Most people choose a cloth the way they choose a paint colour: from a small square, under the wrong light, in a hurry. Then they live with it for twenty years.
Start with what the suit is for
A suit for the office five days a week wants a plain worsted of about 280 grams: it holds a crease, sheds a crumple overnight and wears for a decade. A suit for weddings and dinners can be lighter and finer. A suit for the country wants weight, texture and a colour that forgives mud.
Weight
Edinburgh is not Milan. Below 250 grams a cloth creases quickly and feels thin in the wind on Princes Street; above 400 it is warm enough for a winter walk without a coat. Most of our suits are cut from cloth between 300 and 340 grams.
Weave
Plain worsteds are smooth and formal. Flannel is soft and matt and lovely in grey. Herringbone and birdseye look plain from across a room and interesting from across a table, which is exactly where a client sits.
Hold the cloth at arm's length by the window. If you still like it there, you will like it in ten years.
Colour
Navy and charcoal will go anywhere. Mid grey is friendlier. Brown, which was not allowed in town when this shop opened, is now the colour we cut most often for a second suit.
