Novara Cotton/Silk
Ring Jacket RTW
Cloth
I’ll admit that I am not very familiar with Novara and as such I had to inquire about them.
Thus, the information I have about the cloth is limited to what I gathered from my conversation at the store (and my ability to translate/comprehend Japanese in real time).
Novara is a small mill often sub-contracted by the likes of Zegna. They produce luxury fabrics comparable to some extent to Piacenza but as far as I know they do not produce their own bunch books.
Well, you’ll have to take that information with a pinch of salt.
For the part that I can confidently convey; it’s a beautiful olive green fabric comprised of 89% cotton and 11% silk.
It’s a plain weave in a poplin construction, with a thicker thread in the warp than the weft. This gives the cloth an almost shirt-like appearance. Seeing that it’s a suit, poplin makes the fabric look quite unique, well, at least in my opinion.
I’m not sure if the 11% silk will affect the suit in terms of drape, but generally there’s a big disadvantage with cotton in that you can more or less forget about keeping a crisp crease line and drape in general and it will definitely pick up some creases here and there with wear (it already has). I’ve noticed the same tendency with the brown Subalpino suit, albeit to a lesser extent (the cloth has 40% wool in it).
On the other hand, this suit is remarkably comfortable to wear, as is one benefit with cotton suits.
This is a ready-to-wear suit, so in terms of details it’s exactly the same as the Subalpino and Army Serge suits.
Jacket
This is the No-269 jacket, with patch pockets and double line stitching.
The only difference comparing it to the two aforementioned suits, is that this is a summer suit and as such the jacket is half-lined.
Another detail which hasn’t been mentioned before is that the ready-to-wear suits in this model comes with buttons matching the colour of the fabric. Depending on your taste that might be either good or bad, but personally I think it gives the jacket a cool, relaxed vibe. As if the fact that the look in general is quite casual isn’t enough.
In any case, it’s a nice contrast to my custom suits which all have dark brown horn buttons.
Trousers
The S-178 trousers, with side adjusters, two pleats and an elongated waistband.
I can see myself wearing these as odd trousers and although the fabrics is in a solid green I recon the jacket as an odd jacket would work as well.
It’s not a particularly light nor heavy cloth but it seemingly holds it’s shape quite well.
Again, because it’s a ready-to-wear the trousers does not have the same high rise as the custom trousers, but I still think they look really good.
The key difference is that the slightly lower rise gives a somewhat more casual and relaxed vibe.
Specs
Novara
89％ Cotton / 11% Silk
280g
Plain Weave/Poplin
Jacket No-269
3-Roll-2
Double Stitching
Patch Pockets
9,4cm Lapels
Working Buttons
Trouser S-178
Two Pleats / Out Pleats
Side Adjusters
６cm Turn-ups
Conclusion
I’m very satisfied with this one. It’s actually sometimes a lot more satisfying striking gold in the ready-to-wear section than when you order custom. That in turn might just come down to price and that you have a lot more on the line when you’re ordering custom.
I don’t think however that I will be wearing this during the hotter months, like July and August seeing as I find cotton to be just a little too insulating. Granted, that comes down to how open the weave is.
But as a general assessment, this is just a beautiful suit.