The Traveler Suit from Black Lapel
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| Warren Liao, CEO of Black Lapel, whose lifestyle travelling between countries inspired these suits. |
Black Lapel has recently introduced The Traveler Suit, a performance garment made of natural stretch, high twist wool suiting. (It may go well with Ratio Clothing's natural stretch cotton shirting.)
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| A composite of both sides to give an idea of the pocket layout in its entirety. |
Of course, many companies have their own version of a "traveller suit". Derek Tian, co-founder of Black Lapel, was quick to point out how theirs differs.
We didn’t just cover one dimension of travel. We hit them all. Comfort and stretch. Wrinkle resistance. Spill and stain resistance. Hidden and secure pockets for passports, cash and other valuables. Even a specially developed loop to hold your sunglasses in place. We’ve thought of everything. My favorite feature is the sunglasses loop. It sounds silly but next time your sunglasses fall out of your jacket pocket and hits the pavement, you’ll be thinking about how awesome that loop is.It should be noted that many of these performance suits on the market contain synthetic and/or stretch content for their performance properties. Not so here, it's 100% wool, so natural fibre purists can rejoice. High twist wool is also more breathable than basic wool twill. This may come in handy because, from my experience, there's a reason so many take off their jackets on a plane. Those little gasper vents only work so much when you're packed in with so many other passengers. Naturally, it's not just planes where this suit would be at home. It could also be useful for one who travels by bus or train and needs to look presentable the moment they depart.
I only wish there was a hidden phone pocket in the lining edge, a development in recent years from people carrying larger smart phones. Clothiers like Kent Wang have this option. It helps keep the line of the suit better than sticking a phone into one of the front inner breast pockets. Then again, one of the lower zipped pockets may work well for this.
If anyone buys The Traveler Suit, please share your experiences below. I may also share some tips for travelling well-dressed if readers are up for it.
Hi Jovan, good find and post! I noticed in the lining and hidden internal pocket shot that the fabric is Vitale Barberis Canonico. Could it be from the VBC All Rounder range?
ReplyDeletehttps://vitalebarberiscanonico.com/fabrics/486-363-1/
https://vitalebarberiscanonico.com/fabrics/486-363-2/
I saw these when visiting my tailor 2 months ago and from his point of view, they sure can be high performance and breathable but spill and stain resistant still TBC. He tested one of these swatches by pouring water on it and the 100% wool fabric did prevent any penetration of water through it (unlike cotton etc which will absorb the water) although we refrained from attempting to stain it with chili sauce (one of the number 1 trouser stain culprits!). Could it be that Black Lapel are treating their fabrics additionally to improve the stain resistance?
From my point of view, I did see the relatively airy and porous weave (lots of light penetration) and was keen to have a suit made. However, to this day my tailor has been having no luck importing it into South East Asia (lack of agents, lots winding down operations other than those which overprice) so no luck for me yet.
Please excuse my previous comment on VBC - I have found the right fabric maker which is http://www.tallia-delfino.com/en/collezione-360
ReplyDeletePerhaps both fabrics are similar with the water resistance.
Not sure if this is the right post for it but as far as slim fit movie suits go which ones do you like most recently in spy/action films? John Wick, James Bond, or Kingsman?
ReplyDeleteThe answer may surprise you, but if we're ranking them I'd say Kingsman first, John Wick second, and James Bond last.
DeleteThe Kingsman suits are bespoke by Martin Nicholls and Huntsman, looking exactly how a close-fitting suit or just suits in general should. They drape well on the wearer and the full canvas chest shape is shown to full effect. They will not date for decades to come since they are very classic overall.
The John Wick suits are good, but I'd bring up the trouser rise and add some braces for the three piece suits. They are otherwise great quality and fit quite well for a close-fitting suit. Keanu Reeves looks fantastic in them, particularly in the last two movies where they adjusted the style proportions to look even more balanced on him.
The reason James Bond is last is because while Tom Ford manufactures the closest thing you can get to English bespoke suits off the rack, with a surprising amount of shape and structure to them, the fit just isn't there in Skyfall and Spectre. The jacket is overall too small on Daniel Craig which doesn't let the construction shine as it should and the trousers bunch up and stick to his legs whenever he so much as walks, indicating they are too tight. Craig is in excellent physical shape and the suits do not show it at all. He always looks like the smallest person in the room despite having about 30 more pounds of lean muscle mass on everyone else. No Time To Die is an improvement, but there are still some issues that could be rectified by giving more fullness to those areas. He hasn't looked as good as he did in Quantum of Solace since.