Dirk-Jan de Bruin - lifestyle blog

As mentioned in my previous post, tailoring is a matter of taste.
Someone on the Row with his own style of vibe is Ozwald Boateng.

Check out this video on YouTube:

Also check out part 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6.

It's always interesting to see all the different approaches to tailoring.
Of course I love all the professionalism, dedication and history put into any Saville Row garment. Every piece is a true work of art and is especially fit for professionals at the highest level, and certainly a good choice for world leaders.
You never can go wrong going bespoke on the Row.

Still, as much as I like the work done on Savile Row. I've never been much of a fan of the soft shoulder, even ones as perfectly constructed as the ones by Anderson & Sheppard as shown in this movie.

I guess tailoring really is like art, and it is a matter of taste.

Men's style: A visit with John Hitchcock from Michael Alden on Vimeo.

Also check out Part II: Concave shoulders in Politics: Medvedev (Concave shoulders part II)

As a sartorial junkie you start to obsess about the most minor of details.
It starts with basic stuff like sleeve lengths and having your pants hemmed in just the right way, making sure you get the perfect break.

At a later stage, you want your jackets to have the correct 'drop', make sure the backside follows the lines of your body and at certain moment you will surely start to obsess about what might be the holy grail of tailoring: the Shoulders.

Shoulder styles change from time to time, and every tailor has it's own signature style.
Myself, I love the concave shoulder style or just perfect straight shoulders, but I really hate any type of sloping shoulders.

I mainly wear Corneliani, and their signature style is a broad, constructed shoulders... sadly enough, their standard shoulder creates some sloping and I haven't found a tailor who can fix this problem.

Some of the stuff they tried: putting in more padding, removing padding, moving the shoulder line, taking in the shoulder. Sadly enough, the results are far from perfect.

Of course, when buying off-the-peg or even Made-To-Measure, you just have to accept the shoulders are tailored to fit as much people as possible. And also, a lot of people don't like stuff like concave shoulders... Even Savile Row suits often show some sloping. A lot of people actually seem to like the slope...

When going bespoke you can of course select features like concave shoulders. I'm just not sure who does a good concave shoulder these days. Of course fashion designers adopt the concave or pagoda style from time to time (like Tom Ford), but I have never been much into fashion brands.

So I guess I just have to keep browsing around and put away some of my savings to go bespoke some time in the near future.
For now, I am stockpiling pictures of shoulder types I like, so when I find the right tailor, I can at least show him enough samples.

If you want to read more about shoulder styles, check out these links:

- Ruth la Ferla's, Men's Style; SHOULDER SHIFTS (Published: Sunday, February 3, 1991)

- Cal Fussman finds his perfect suit, made by Mr. Fioravanti (with concave shoulders)

- London Lounge on shoulders

- StyleForum on the pagoda shoulder