Cloth for Bombay.

The mistake is the word 'suiting'

Most cloth sold as suiting was designed for weather this city has never once had. A heavy worsted that drapes beautifully in a showroom is too warm by lunchtime. Our first question about any cloth is not the pattern or the price — it is what will this be like at 2pm in October.

Weight, honestly

The numbers that matter: 9 to 11 ounces is the city's range. Below that, cloth wrinkles faster than it breathes; above it, you are dressing for a city you don't live in. A high-twist yarn in that range is the quiet trick — the twist springs the cloth back from creases and holds a current of air through the weave.

The weave does the cooling

An open weave cools better than a light weight. Fresco — plain-woven, high-twist, almost rough in the hand — is the Bombay cloth: it looks formal at ten paces and ventilates like a shirt. Hopsack does the same job for blazers. Wool-mohair adds a dry crispness that survives an evening function without wilting.

The monsoon clause

Linen is cool but creases quickly and holds damp. Wear it knowingly on a Sunday; do not ask it to carry a Tuesday. In the wet months the high-twist worsteds earn their keep: they shrug off moisture that would flatten a soft flannel.

What we reach for

A mid-blue or grey fresco for the working week. A navy hopsack blazer. One wool-mohair for evenings. That trio, cut to your measure, answers ten months of the year — and the cloth for all three is on the table at the atelier. Cloth is chosen by touch. The cloth →

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