s appearances on the show. A feature on Dermot O’Leary will appear in a future post…

This is a great example of how to take a classic cut and give it a modern twist. The high cut double breasted jacket has an almost military look to it, and to pair it with black trousers makes the look even more individual. The collar pin on the shirt is also a lovely touch.

December’s edition of the King & Allen e-magazine, The Stitch, focuses on country checks and here is a great example of one in mid brown. The cut is classic with a hint of mod. It’s a simple two button notch collar, but with very narrow lapels, a short cut jacket and very slim trousers. The fit of this suit isn’t great as you will tell from the shoulders, sleeves and trousers, but the overall look is interesting and suits his colouring.

It’s a brave man who can pull off a midnight blue smoking jacket but if you ever want to look like a million dollars at an evening event this is the garment to go for. The cut is simple (as it should be). The fit is excellent.  The pocket square completes the look beautifully.

Another dashing check – this time in blue. There is a fine line between what a pop star wears on a TV show and what Joe Public would look good in on the street, and this suit teeters just on the side of stylish. For this reason we love it. Once again we see a bold cloth combined with a classic cut. Gary Barlow (and his stylist!) clearly understand balance.

This look shouldn’t work but does. The checks are similar but not matching, and there’s at least one too many colours in this outfit. Yet it looks great. The reason is the simplicity of the rest of the garments: black trousers, white shirt, black tie, understated shoes. The next time you think you’re overdressed refer to this picture and you’ll know…

This jacket is too tight. You can see the creases by the first button where it’s straining. Nevertheless this is a quite a cool suit. The windowpane check is really interesting and I like the colour.

You may recognise the cut of this suit from the Jubilee party. He wore the same but in black. The jacket has some truly original features including the chain and the wide lapels, and regular readers of this blog will know what a fan I am of the scoop neck waistcoat. This would make a fantastic wedding suit.

If you are interested in commissioning anything you see on this blog to be tailored for you please do get in touch. We would be delighted to discuss your requirements.