#paladrin

[welldresseddadblog]

I wrote about Paladrin a year or so back when they were just starting out with their “Made by London” idea, where the clothes were designed and made in London, using British fabrics. Well, it’s no surprise that after the initial success they are back again with the sequel. You know how it is when you’re onto a good thing? You keep going. Work your strengths, tweak your designs, source better and apart from that just keep on keeping on.

Paladrin are very much champions of two core ideas: traditional fabrics and boxy cuts. When it comes to the traditional fabrics there are some that get mentioned a lot, and others not so often. Denim and tweed are pretty much always popular, linen has also enjoyed a recent popularity, but others, such as moleskin and corduroy not so much. And corduroy and moleskin might be considered the Paladrin house fabrics. Granted, corduroy is currently enjoying something of a general boost in popularity, but amidst the usual geography teacher and social worker jokes. Really though, those of us with more open and inguisitive minds know that both corduroy and moleskin have historical aspects that make them very interesting indeed.

Moleskin was obased on a twilled cotton fabric known as fustian and was developed as the workwear fabric of choice for dealing with the cold and damp British climate, both indoors and outdoors, in Victorian times. Corduroy, also a cut cotton, also evolved from fustain. Fustain was notoriously subversive as well, being the choice of supporters of the radical working class in the 19th century. Reason enough to view the meek geography teachers with fresh respect! Both are very pleasant in use though, being both soft of handle and warm.

Last year saw canvas and corduroy jackets and moleskin and corduroy shirts, this year they’re back with more corduroy jackets, this time wider of wale, as in heavier grade, and more shirts. A nice looking wool melton has also been added to the mix. Being staunchly anti-fashion and doing their own thing, there’s no skinny fits or flashiness, it’s still boxy, classic workwear silhouettes. As mentioned, for this season the patterns have been reworked and evolved for a more ergonomic and comfortable fit. Evolution based on experience is a good thing, this way lies progress. The design and production is still in London, using British fabrics and details.

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If there is a problem with Paladrin it’s the short runs. Once announced, you need to get in there quick if you want something. This season I instantly fell in love with the green corduroy jacket. Can I say fell in love with a jacket? Sounds silly, but you know what I mean. Let’s just say I adore heavy corduroy and this one ticked lots of boxes for me. And it sold out double quick. I also wanted one of the revised moleskin shirts, as they are just great for cold weather use. Or as a transitional layering garment, as your local menswearist no doubt would put it.

Construction wise I’m pleased to see all tidily felled seams and buttons that are firmly attached. This again proves that short run productions made in Britain using quality materials need not be wildly expensive. Well, at least not when you can buy direct. It’s a good deal for both Paladrin, the maker and the customer though.

One word of advice: Read the sizing details carefully. The sizes are larger than usual. I’m normally a large, occasionally a medium, but in Paladrin I’m a small.

Available now from Paladrin. Jackets from 185 to 230 130 to 150 pounds, shirts 75 to 110 45 to 65 pounds. There’s a sale on!

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Paladrin returns to the ring for round two #paladrin #madebylondon #madeinbritain #moleskin #corduroy #workwear I wrote about Paladrin a year or so back when they were just starting out with their "Made by London" idea, where the clothes were designed and made in London, using British fabrics.

[aquotecollection]

If we limited loving to just the sane, undamaged people, the next generation would have about three people in it and presumably humanity would die out shortly afterward.

Paladin’s Grace, T Kingfisher

[we-gentstreet-blog]

Welcome to Gent. Street, We are an independent Sneaker, Clothing & Accessories store based in Frome, Somerset - More about us to follow

[goodandbeautifulqueen-blog]

Next Up Hero - Paladrin on Piano (OST)

[theluxave]

PALADRIN- Designed, sourced and made in London.

