Fox Brothers

Heritage Flannel

Ring Jacket MTO

This one probably didn’t come as a shock to anyone who knows me well. I’ve been looking to get a herringbone suit for winter for quite a while.

With my near obsession with Fox Brothers fabric, I had decided on this particular cloth a long time ago; flannel, herringbone, Fox Brothers, the ring of that sounds amazing after all.

Even though it ended up being quite a heavy suit, my initial intuition proved right and it turned out to be the perfect choice.

Cloth Properties

Fox Brothers
　→ Heritage Flannel
100% Wool
500g
Flannel
You might be confused as to why I hint at a heavy cloth being less desirable, and of course it isn’t necessarily, but in my case I tend to go for lighter flannels for full suits and rather layer as needed.
At 500g, Fox Brothers’ Heritage Flannel is a cloth with substantial weight.

Inspired by their own archive, “designs resonate from the late 1930’s”, it sure does reminisce the heavier fabrics of that time period.

Now, after a month of wear this cloth has proven to be a great choice on several occasions, especially as I brought the jacket (the trousers weren’t finished yet) to the nordics where it really had the chance to shine.
The fabric is remarkably soft to wear. It wears heavy, naturally, and will keep you warm, but in addition it feels almost like a (very) heavy cardigan as it doesn’t restrict or seem stiff (naturally, the quality of tailoring is a major part of this, but still).

Although it drapes about as well as you would expect flannels to, the thickness of the cloth assures that it retains shape well, whether being the lapel roll or the pleats.
I wore the jacket often layered with an overcoat while commuting; car, train, airplanes, sitting, standing, moving around a lot. The heaviness seemed to snap the creases back “in shape” by the next day.

Now that I have received the trousers I can also vouch for the heavy cloth on the lower half as well.

It’s so perfectly insulating while still having a feel of breathability, at least to the degree one wants a winter suit to be breathable.

Cloth Look

I’ll admit that I had my doubts with this choice. It wasn’t that I was disappointed upon seeing it, but rather that I had been so determined this was what I wanted I hadn’t actually considered the possibility it wasn’t.

That reality check came first when I finally got to see and feel the cloth in the bunch book.

Being new to heavier flannels it seemed a lot more substantial cloth than I had imagined. The shade and herringbone also looked quite different as a fabric swatch than what the image had suggested.
After all, the biggest issue with picking out a cloth for a suit is imagining how the shade and scale of pattern will look as a full sized garment.

But since my gut feeling had been with this fabric all along, with a hint of doubt we decided on this cloth and the waiting began.
Upon first seeing the jacket I felt an intense relief. It really turned out amazingly well and both the brown shade and pattern hit exactly as I had envisioned.

First of all, if your first and only impression of this cloth is the pictures provided on Fox Brothers own site, I highly suggest having a look at a swatch of the cloth. The colour is less of a caramel brown and I would say it looks closer to the chestnut brown in the same quality, or somewhere in between perhaps. This is not to discourage or suggest I am disappointed, but as a brown shade aficionado, I can attest to the difficulty of finding that exact shade of brown you’re looking for.

Being a flannel, it’s fairly soft, but at the same time it has a hint of tweediness to it, which I think makes it the perfect cloth (specifically the herringbone) for those whom doesn’t quite like tweed but wants a fabric for winter with some of that fuzziness. That said, it’s no tweed.

Suit

The details are the same as the Bielmonte suit, but for one detail. I’ve been gradually increasing the rise on the trousers I order, 2cm with the Bielmonte trousers and another 2cm with these.

At the time of commissioning the jacket, I also commissioned a pair of gray flannel trousers which sort of became the test bunny for the ones I eventually ordered for this suit.

I wasn’t quite sure how the higher rise would look and fit, but upon receiving the gray flannels I felt reassured it was the right way to go. Thus, we ended up with a 30cm rise (for both), which after some additional tapering looks fantastic.
As for the rest of the details, you might be familiar. The jacket has fairly wide lapels, patch pockets, 3 roll 2 buttoning and double stitching. The trousers are double pleated with reverse pleats and are finished off with deep turn-ups.

Now, I will have to wear it more in the Japanese winter climate to decide, but there is a strong possibility there will be a waistcoat added later on. I figure this is the perfect shade, in addition to the herringbone, to also use as an odd waistcoat.

With regards to the Japanese winter climate, at least for Kyoto, it’s become clear that warmer fabrics are needed here as well. Even for someone warm-blooded like me.