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Cut for one. Kept for life.

A paper pattern for every client, three fittings over eight weeks.

Book a first fitting How a coat is made

  • Est. 1962One workroom, one address
  • 3Fittings
  • 8Weeks
  • 60–80Hours by hand
  1. Folded suitings on the cutting table: a navy windowpane worsted over three soft greys, the weave visible in the window light.
    No. 1 Suitings, 11–⁠13 oz
  2. A spool of charcoal sewing thread, close enough to see each winding cross the last.
    No. 2 Thread to match
  3. A pair of old forged cutting shears, open, on pale pattern card.
    No. 3 Shears · size: yours

The house

A workroom that makes very few coats.

The cutting room: suitings folded on oak shelves, navy, grey, chalk stripe and check, and the paper patterns of past clients hanging beside them.

We cut by hand, in one room, under one north window. Every client has a paper pattern drafted from their own measurements and their own way of standing, and it is never used for anyone else.

We make about a hundred and forty coats a year. That is not a limit we apologise for; it is the reason the coats are any good. 120 clients, 140 coats a year

Nothing here is altered from a stock size. It is drafted, cut and basted for one person.

Eight weeks, one coat

The pattern, then three fittings.

Each fitting takes the coat a little closer. The cloth is cut with generous inlays, and they are taken in, a little at a time, as the coat learns how you stand.

  1. A cutter’s hand on dotted pattern paper, tracing the pencilled armhole curve of a forepart.

    Week 1 of 8 · The pattern · 6 hours in

    The pattern

    Measured, then drafted in pencil on pattern paper: forepart, back, side body, top and under sleeve. Not a fitting yet; the cloth is cut from this.

  2. A navy coat at the baste on a dress stand: white tacking down every seam, sleeves not yet set.

    Week 3 of 8 · First fitting, baste · 20 hours in

    First fitting: the baste

    The cloth, held together with white tacking over a hand-made canvas, sleeves off. We mark the changes in chalk and take the coat apart again.

  3. A navy coat at the forward: lapels shaped, pockets in, sleeves set, the last tacking still showing.

    Week 6 of 8 · Second fitting, forward · 50 hours in

    Second fitting: the forward

    Pockets in, lapels shaped, sleeves set. Most of the tacking is gone. This is where the balance of the coat is settled.

  4. The finished navy coat, buttoned: a soft lapel roll and two hand-worked buttonholes.

    Week 8 of 8 · Third fitting, finish · 70 hours in

    Third fitting: the finish

    Buttonholes worked by hand, edges pick-stitched, pressed. A last look in the coat, and any final touch is done while you wait.

The cloth

Six from the bunch.

We keep a few hundred cloths and will show you six that suit what you have asked for. Choose one; the rest stay in the book.

Choose a cloth to bring it forward. Arrow keys move through the bunch; Escape puts it back.

  • Navy windowpane

    Weight
    11 oz
    Weave
    Twill worsted, faint check
    Season
    Three seasons
    Woven
    Yorkshire-woven worsted

    The town suit. Quiet enough for anything, with a check you see only at arm’s length.

  • Mid-grey flannel

    Weight
    13 oz
    Weave
    Milled flannel
    Season
    Autumn to spring
    Woven
    West of England flannel

    Soft, matt and forgiving. The first suit most of our clients come back for.

  • Pale grey tropical

    Weight
    9 oz
    Weave
    Open plain-weave worsted
    Season
    High summer
    Woven
    Yorkshire-woven worsted

    Air goes through it. Creases fall out overnight on a good hanger.

  • Grey herringbone

    Weight
    14 oz
    Weave
    Herringbone twill
    Season
    Winter
    Woven
    Scottish-woven cheviot

    A country cloth with town manners. Wears in rather than out.

  • Charcoal windowpane

    Weight
    12 oz
    Weave
    Worsted with a rust overcheck
    Season
    Three seasons
    Woven
    Yorkshire-woven worsted

    Matched at every seam, which is why a check costs more to cut.

  • Grey dogtooth overcoating

    Weight
    18 oz
    Weave
    Woollen dogtooth check
    Season
    Deep winter
    Woven
    Scottish-woven overcoating

    For an overcoat. Heavy enough to hang straight in a wind, and it will outlast you.

The workroom

Where the hours go.

A coat is about seventy hours of hand work. Here is where they are spent, on an ordinary two-button coat in a plain worsted.

A cutter’s hands on the oak board, lifting a tweed piece marked in chalk, the next pieces already cut beside it.
Pieces chalked and cut on the board, the check matched before the shears go in.
A brass thimble on a fold of pale canvas, a row of long needles above it.
A thimble and the needles for the canvas, which is padded by hand, not glued.
Hours by hand, one coat
StageHours
Pattern and cutting6 h
Canvas, padded by hand14 h
Coat-making40 h
Finishing, buttonholes, pressing10 h
Total70 h

A check, a double-breasted front or a heavy coating adds hours; we tell you before we cut.

Commissions

Prices, plainly.

Prices start where the cloth starts. Your cutter gives you one figure, in writing, before anything is cut.

Ticket No. 4417

GarmentFrom
Two-piece suitCoat and trousers, 9–15 oz suiting£5,400
CoatWhat the trade calls a jacket£4,800
Overcoat16–22 oz coating£6,200
TrousersCut to wear with a coat you already own£1,600

Included in every commission

  • Your own paper pattern, drafted and kept for life
  • Three fittings: baste, forward, finish
  • Horn or corozo buttons, hand-worked buttonholes
  • Alterations for the first year, and pressing whenever you ask
Deposit
50% when the cloth is chosen
Balance
At the finish fitting
Timeline
8–10 weeks from first fitting
Brown paper patterns hanging from a rail, each bundle a client’s coat.
The patterns we keep: one hook, one client. Your next coat starts from yours.

Your first fitting

Book an hour with a cutter.

The first fitting is an hour of measuring and talking, with the cloth book open. There is no charge for it and nothing to decide on the day.

Ostrander & Quill · Order bookDocket No. 4417

Your details

A date to be ready for, a coat you love, a way you stand.

Tear here

No. 4417 Keep this half: no charge for the first fitting, nothing to decide on the day.