[opahstore]

Paladrin / Menswear brand based in London / Working with local designers and craftspeople to create a collaborative body of work / Paladrin is an honest brand that supports emerging and existing talent in the belief that clothes should be made both responsibly and ethically / Heavily influenced by workwear from previous centuries but with a nod to contemporary culture / Each piece is made from sustainable and durable fabrics and will withstand the needs of all seasons, whatever the weather / Paladrin.co

[welldresseddadblog]

When the weather is mainly stormy, sleety, snowy, chilly and generally vile, it’s Parkatime in my book. Waxed cotton with a moleskin shirt takes some of the edge off, apply hood for extra escape. #freerain #paladrin #winterfashion

[welldresseddadblog]

A look back to last week when I was experimenting with photography. Nice contrast between the black corduroy and the blurred green. #tbt #throwbackthursday #nofilter #bokeh #welldresseddad #dadstyle #madeinengland #paladrin #styleno #motei #finansavisen_fashion #menswear

[welldresseddadblog]

My young social media advisors have been crunching numbers and considering psycho-ethnological bell curves. The result? "You need to diversify and show a gentler side!". So here I am supporting a single mother struggling to bring up her eight offspring on her own. If the media calls, I'm trying to get the fur off my ripstop trousers and moleskin shirt. And no, this photo has nothing to do with #hygge! #welldresseddad #moleskin #ripstop #paladrin #thorostitch

[welldresseddadblog]

I can't think of a relevant hashtag topic for today, so I'll support the cycling cause by standing next to bicycles. Black corduroy jacket by @paladrin.co over splendidly striped @triplstitched shirt. And the @crownnorthampton sneakers that are now all dusty after roughly 85.000 steps on the streets of London last weekend. #bicycle #cycling #sneakers #corduroy #paladrin #triplstitched #menswear #mensfashion #unboxing #welldresseddad #dadstyle

[welldresseddadblog]

Dropping a Sunday rerun on the brightest jacket I'll be wearing this Summer. Just noticed @paladrin.co is offering 10% off on their first collection today. #yellowjacket #mensweardaily #mensstyle #inspo #menstyle #mensfashion #yellow #welldresseddad #dadstyle #madeinlondon #madeinengland #paladrin

[welldresseddadblog]

Black corduroy is the dust collector of fabrics. On a dark night though, when you're making your way through the shadows of the city, nothing sucks of the particles of light like it, allowing you to move like a ninja. Ok, a little bit like a ninja. #corduroy #welldresseddad #dadstyle #antimatter #ninja #paladrin #cuttersline #madeinbritain #menswear #menswearblogger #motei #styleno

[welldresseddadblog]

I wasn't aware of serious I was looking untill I came to write a caption for this one. I was actually feeling very joyful, mainly due to wearing an incredibly soft and comfy moleskin shirt from @paladrin.co. In fact, I just posted about them on the blog (link in bio). #paladrin #madeinlondon #madeinengland #moleskin #corduroy #whysoserious #raybans #welldresseddad #dadstyle #review #mensfashion #menswear #menstyle

[welldresseddadblog]

Think of huge clothing companies, you know, the like of H&M and Zara. They make billions of garments, employ thousands of people, make whopping amounts of money and have their product made in faceless factories wherever will make it cheapest. Then move your thoughts right down to the other end of the scale. Consider what it’s like if a company makes just enough garments, employs a bare minimum of people, make just enough money and have their product made in factories they actually visit and work closely with.

The Briggs jacket, in yellow denim.

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll be on board with the second variant here. I like to think of them as the sort of company that makes pieces they care about, filling a gap they feel should be filled, selecting components based on other properties than cost, eschewing massive profit in favour of a more ethical approach. Now this could all be total hipster wank, and no doubt in many cases it is, but there is also something very alluring about those companies that are genuine. I’ve met up with a few of them, and when I was in London recently I had the opportunity to meet up with Tim, the charming gent behind new brand Paladrin.

So, over a couple of cups of warm drink in a noisy London coffee shop we sat down for a good natter about the state of menswear and what Paladrin brings from the cutting table. Tim is new to the garment game, but from his trade as a graphic designer he brings a keen eye for what works. Thinking about it, designing clothes is very much a graphic design. He enlists help from friends in other fields to help out as needed, among them a cutter with some 30+ years experience. And then there is the factory in London, close enough to work closely with. This has resulted in a first collection of 5 jackets and 7 shirts, shared over three designs in each category.

