The part of a jacket you never see decides how it looks in year five. In this city, it decides sooner.
Between the outer cloth and the lining of a jacket sits a layer that gives the chest its shape. In a properly made coat that layer is canvas — a woven blend of wool and horsehair, stitched to the cloth by hand or machine so that it floats rather than sticks. Over the first months of wear it takes the shape of the man inside it.
Most ready-to-wear and a good deal of what is sold as tailoring skips the canvas. A synthetic interlining is glued to the back of the cloth with heat. It is quick and cheap, and on the hanger it looks crisp.
The trouble comes later. Glue does not like heat, humidity or dry cleaning, and Mumbai supplies all three. When the bond starts to fail, the front of the jacket bubbles and ripples, and it cannot be repaired. A fused coat does not age. It expires.
In a half-canvas coat, canvas runs from the shoulder down through the chest and lapel, and stops around the pocket line. The lower front is lighter. This puts the structure where a jacket needs it — the chest and the roll of the lapel — and keeps the coat lighter and cooler below. For a city suit worn through a Bombay year, it is a sound construction.
A full canvas runs the entire length of the front, shoulder to hem. The whole front hangs from the canvas rather than from the cloth, so the jacket drapes cleanly all the way down and holds that line for many years. It takes more hours to build. It matters most on heavier cloths, on longer coats, and for the man who wears his suits hard and keeps them long.
Pinch the front of the jacket below the bottom button, and gently pull the outer cloth away from the lining side. If you can feel a third, separate layer floating between them, the coat is canvassed there. If the outer cloth feels stiff and a little thick by itself, with nothing moving behind it, it is fused.
Then look at the lapel. A canvassed lapel rolls up from the button in a soft curve. A fused lapel is pressed flat, like a folded letter. Five signs of a hand-cut garment →
RAJASAB does not fuse. Every coat is built on a canvassed chest, because a glued front will not survive a monsoon. A full canvas is there for the client who wants it, and the cutter will tell you plainly at the consultation whether your cloth and your use call for it.
Bring a jacket you already own and we will show you what is inside it. Arrange a fitting →
Read next: Bespoke or made-to-measure · How a garment is made here
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