It’s the season again for travellers to come to town. From mid-March to mid-May, brands and tailors and shirtmakers will be in London, particularly if they’re the kind that come 2-3 times a year.
A few of those will be in our showroom, and we’ll have our own pre-owned sale event in a couple of weeks, plus the regular PS pop-up at the end of April. The guest brand for that event will be Awling belts (below).
There have been quite a few changes at Assisi, the Korean tailor, and I’ll run through those at the end of this post.
March 14th, Saturday
PS pre-owned clothing sale
- Second edition of the one-day-only sale
- Simon and friends selling hundreds of pieces at 50-70% off
- This time, Marrkt will be a special guest, bringing a selection of their best pieces
- There will also be a small selection of PS samples and seconds
- 10am to 5pm
March 23-28th, Monday to Saturday
The Anthology trunk show
- Bespoke and MTM tailoring only, by appointment
- Contact here
April 2-4th, Thursday to Saturday
Assisi, plus TFC Bespoke and Atelier Lavoro
- Sartoria Assisi, offering handmade to measure, plus fittings for existing bespoke orders
- Assisi is now owned by The Finery Company in Australia, and is focusing on handmade to measure (which we have reviewed here)
- TFC Bespoke is now the bespoke offering, and is a different style (details below)
- Atelier Lavoro offers made-to-measure Americana
- They will be bringing examples of both new brands, and encourage people to come and see, no pressure
- Do still make an appointment though, emailing [email protected]
April 23-25th, Thursday to Saturday
Permanent Style pop-up, plus Awling belts
- All stocked Permanent Style products will be available to try, plus some previews
- Includes some big new releases (full shop update coming next week)
- Special guest: Awling belts. Details on them soon too
- No appointment required. Open 11am to 7pm, Saturday 10am to 6pm
April 30-May 3rd, Thursday to Sunday
J. Mueser
May 21-23rd, Thursday to Saturday
Jean-Manuel Moreau
- Made-to-measure tailoring (below), shirts and casual pieces
- Appointment only, [email protected]
Related news and updates:
- Rubato will not be coming this spring
- Casatlantic will not be coming this spring
- Vittorio Salino is now doing appointments privately
So, returning to the question of Assisi. It’s a little frustrating as a fan of their bespoke that so much has changed in the past few months, but I’ve been talking to Min Soo and other new members of the team recently, and can set out the events and plans.
Assisi was bought last year by The Finery Company, which is an Australian operation Joe Ha has been running since 2014; and Dabin from Assisi has left. I don’t know Joe or the operation, but I’m sure readers from that part of the world can fill us in on any experience they’ve had.
One of things TFC runs is bespoke tailoring, and the head cutter will now be Min Soo of Assisi. He will continue to also oversee the handmade-to-measure at Assisi, which will be made by the same team in Korea.
TFC Bespoke is a different style from Assisi bespoke, but from what I’ve seen it’s very well made. They sent me a suit of Joe’s and I can attest to the quality of the work.
The style is more structured and a little more vintage-inspired than Assisi, with a pad in the shoulder and if anything a wider shoulder than Assisi too. The notch is fairly low and the single-breasted has quite a high-rolling, three button cut. It emphasises a strong and masculine silhouette.
I’ve only seen the one jacket, and have obviously never had anything made, but it will be interesting to see more when TFC come. That’s Joe in a suit above. There’s a bit more on Instagram here.
The other half is Atelier Lavoro, which started a couple of years ago and does vintage Americana-inspired clothing, including sack-style suiting that will be made by the Assisi team in Korea.
They use a lot of vintage fabrics, and try to reinterpret old American styles. I was also sent some examples of Lavoro and I do like the style – I wouldn’t necessarily buy the ones I saw, but it is nice to have the option of buying MTM workwear when it’s done well, and it will be good to see more of the styles in person.
The images above and below are from Lavoro, and there is more on their Instagram here, plus two online articles that cover both – The Rake Japan and Mon Oncle magazine.
In terms of Assisi, personally I would continue to order MTM from them as I already have a developed pattern they can use. And even for others, the handmade to measure was very good when starting from scratch.