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The Morton jacket in black corduroy

The designs are based on solid, classic workwear silhouettes, boxy cuts. Sparse on fancy details, but strong on being rugged and very well made. My nerdy eyes immediately appreciate that all the seams are properly felled and finished. Fabric-wise the ruggedness continues with the classics, denim, moleskin, wool and corduroy. Mostly in darker colours, but the yellow jacket certainly brightens the vista on a grey day!

I did mention the items being well made. Combine this with the quality fabrics and you have a good product. If you combine that with a competitive and realistic pricing and you have a winner. And in this respect Paladrin have got it right with the first collection. Working directly with the factory, cutting out the blood-sucking middleman and handling sales directly, means that everyone involved earns what they need to earn and the customer still gets a great deal. Much like other great London companies such as SEH Kelly work.

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The Moriss shirt in navy moleskin

It’s something of a reminder really to experience the classic fabrics. So much today is just cotton, or cotton blend, with little or no structure or character. I strongly believe corduroy is due a massive comeback. Hopefully not in a fashion way, but at least to be appreciated by adult males looking for quality garments. Moleskin is another almost forgotten fabric that should be very much more appreciated. My navy Moriss shirt feels incredibly cosy and soft. A little warm for summer days, but bring on the chill and I’ll be living in it.

The garments are very generously sized, and not available in the smallest sizes, so waifs need not apply around these ways. I’m wearing medium, the smallest size available. I would suggest looking at the sizing chart carefully.

Shirts and jackets available now from Paladrin.co

    Paladrin - Workwear made by London #workwear #paladrin #mensfashion #denim #review #moleskin #blog #blogger Think of huge clothing companies, you know, the like of H&M and Zara. They make billions of garments, employ thousands of people, make whopping amounts of money and have their product made in faceless factories wherever will make it cheapest.

[welldresseddadblog]

Yellow is the new blue? My brothers are trying on this seasons signature jacket from London upstarts @paladrin.co. Is it too much or just right? #yellowjacket #paladrin #welldresseddad #dadstyle #madeinlondon

[welldresseddadblog]

Day two saw us lace up and set off again. After the miserable dinner at the hotel the evening before, it was easy to skip the £27.50 breakfast they served there. Almost 30 quid for breakfast? This just goes to show that when booking a hotel in London, make sure breakfast is included, otherwise they will gouge you. There are any number of places that will service you a fried egg, a strip of bacon, a sausage and a spoonful of beans (aka. the average cheap “full English”) for £7.50. Or you can pick up some ready made sandwiches or something equivalent for a few pounds. Not exactly high end living, but when you can get a nice lunch or dinner for the price of breakfast, the choice is simple.

The popular parts of London at massively crowded most of the time, so if you want to do anything other than march in step looking at the back of the person in front of you (now that doesn’t sound right at all, it’s not like that at all, it’s more like an endless and tiring frustration of people standing, stopping, walking slow or fast, in the same, the opposite or perpendicular directions to where you are headed) you take the side streets. On a Saturday morning at Easter, Bond Street was perfect, hardly a soul about. Bond Street isn’t where I would go to visit shops, far too upper-crust for me, but I did start paying attention to their shop windows. It’s quite obvious that shops here have an ambition level and budget to make some remarkable displays.

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Staying by Green Park means the nearest Tube station is almost at Piccadilly Square, so by the time you’ve walked there you’ve already limbered up and found your gait, so it sort of makes sense to just keep on walking. I’d arranged a meetup off Carnaby Street, for practical reasons, but before that I popped into Liberty and tok a look round their menswear section. They stock some pretty trendy and expensive brands, but the impression I was left with was that it was all very samey and frankly pretty boring. I’m sure if I’d removed all the placards with the brand names on them, shuffled them and returned the pile to them, even the buyer would have struggled to place them all correctly. This does hammer home how hard it is to find something you don’t already have though.

