Luxury suits and jackets demand luxury cloth. And any luxury cloth begins with luxury yarn.
Creating Luxury Suit Fabric: Determining Yarn Quality
When a Merino wool fiber is assessed by a Classer, the Classer first inspects the fiber’s diameter width (also known as its “micron count”), to determine its Super count classification. For example, Dormeuil’s famous 15.8 quality is made with wool fiber that is 15.8 microns in diameter, and is classed as Super 150‘s. It is important to note that at 15.8 microns, this particular fiber is actually on the cusp of being classified as Super 160‘s.
The Super count is only one factor though. The Classer will also examine the fiber length, the fiber strength, the fiber color (is it clean), and the fiber crimp.
The fiber is then washed (scoured) to remove grease, dirt, and vegetable matter. The cleaned fiber is then carded. During the carding process, the longest and straightest fibers are separated from the short fibers as well as the longer fibers that are bent and unsuitable for spinning worsted wool yarn. Only the longest filament fibers make it past this process. As you can imagine, when measuring length, strength, color, and crimp, only a subset of a subset of a subset makes it through to be spun into luxury yarn.
Dormeuil’s Luxury Suit Fabrics Begin With Exceptional Yarn
Dormeuil uses only the finest luxury fibers that are graded and classed for length, strength, color, and crimp. It is very much like using only the filet mignon of the merino fiber from each clip. “Clip” is the name given to the wool fiber grown from a particular flock (or mob) of merino sheep.
Dormeuil Suiting Fabrics: Where Science And Art Meet
Like fine wine, luxury fiber has different characteristics from season to season, as a result of the sunlight and the rain that the merino sheep have been living in during the year. Before the fiber is spun into yarn, these unique qualities have to be examined and assessed.
The most skilled wool spinners in the world are based in Yorkshire, England. These multi-generation artisans examine the fiber to determine the temperature, humidity, and tension required to successfully spin the luxury fiber into fine luxury yarn. This calculation is both scientific and artistic. The spinner must have a flair for the creative, a seasoned knowledge of natural fiber, and a thorough appreciation for physics.
Dormeuil’s iconik: Light, Comfortable, Modern
With Dormeuil’s latest creation, iconik, long filament high crimp fiber has been spun into extremely fine (but incredibly strong) yarn. Although this yarn is classed as Super 120’s, the fabric feels like a Super 150’s or better. The reason for this is the fact that fewer long-filament fibers are required in spinning the yarn. The result is a super fine yarn that can then be densely woven (2×2) into a luxurious cloth that not only feels as soft as Super 150’s, but performs better than any other Super 120’s in the world. With a suit or jacket in iconik, you get the best of both worlds. Luxurious touch and high performance.
The high crimp in the fiber creates a certain elasticity in the yarn. This in turn gives the woven fabric a little stretch in the weft without the need to inject synthetic stretch into the mix. The result is the perfect cloth for those tighter-fitting custom garments, or for suits and jackets for people (like myself) who lose and gain a little weight from time to time. The elasticity and bounce of the fiber also enhances the fabric’s crease resistance and crease recovery. For traveling, iconik will keep a suit or jacket looking fresh and clean. The memory within the fiber will ensure that the garment will return to its original form when hung up for the evening.
For more information, please visit Dormeuil’s official iconik page.
Luxury Suits In Philadelphia
I will talk about top dying in my next post, but the final result when long filament luxury fiber is spun into luxury yarn, and then woven (with a tight British setting) using 2 ply yarn in warp and weft, is a cloth that is nothing short of miraculous. Henry A Davidsen of Philadelphia creates luxury custom garments using Dormeuil’s luxury cloth and their suits and jackets are at the very top end of the quality spectrum.
