Last edited by Alex Roest (2007-04-25 05:36:18)

Has anyone heard of 'Soul of 65'??? I have a few of their BD shirts and I really like the collar, the roll and shape, cloth from Italy, nicely tapered, well priced and from the foremost county of fashion and culture here in England.... Essex!!   


http://www.soulof65.com/

I'd seen the soul of 65 site before, but never known anyone that bought anything from them.  Their site always struck me as "too mod" which makes me think of Merc and its ilk

thanks for the mini-review StyleCouncil, good to know you got some nice shirts from them

Last edited by Get Smart (2007-05-01 09:02:54)

Hi Get Smart,

'Soul of '65' are nothing like 'Merc', but is one man's vision, similar to your own 'Thick as Thieves' line?. They offer RTW, MTM and a bespoke service using quality fabrics, etc, certainly not like 'Merc's' rubbish.. plus their website isn't great.

Sorry if my post sounded like an advert, I just think they're a good alternative and am impressed by their clobber. I'll stop now and go and collect my commission. 

Mercer is my pick  for fit, sizing, and material (and in some cases colors, as I will elaborate).  Dad, who first found out about them probably 15 years ago in some magazine ads (Atlantic Monthly maybe?), swears they are like the old Brooks construction...however, there is debate on that as there are plenty of old pictures (this has been mentioned by others here) with much slimmer fits on probable Brooks BDs than Mercer's cut could possibly provide.

Either way, I like the fabric and construction better.  Also I see Mercer's yellow as an improvement on Brooks's, I've mentioned that before. Everyone has noted that there was an 'old' yellow color that was better than all the current offerings.  However, Brooks still has the classic pink.  Mercer's is more subdued. Brooks of course still offers those green and peach colors that it had in the mid 80s through MTM, at least that is what Intrepid said.

I too was somewhat disappointed with Brooks MTM.  I find (Horace, you may have mentioned this yourself) that the sleeves on Brooks sizing seem to be shorter than other companies' sizes.  On anyone else---Mercer, Press, even JAB from whom I own a couple of forward points, I am a clear 34.  However, the Brooks MTM came out too short.  Now, it could have been my error...maybe generic 34s fit me but an exactly tailored 34 doesn't and I should've measured.  But it seemed about a half inch too short and I'm a little annoyed.  I still wear it, but the sleeves just peak out on jackets.

I have only two shirts from Press...tuxedo shirt with fold down collar and a blue/white butcher stripe BD.  I would say these both fit more or less the same as the Brooks, except that the sleeves seem to be the correct length.

I agree that Mr. Mercer is nice to deal with and, unless he is out of your size, quite prompt in getting things delivered.  Also not excessively expensive.  You may not use my name. He doesn't know it anyway since my dad places the orders--Mercers are an annual Christmas gift.

Last edited by longwing (2007-05-03 06:25:42)

Here, BD with tie used to be the style of public servants, engineers, IT people, accountants - all of the unwashed sort. That has changed, as aforementioned people usually don't wear ties at work at all. Tie + BD is now the signature style of "in the know", forum-populating, half-ironic, 1960ies Harvard Professor and NASA engineer's love child middle aged white men.