After Michel's behind-the-scenes presentation of this costume , it's time to get into the details!
The three-piece suit, you asked us a lot for it, since the beginning of our first suits, in 2015.
It took us a while to work on it because we didn't want to offer a formal/solemn piece.
We had to make a costume with a "pleasure" focus , with a fabric that we wanted to wear in several settings, without resorting to improbable patterns or colors.
Besides, the goal with this three-piece suit is that each piece taken separately can constitute a beautiful outfit, whether it is the jacket, the vest or the pants, in order to create numerous combinations.
We imagined an ecru shirt to go with this suit and we are going to present it to you. It is there as a solid neutral base, the difficulty being to propose a fabric that is both very versatile, but with personality. You will see what we chose…
This photo represents the balance we wanted: a contemporary silhouette, with a beautiful fabric, while being relaxed. It's "soft tailoring"! Suit, shirt (launching this Saturday, February 15) and BonneGueule brogues .
Just the jacket for a drink, the vest alone for layering, or the mismatched pants to wear with sneakers: you'll have plenty to do!
There was one staple pattern in the menswear wardrobe that we had never explored: the chalk stripe.
I would also like to warmly thank Ferla, it is the first time that I have seen an Italian draper so open and flexible in the face of our desire to create our "custom" stripe, and without them I don't think we could have had such a result.
A striped fabric specially developed for us
Like our kimono costume , I would like to remind you of Ferla's strong points:
- Creativity that is always tasteful and well-balanced
- An unrivaled sense of texture and mottled effects
- A specialty in baby alpaca .
BonneGueule jacket, denim shirt and turtleneck sweater .
And that's where... the first problem comes in!
Usually Italian suppliers have a very "explanatory" communication. Look at all the contents of Vitale Barberis Canonico, Albini or Candiani.
They quickly understood that the market was demanding explanations, workshop images, and teaching. And the biggest ones invested heavily in this direction .
The only aerial view photo of the workshop! I mainly deduce that Ferla is located in a haven of greenery… #inspectorcolombo (photo credit: Ferla)
On the other hand, at Ferla, none of that.
This is all the more surprising for such an old company, with world-famous archives, which must have a ton of stuff to tell, and whose creativity is unrivaled (I'll come back to this point in a moment).
A glimmer of hope remains: they told us that they would agree to open their doors to our cameras if our collaboration were to become established over the long term... We very much hope to come back with a great video report for next year!
Regardless, let's investigate and see what relevant information we can glean...
A SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS WITH A CENTURY OF EXISTENCE
Ferla employs 40 people, which is very few for an Italian clothier! In fact, when I talk about Ferla to other Italian suppliers to say that I like its creativity, I am always told " yes, but you know, Ferla are artisans, that's why they are so expensive" .
One of the very few interior photos of the factory, with this curious parquet floor. (photo credit: Ferla)
While Italian clothiers are trying to push prices down to remain competitive, Ferla has made the opposite choice, namely to remain very clearly in the high end, with a unique and creative offering.
This is how this very small company has managed to make a place for itself among all the luxury brands .
Here again, a photo without explanation, where the fabric is clearly being washed, and where the machine seems to be very modern. (photo credit: Ferla)
For the record, they only have two French clients: a very large luxury house and… us! Finally, something surprising for an Italian manufacturer: because of their unique know-how, they are quite secretive, and little information circulates about them .
In my opinion, there are three points that make Ferla's positioning unique:
THE FERLA TOUCH #1: A CHARACTERISTIC CREATIVITY 
An inimitable touch! (photo credit: Ferla)They are creative, but it always remains very tasteful and elegant, it does not go in all directions with WTF and unwearable things. In short, they have really specific fabrics, very easily recognizable.
To see for yourself, check out this page from their website , which gives a good overview of the variety of colors and textures they work with.
This color mix is beautiful. (photo credit: Ferla)
THE FERLA TOUCH #2: AN UNPARALLELED SENSE OF TEXTURE
They are all about loop and texture, which gives their fabric a "signature" hand, very difficult to find elsewhere. And believe me, having searched for a long time for equivalents as textured and creative, I know what I'm talking about!
Ferla, given its small size, offers a surprising variety of textures. (photo credit: Ferla)
To achieve this, they do not hesitate to try numerous blends with wool, silk, linen, mohair, alpaca, and when necessary, polyamide to provide strength.
LA TOUCHE FERLA #3: BABY ALPACA SPECIALISTS… BUT NOT ONLY
Tell yourself that these three fabrics are among the most sober that you can find at Ferla. I'll let you imagine the rest! (photo credit: Ferla)
They are specialists in baby alpaca, they have entire fabric collections on this theme. It is a material that is not easy to work with creatively and they always offer super cool designs. Besides, very very few Italian drapers venture into this.