Day two map, sort of

I’d arranged to meet Tim, of new brand Paladrin, for a chat about starting up a new menswear brand. I posted seperately about this a week or two ago, if you are keen on London-made workwear styles, take a look here. Quite strange to sit talking menswear in a Costas chock full of noisy folks, but oddly by the time we finished it was empty, without us noticing it had emptied. I think that is a sign of a good conversation.

The plan for the day though was Shoreditch. I suspect Shoreditch might already have peaked, to be replaced by Hackney or Brixton, but there were places we wanted to visit there, so off we went. Getting to Shoreditch is fiddly at the best of times, but today we were left stranded halfway there. No info, no train. In the end we went outside the station and caught a black cab. This turned out well, as it was a sunny day and only 15 minutes drive. When you’re used to going everywhere under ground, it makes a nice change to see more of the city.

Arriving in Shoreditch it was lunchtime, which turns into the usual issue of where to eat. London is full of places to eat, and most of them either look super high end or totally low end. We were walking along past Boxpark (“Hey, the Norwegian onesie shop is still there!”) and notice this derelict looking factory building type place. Peering in through the window we see people sitting there and we’re intrigued. Looks a bit murky and dirty, but let’s take a look. Turns out it’s Smokestak and even though the menu is pretty cryptic, the food we end up with on our table is the best we’ve had in a long time. Cured and smoked meats. Awesome.

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Shoreditch has a selection of the more interesting shops in London, such as Mendoza (very interesting menswear), Son of a Stag (the other rare selvedge denim shop), Rough Trade, YMC, London Undercover (I’m still looking for a duelling umbrella), Grenson, various secondhand and vintage. Also, the infamous SEH Kelly, the smallest workshop cum showroom in London. It’s always a delight to stop by and have a chat with Paul and it’s also fascinating to notice who else has found there way there. Last time I was in there was an American visitor, this time a Canadian. It’s really quite amazing how a tiny brand can reach so far, but no doubt this is entirely down to quality garments and effort spent on social media and forum outreach. I often mention SEH Kelly as an example of how small brands can be a success, and it bears repeating.

In a back street I found these two. Opposite ends of the evolution, yet the only common factor is 4 wheels and the colour.

One of the most joyful features of Shoreditch is the street art. I thin keven for people that visit regularly it’s kept fresh and vibrant, due to the sheer number surfaces available and the number of pieces being painted. It’s also pretty obvious that this is a major industry in the area, as we kept stumbling upon “Street Art Tours” of various formats. Heck, why not? I appreciate the styles and messages of street art much more than the crusty olde masters hanging in the museums.

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By this time the lustre of Shoreditch had dulled and we found our way back towards more central areas. WDW enjoys taking the afternoon tea, so we thought we’d give the Pat Val near Green Park a go. Well, they had a table by the window vacant, so it was off to a good start. Pat Val is one of those places that seems like a good idea right up until you’ve sat down, then it goes down hill. This time it was the noise. Not in general, but mainly from an Italian grandma at the next table. Did she ever have a lot of stuff she was pissed off about, in a loud, intense and unfathomable way. Or at least that is how she sounded. I’m normally pretty tolerant, but after 10 solid minutes I had to give her a stern look. Which actually seemed to work, even though to everyone but me it probably looked like I had a sore tooth. Both her family and we were pleased when she piped down though.

A late afternoon tea may in some instances pass for a dinner of sorts. At least this one did, fired up on fresh sugar we decided to walk around some more. Fortnum and Mason isn’t a shop I normally bother with, though they are a masterclass in presentation. I was surprised this time to find both a selection of McNair mountain shirts and a Nigel Cabourn pop-up shop there. The Cabourn part was especially impressive as it held a super selection of the tweed garments from the past two Autmn-Winter seasons. Strange how much of this has survived all the stock clearances of the past couple of years.

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With night falling, that was it for day two. Day three was to be dedicated to more high-brow pursuits.

  Another visit to Ye Olde Londoninium - day two #london #ilovelondon #tripreport #myholiday #blogger #menswear Day two saw us lace up and set off again. After the miserable dinner at the hotel the evening before, it was easy to skip the £27.50 breakfast they served there.