The Cloths We Use

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For both our ready to wear and bespoke services, Regent have access to a wide range of cloths, from some of the best mills in the world. Conveniently, lots of these mills are also British, allowing us to keep our business as local as possible. Our favourite British cloth merchants include Dugdale Bros, LBD Harrisons, Holland and Sherry, Lovat Mill and Bateman Ogden. We also have access to a range of other cloths from further afield, such as Reda, Drago and Vitale Barberis Canonico. Each of these names brings something different to the table, ensuring Regent have a wide-ranging selection, which will satisfy everyone's needs.
Perhaps our most used supplier of cloth is the aforementioned Dugdale Bros, who supply the majority of cloths for our ready to wear suiting. Quintessentially English in their styling, Dugdale have an enormous range of classically styled cloths, from pinstripes and chalkstripes, to Prince of Wales checks, birdseyes and herringbones, as well as the classic cloth used to make our heritage Ian and Gray suits. Based in Huddersfield, Dugdale have been operating for over a century, supplying their high-quality cloths to tailoring establishments all over the world.
As we work with a lot of country based clients, a good tweed supplier is an absolute must, fortunately, Regent has a relationship with one of the best, Lovat Mill, based in Hawick, Scotland make tweeds of astounding durability in a huge range of colours, checks, weights and patterns. The mill also produce bespoke tweeds for shooting estates and military regiments, exact to the specifications of the buyer. Another point of interest Lovat Mill offer is their ability to Teflon coat their tweeds, making them and the garments they're made into far more weather resistant, whilst not compromising on the traditional tweed look or feel.
When a customer comes to us looking for something a bit more luxurious, we usually head for one of two places; either Holland and Sherry or Harrisons of Edinburgh. Based in the home of tailoring – Savile Row, Holland and Sherry have a range of beautiful cloths, including ultra-soft cashmeres, super-fine worsted wools as well as silks, velvets and just about every other luxury cloth which may spring to mind. Another very British cloth merchant, Holland and Sherry's product encompasses just about everything, from classic city suiting to dandy checks and stripes in every hue imaginable. Harrisons of Edinburgh, as well as some of their subsidiaries, are the go-to company for top quality, long lasting, suit materials. With their P&B bunch being a particular favourite of ours.
A lot of the terminology surrounding cloth, in particular suiting cloth can be very confusing, a different dialect comprising of language like 'super 120s' 'worsted' 'high twist' and 'g/m2' below is a glossary of sorts, with the aim of clarifying some of these terms.
High Twist – a process with the aim of reducing the amount of creasing in a fabric and strengthening the fabric. A high twist fabric is made from a warp and weft thread, which is in itself made up of multiple threads twisted together.
Warp and Weft – Cloth is made up of two threads, being woven in between eachother, the weft is the static threads, wheras the warp is woven in between the weft, as demonstrated by the image below. 
Super Numbers –  Super numbers (super 110s, super 150s etc) refer to the fineness of the wool fibres used to make the cloth. The finer the fibres are, the softer the suit will feel. However, this comes with a trade-off for durability, as softer fibres are usually a lot more delicate and are also more difficult to tailor.
G/M2 –  Perhaps an obvious one, the Gm2 tells us the weight of the cloth. Generally for suiting, you'd want to look at cloths between 280 and 450 gm2 although it's possible to go heavier or lighter if you'll be in a particularly cold or warm climate.
Worsted – A worsted wool cloth is made from wool which has undergone a process which forces all of the wool fibres to lay parallel, these fibres are then combed, removing all the short fibres and retaining the longer ones. This results in a strong, soft fabric, perfect to tailor.

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