They also use mohair extensively, as they are very fond of these luxurious and fluffy wools.
And here we have much stronger fabrics! (photo credit: Ferla)
Ferla is a bit of a treat for me when I'm at a trade show. I absolutely have to go to their stand (far too small and discreet compared to their added value, you don't stumble upon it by chance) because you'll be amazed by their new fabrics.
A long development to get the perfect chalk stripe
We had a very precise idea of the chalk stripe we wanted, but we definitely didn't want it to look like a "Wall Street financier".
On the contrary, we wanted to relax it completely, while putting our DNA made of textures and mottled materials into it...
But that's a story that Michel has already told you here .
We wanted a fabric that was very rich in mottled and textured.
A BLEND OF BABY ALPACA, COTTON, AND POLYAMIDE
Here is the exact composition, it is the same as that of our two Ferla costumes :
- 38% baby alpaca (origin Peru)
- 33% cotton (origin: USA and spun in Italy)
- 29% polyamide
You are probably wondering why there is almost 30% polyamide: it is to solidify the whole. If there were none, the material would disintegrate too easily, because it is the polyamide that gives structure and robustness.
Can you feel the polyamide when you wear it? Short answer: no.
I wore our Ferla suit quite a bit last year, from fall to spring, and honestly I didn't feel anything bothersome. No excessive sweating or itching, nothing at all.
Polyamide also gives this very slight boucle effect on the fabric.
For the more technical among you, the weight of the material is 290g per linear meter which makes it a perfectly suitable costume for fall, winter, spring, and a slightly cooler summer.
It's a beautiful fabric, whether on a jacket or on pants.
A well-known mixture among us
As I said, I've worn our Prince of Wales suit and our kimono suit quite a bit, this fabric composition is starting to become quite familiar to me.
Looking back, it's like a "+++" flannel, thanks to the alpaca and polyamide which gives this inimitable texture , which I can't find elsewhere.
It is a fabric that I like a lot, because it is very balanced between roughness, robustness and pleasant hand.
A "fake three button" jacket
This is the main feature of this jacket!
To put it simply, it's a jacket with two functional buttons on the front (like the vast majority of suit jackets) but if you look closely, you'll see that a third button is hidden in the "roll" of the lapel (with its buttonhole slightly visible).
A third button is hidden in this photo, can you find it? Jacket, denim shirt, turtleneck sweater BonneGueule.
We can see the buttonhole of the third button, which nicely matches the rolled lapel.
The story of the fake three buttons in 2 minutes flat
The origin of this "feature" is quite obscure...
According to Julien Scavini and Hugo Jacomet, two hypotheses face each other and ultimately complement each other:
1. The “Hollywood” explanation
There was a time when the 3-button blazer reigned supreme. But Hollywood actors, around World War II, got into the habit of not buttoning the top button, probably out of a desire for a certain nonchalance, a spontaneity in the same vein as the Ivy style.
And if you wear a 3-button jacket in "two-button" mode, something will happen.
After a while, the fold of the lapel "descends" little by little towards the second button, and the third button, initially used, begins to be hidden under the lapel, while the buttonhole follows the curve of the lapel very nicely.
It is this effect which is visually very pleasant that we wanted to find.
2. The “student” explanation
In the early 20th century, college students found the 3-button blazer was starting to become unfashionable, but since they couldn't afford a 2-button, they decided to give the lapel a quick iron to transform a stylistically dated 3-button into a trendy 2-button.
As Hugo Jacomet points out, it is curious to see that this fashion was born from a very economic consideration.
This is a point he develops at length in a dedicated article in Parisian Gentleman (in English unfortunately).
A "fake three-button" is quite technical , and its construction is different from a classic 2-button blazer. I warmly invite you to read this article by Julien Scavini where he delves behind the assembly of a fake three-button.
Like all our other blazers, it is semi-lined and has American facings (the outer fabric "returns" to the inside, replacing a lining fabric). BonneGueule jacket, cardigan and neppy pants .
As for us, we chose this construction because we liked this bridge between the three old buttons and the two current buttons, it's a detail that gives a lot of personality to the jacket.
Of course, with a jacket in gray tones, you can easily wear your blue wool pants. Jacket, denim shirt, turtleneck sweater and BonneGueule boots .
A lightweight, lightweight construction…
We were stealing a casual vibe from this jacket, so in addition to adding patch pockets , we wanted a very light construction.
The shoulder is thus flexible, to have a natural line, which definitely distances this jacket from an "armor suit".
As for the chest assembly, it is one of the lightest we have done. We can't really talk about semi-interfacing, because there isn't really any, there is just a very thin iron-on applied to the fabric, the same that would be applied if the jacket were semi-interfacing.
The result?
A soft drape but with structure, just enough to avoid having a jacket that falls like a shirt.
Our very first vest
BonneGueule vest, shirt and pants, released February 15.
