Canvassing

What is canvas?

Canvas is the skeleton of a jacket. It stabilizes the piece and ensures the front moulds to your body without losing shape. Canvas has been used in jacket and coat making for as long as can be remembered. It’s usually woven from natural fibres mixed with animal hairs for extra strength and resilience. The main materials we use are wool, cotton, viscose, polyester and horsehair. The composition of those materials in our canvas differs between our makes and within every make each separate layer of canvas has a different composition too. The below will give you an indication of average composition:

• Semi-Traditional: 30% cotton, 15% viscose, 25% polyester, 30% horsehair

• Half Canvas: 30% cotton, 15% viscose, 25% polyester, 30% horsehair

• Full Canvas: 10% wool, 30% viscose, 25% cotton, 5% polyester, 30% horsehair

• Unconstructed: 35% cotton, 35% polyester, 30% horsehair

How is our canvas made?

Our canvas is sourced from one of the best suppliers in the market. We directly select and source it ourselves to ensure it is high in quality and consistency. While the rest of the suit-making industry may buy premade canvas pieces, all our canvas is made to specific requirements and technical instructions from our ateliers. The canvas-making process can be roughly explained as follows:

• Step 1: Three or four separate canvas layers, all in different shapes and sizes, are cut on different ‘grain lines’ (different directions of the weave). This ensures each piece will move with and support the anatomy of your body perfectly.

• Step 2: The canvas pieces are loosely stitched together to give each layer room to move separate from each other.

• Step 3: The layered canvas is washed to remove shrinkage then dried in a natural environment before being stitched in your made-to-measure garment.

Standard canvas

This is the basis for a well-fitted, clean and constructed jacket. The variation consists of four canvas pieces. Each of those pieces are cut on different grain lines (different directions of the weave) and loosely stitched together to ensure each layer will move with and support the anatomy of your body perfectly. Available in all our makes.

Light canvas

In this variation the innermost ‘felt’ layer of the standard canvas is removed for a more comfortable, less rigidlooking jacket. The result is a 3-layered canvas: the body, the chest and the biased-cut shoulder piece (made of 100% horse hair). Only available in the following makes:

Traditional, Traditional Full Canvas, Handmade Full, Canvas, Made in Italy Full Canvas, HandMade in Italy Full Canvas

Unconstructed

This variation has no body or chest canvas, only a small shoulder piece of biased-cut canvas. This shoulder piece gives support and shape to the front of the jacket where the shoulder, collarbone and chest come together.

Only available in our unconstructed makes.