This is a post put up on the fly really as I noticed a few Mod sites taking a look at the blog since I posted about Dormeuil Tonik Mohair. I thought “the faces” would find this interesting.

A while back a young trader here in New York wanted something styled in a modernist way. As soon as he told me this I knew this suit had to be made from Mohair. Unlike myself he went for what is probably Tonik’s most distinctive color.

This Gentleman was training for a triathlon during his fittings and actually went down three suit sizes. You can see the athleticism in the suit itself. The suit is made rather short in the “bum freezer” style, unusually and bucking trends now it is a three button fastening with quite a high break. I kept the lapels a bit wider though and the styling quite sharp to keep it looking current rather than a reproduction of a 60s suit. I also purposely used black horn buttons rather than Navy to give the suit an almost animated sharpness.


The only time I successfully purchased a tonic suit on eBay it was too small. That suit is interesting and a bit reminiscent of the lapels on Arfur's bespoke coats on Minder. One thing I would like to see reintroduced is the mohair based Palm Beach cloth that was made from the 1920s-50s by the Goodall mill in Maine. It was used as the basic cloth for all the summer suitings in resort and dinner/summer wear occasions. Sorry this sounds a little stream of consciousness but you post reminded me of the use of mohair in fabric construction.

My current tailor, who began tailoring in the early 60's has no problem tailoring the heavier mohairs like Tonik, John Foster &c. However, over the years he's tailored thousands of them, so he 'knows' how to handle the stuff as it were.

The only type of cloth, he doesn't like to tailor is Gaberdine, which he says is a pig to press and is difficult to alter because the cloth is dense and can leave needle/pin holes. A fine needle is a must. He's also not keen on Linen, not for tailor-abilty reasons though, but, because it quickly looks like a rag. He doesn't 'get' the concept of rumpled elegance. Tailoring to him is about smartness, not shabbyness.

...he's currently making me a linen suit...

He's not fond of lightweight cloth either, saying that 13oz is his sweet spot, he will go lower though, but with certain caveats in the sub 10oz range. He was impressed with the Harrisons' Frontier cloth he tailored for me last year, however.

He was making up a DB suit out of Minnis black chalkstipe flannel for a barrister. Absolutely beautiful.