Suit Cloth Explained

What you are actually choosing

When a tailor hands you a bunch of cloth books, you are choosing four things at once: fibre, weight, weave and finish. Colour feels like the decision, but it is the least consequential of the five.

Nearly all suiting is wool, and for good reason: it breathes, it recovers its shape, it takes a press, and it resists creasing better than any plant fibre. Blends with silk, linen, cashmere or mohair change the handle and the sheen, usually at a cost in durability.

What Super 120s means, and does not

The Super number measures the fineness of the wool fibre, not the quality of the cloth. Super 100s means the yarn is spun from wool of a given micron thickness; Super 150s is finer; Super 180s finer still.

Finer is softer and takes a sharper finish. It is also weaker, more prone to shine at the seat and elbows, and less forgiving of daily wear. A Super 180s suit worn twice a week will look tired long before a Super 110s does.

For a first commission worn regularly, Super 100s to 130s is the sensible range. Reserve the very fine cloths for occasion suits worn a few times a year, where softness matters more than resilience.

The number tells you nothing about the mill's standards, the dye, the finish, or how the cloth behaves after six months. Those come from the mill's reputation, which is what the names are for.

Weave, and why it changes everything

Weave decides how the cloth behaves in heat, how it creases and how it catches light.

Plain weaves are simple over-and-under and sit flat. Twills, where the yarn steps diagonally, are more durable and hide creasing, which is why so much business suiting is a twill. High-twist weaves, where the yarn is twisted hard before weaving, are open, cool and spring back from a crease, which is what makes them the Gulf's default.

Flannel is a finish more than a weave: the surface is brushed to raise a soft nap. It drapes beautifully, hides a poor press and is too warm for anywhere hot.

The mills worth knowing

A handful of mills supply most of the world's bespoke tailors, and their names appear on the cloth books you will be shown. They are useful as a shorthand for consistency, not as a guarantee of quality in a given length.

English mills such as Holland & Sherry, Dugdale and Fox Brothers are known for firmer, heavier cloths that hold structure. Italian mills such as Loro Piana, Zegna and Drago are known for softer handle and finer counts. Both traditions are excellent; they suit different cuts, which is the subject of the next chapter.

When a house tells you which mills it stocks, it is also telling you something about its cut. A tailor whose books are full of soft Italian cloth is unlikely to be cutting a rigid military shoulder.

How to judge a length of cloth in the shop

You are not expected to evaluate cloth like a merchant. Four checks tell you most of what you need.

• Crush a corner in your fist for ten seconds, then let go. Good cloth recovers within a minute; a cloth that stays crumpled will crease on you all day.
• Hold it up to the light. Open weaves show pinpricks of light and will breathe; a dense wall of cloth will be warm.
• Drape a full length over your shoulder and look in a mirror from two metres. Swatches lie; drape does not.
• Ask the weight in grams, and ask whether they have the same cloth in a heavier or lighter version of the same colour.

What cloth costs you

Cloth is the largest variable in a bespoke quote. The same house, the same hours of work, can produce a suit at the bottom of its range or at twice that, depending on what you pick from the book.

That is worth knowing before you fall for a cashmere blend on the first visit. Ask the tailor to show you the difference in price between their house cloth and the length you are drawn to, then decide whether the handle is worth it to you.

Among the Dubai tailors we list, confirmed starting prices run from AED 1,300 to AED 5,000 for a two-piece, and the cloth you choose can move a commission most of the way up that range on its own: thebespokeindex.com/bespoke-suits-dubai

Next

Cloth chosen. Now the cut it will be made into: thebespokeindex.com/guides/house-styles-explained

If you have not set the weight yet, chapter 2 covers climate: thebespokeindex.com/guides/suit-cloth-for-hot-and-cold-climates

Or browse Dubai suit makers with prices where we hold them: thebespokeindex.com/bespoke-suits-dubai