It was a piece that we had been asking for for a long time.
And we did something that will give the ayatollahs of sartorialism cold sweats: we put patch pockets on this vest.
It is indeed a patch pocket, but it is very discreet thanks to the well-respected "stripe matching". It is our cardigan with camel wool that is visible.
For what ?
Well, because it's a micro nod to workwear influences, it allows you to relax it and wear it with a casual shirt, like a Japanese fabric shirt for example.
BonneGueule denim shirt , t-shirt , vest, chinos and brogues .
We can make very interesting combinations with a denim shirt for example. Denim shirt , t-shirt , BonneGueule vest.
But that's not all! No back mounted with a lining fabric or tightening tabs, we found that it was too formal, too "ceremonial", while the goal was really to create a piece that can be worn mismatched in a casual outfit.
The back is therefore in the same fabric as the front of the vest:
The back is also in Ferla fabric.
Comfortable carrot-cut pants
This is a cut that you really like with us, because of its ease at the pelvis and thighs .
And with the "soft tailoring" spirit of this suit, it's a perfect silhouette for our pants.
With such a fabric, we thought it would be particularly suitable for making very versatile pants. Yes, its gray base allows it to go with many shades, and the mottled background brings just the right amount of casualness.
As usual, there are tightening tabs on the side, and in terms of fit, it's exactly the same as our kimono suit pants .
The tightening tabs will allow you to finely adjust the size of these pants.
This fabric on these pants looks great, I encourage you to have fun with it in your outfits.
How to wear these pants?
A sweater and a T-shirt for comfort, a pair of boots with a rubber sole, and you have the perfect outfit for a walk on the weekend:
BonneGueule jacket, shirt, pants and boots. BonneGueule jacket, t-shirt, pants and boots .
Here is the same outfit, but where we replaced the boots with sneakers to go further in the casual:
We keep the sneakers and the pants, but we add color with our brown cardigan and a white t-shirt to bring light:
This makes a nice set of textures that coexist together! Cardigan , t-shirt and pants by BonneGueule.
In the efficient genre, you can put on a shirt, a jacket in a nice material and it gives a nice daily outfit:
Here too, this makes three textures which coexist harmoniously:
BonneGueule jacket , shirt, and pants.
Our new ecru shirt
And to go with the suit, we needed a shirt with an ecru background, because we definitely didn't want a purely business shirt.
So we chose this fabric from Kuwaruma, with this universal ecru color, but with irregularity as we like it. The ecru color is particularly well done, it is really the color of the "raw" cotton that you see there.
It's a selvedge fabric, so we have this beautiful visible border:
And it's a mandarin collar, because we want to make sure you're not tempted to wear this shirt with a tie!
The essential size guides
| Europe | US |
|---|---|
| 44 | XS |
| 46 | S |
| 48 | M |
| 50 | L |
| 52 | XL |
| 54 | XXL |
| Measure (in cm) |
has. Shoulder to shoulder |
b. Chest |
c. Sleeve length |
d. Mid back height |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 42.1 | 49.2 | 62 | 70.5 |
| 46 | 43.3 | 51.2 | 63 | 71.5 |
| 48 | 44.4 | 53.2 | 64 | 72.5 |
| 50 | 45.7 | 55.2 | 65 | 73.5 |
| 52 | 46.9 | 57.2 | 66 | 74.5 |
| 54 | 48.1 | 59.2 | 67 | 76.5 |
| 56 | 49.3 | 61.2 | 68 | 76.5 |
| Europe | US |
|---|---|
| 44 | XS |
| 46 | S |
| 48 | M |
| 50 | L |
| 52 | XL |
| 54 | XXL |
| Measure (in cm) |
has. Shoulder to shoulder |
b. Chest |
c. Back length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 34.5 | 45.5 | 57 |
| 46 | 35.5 | 47.5 | 57.5 |
| 48 | 36.5 | 49.5 | 58 |
| 50 | 37.5 | 51.5 | 58.5 |
| 52 | 38.5 | 53.5 | 59 |
| 54 | 39.5 | 55.5 | 59.5 |
| Measure (in cm) |
has. Size |
b. Half thigh |
c. Leg length under belt |
d. Leg opening |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42 | 37 | 30 | 109 | 16.6 |
| 44 | 39 | 31 | 109.5 | 16.8 |
| 46 | 41 | 32 | 110 | 17 |
| 48 | 43 | 33 | 110.5 | 17.2 |
| 50 | 45 | 34 | 111 | 17.4 |
| 52 | 47 | 35 | 111.5 | 17.6 |
| 54 | 49 | 36 | 112 | 17.8 |
How to get our new "complete" suit and the Japanese ecru shirt?
Appointment on our e-shop and also in our stores in Paris 3rd , Paris 6th , Lyon and Bordeaux .
