Burgundy velvet - client photoshoot

Here are some great shots of one of my clients wearing his new burgundy velvet series nine coat I made for him.

He took them at a castle near where he lives, giving it a feel of Heaven Sent, one of his favourite episodes.

Hope you like them.

Burgundy velvet - photoshoot TEASER

One of my clients has been out with his camera getting some great photos in his new burgundy velvet coat I made him.

I’ll be posting the full pictures on Sunday evening, but for now, here’s a little teaser to whet your appetite.

Bon appétit!
Or should I say
Guten Appetit!!!!

ZARA Ripped sweater - don’t rip a rip-off!

For those that missed out on the Paul Smith holy jumper, they had an extra life with the TopMan Laddered Crew Neck, which itself became canon in series 10.

Now that that has sold out too, there is another life-line - in the form a a Rpped Sweater from high street retailer, Zara.

ZARA Ripped Sweater

As you can see, it has the same style of holes and some ladders, but not as prolific as the Topman jumper, or the Paul Smith before it.



The overall shape a cut of the jumper is near identical to the Topman version, so in that regard it is a good stand-by while you track down a Topman screen-accurate version.

Given the availability of the preceding jumpers, this may be a good-enough alternative for the casual cosplayer.

It is, however, slight cheaper than the Topman jumper - and radically cheaper than the Paul Smith - which is always a good thing for the wallet!

Burgundy velvet - the full works

This week I delivered a rather nice example of my replica burgundy velvet Capaldi coat.

The client really wanted to all out on getting the coat made as absolutely authentic as possible, so he provided his own screen-accurate Holland & Sherry velvet, as well as the correct shot twill lining.

The screen-used cloth is not the cheapest option when it comes to velvet, so can add nearly half the price to the cost of making the coat.

The buttons are again the screen-accurate real horn, with the matt red cuff button from the original shop ray Holman got his from.
My client provided his own shiny button for the other cuff.

This client is a chest 38, so it snugly fits my mannequin, showing of the fit and cut to its absolute best.

The problem sometimes can be making a coat to fit a client, and still keeping true to the appearance and proportions of the original we are trying to replicate.

A taller frame will inevitable elongate the coat; a more stocky frame will widen the silhouette of the garment.Thus neither will look right seen out of context, but on the wearer they are cut for, the fit will carry off the look wanted.

I don’t specifically know Peter Capaldi’s size, but this particular coat certainly feels to be the closest I have made to his fit.

This means the proportion of the lapels and button placements can be their nearest to the screen-worn coats so far.

Keeping a good drape on the front of the coat where the lining comes right to the leading edge is deceptively challenging.

The coat was sent out to the client this week, and arrived safely the next day at its intended destination.

To say the client was happy is an underestimation - he’s been posting his photos to much praise on Facebook and Instagram ever since, with a photo-shoot planned at a castle very shortly.

I’ll bring you the results from that as soon as I can.

TOPMAN Ladder jumper - the last rung

As per usual, it looks like the last of the BLACK Ladder Crew Neck Jumpers from Topman are now sold old, both online and in-store.

Personally I came across a stone colourway in their Hemel Hempstead store, and at the time I saw it they were still available online.

No link I’m afraid, by the time I got to write this, they had gone and Topman had removed the page.

But while the page was up I did download the detail shots of the jumper for reference.

What I will say is that having seen a number of the jumpers together at the same time, the holes and laddering are 100% consistent between jumpers. that is to say they are identically placed and shaped - probably knitted in as a pattern, and are not randomly applied  during manufacture - ie by some mangle that distresses the jumpers on the fly.

So although the jumper in this posting is most definitely not the right colourway, I thin the photos show the holes and ladders to a higher level of detail than the images of the black version.

You can see the holes and ladders towards the bottom of the jumper a lot clearer in the stone version.

Having taken some professional advise, one final point - it should be noted that the jumpers are made of 50% Acrylic 50% Viscose, rather than the high-end wool used to make the Paul Smith jumper which these are somewhat of a rip-off of.

This means they will NOT take to dyes - the acrylic content will just shrug the dye off, no matter what type you use.

So please don’t buy one of these light coloured jumpers thinking you can dye it to black - it just won’t work.