Blog Post

My Ultimate Guide To Vegan Tailoring

Dec 21, 2020

How I made a 100% Vegan Suit

Vegan Fabrics & Suit
This year I was approached by Matt about having some suits made.  He was keen to extend his wardrobe with suits and shirts that were totally natural materials. 
 
Initially, Matt took a trip up to Savile Row, one of the main capitals of suiting, to only be rejected by multiple tailors.  So he reached out to me and said he was looking for something very specific and would it be something I could do?   

Before the first meeting with Matt I did my research. It was critical that I got this 100% right, no accidental animal products, no compromise on the vegan materials. 
 
I love a challenge, and I was sure I could get him the result he was looking for.  So by the time I was able to take him to the pub to explain how it would work, I knew a vegan suit was totally possible.


Choose your Vegan Suit

You have to start the process from complete scratch.  

Rather than using a natural horse hair canvas, we replaced it with viscose fabric. We used nylon shoulder pads. Normally you’d finish button holes with silk, so we did it with cotton instead.

The suit fabric was 100% cotton, the lining viscose and rather than using a horn button we used buttons made from nuts. Everything in the finished product is totally natural.

When I approached my merchant, they gave me a brochure with a selection of fabrics in place to show Matt. There was bamboo, cotton and linen.  

But I had to make sure it was business style - a linen suit wouldn’t be appropriate and bamboo isn’t hard wearing. Cotton seemed like the best option

Cotton does crease. So this was something he was obviously worried about, he didn’t want it to look crumpled or cheap. 

In the end, I used a cotton twist as there’s a bit of weight to it. With him then ordering a second pair of trousers, he can rotate them. He can have one day of wearing them and then hang them up for creases to drop out.

When I first started researching this project, I didn’t realise how much variety was out there. Sometimes you can be quite limited with specialist stuff like this, but I had enough choice that Matt was able to think about a casual blazer and some buttons to choose from. It’s easy for him to now build a whole vegan wardrobe.

Vegan Tailoring: The Rundown

Here’s what plant-based materials and innovative synthetics are available to you. 

Fabrics

Bamboo - In my opinion this cloth looks and feels most like wool, the yarn is made from bamboo fibres making the cloth breathable. Perfect for warm days and travel.

Cotton - Again a comfortable and breathable fabric that is often the choice for a summer suit tailoring. With crease- resistant fabrics now available, for me this is the most appropriate for city wear. 

Velvet - Not the obvious choice for business wear, more your statement piece at an event or occasion. Made up of a cotton/modal blend, this is a great choice for formalwear or a sports jacket. 

Canvas - With suits often using a horsehair canvas, which is the interior layer that’s sandwiched in-between the jacket's fabrics and body lining, by swapping this out for a synthetic canvas, I prefer to use a cotton & viscose on my suits. In addition to that I use nylon shoulder pad and synthetic melton which sits underneath the jacket's collar to give the suit that fully constructed tailored look. 

Lining - The Lining on your suit is an important addition to the overall look and a chance to bring out your personality, poly blend, cupro or viscose linings can be used and come in a variety of colours, prints and designs. As for buttons,Corozo which is a grain of a nut, can be used to give that clean finish to your suit.

Get in Touch

As a vegan, purchasing a suit can often be proven difficult with most off the peg & made to measure brands often using animal based products in their garments such as wool, silk, horsehair & horn.

If you’d like expert support from a tailor who understands the ins and outs of vegan tailoring, please get in touch

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