rembrandt.co.nz
EDITION FIVE
AUTUMN WINTER 2016
CELEBRATING
YEARS OF SARTORIAL EXCELLENCE
70 years of sartorial excellence adds up.
Over 1.8 million Over 1,100
suits made
staff employed since 1946
Over $50 million Over 5.6 million
paid in wages
metres of cloth crafted into suits
1 tailoring factory
remains proudly owned and operated in New Zealand
Climate change. When the weather cools, add extra layers to keep winter at arm’s length.
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Purchase 3 shirts receive $100 off
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7 Purchase 2 suits receive $300 off
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1. Winton carcoat $499 BP9899 2. Silk tie $99 TIE31855 3. Gresham suit $999 BP6085 4. Sinatra shirt $149 SC5385 5. Monk belt $89 BLT0859
Style Counsel Winter fashion is all about combining textures; soft flannel contrasts the smooth satin-weave tie, both are balanced by the crisp cotton shirt.
6. Churchill waistcoat $289 BP6085 7. Punched toe Derby $375 SHO1659
Picco suit BP6375
Brosnan shirt SC2301
Linen pocket square PSQ10379
Italian silk tie TIE30345
Suiting your body type. We’re here to help you accentuate the positive.
HEAVY-SET HARVEY
SLIM JIM
AVERAGE JOE
Shoulders slightly broader than hips Small chest
Hips and shoulders are a similar width
Pronounced waist in comparison to rest of body Overall rounder body shape
Slender ‘up and down’ frame
Common problems: • Baggy poor-fitting suit
Common problems: • Limited shops and garment options available to you • Want the appearance of a slimmer waist • Suit fits one part of the body but not others
Common problems: • Most of the time you’ve got it easy. See ‘The Long and the Short of it’ if you’re taller or shorter than the Average Joe
Our solutions: • Select the best sized jacket and trouser combination from our extensive suit separates collection • Jacket chest sizes start at 88cm and trouser waist at 76cm • Our ‘Narrow’ fit jackets and trousers are for you
Our solutions: • Select the best sized jacket and trouser combination from our extensive suit separates collection • Jacket chest sizes go up to size 156cm and trouser waist to 144cm • Our ‘Regular’ and ‘Classic’ fit jackets and trousers are for you
Our solutions: • Select from our full collection of suits and suit separates. • Our ‘Narrow’ and ‘Slim’ fit jackets and trousers are for you
Alterations: • We can narrow the waist of your jacket further to provide more shape • The waist, thigh and calf of your trousers can be narrowed for a better fit
Alterations: • Once the jacket is fitting correctly in the abdomen, we can narrow the shoulder to fit
Alterations: • Although your body type might be the easiest to fit, some small alterations may be required
Tips and tricks: • Layering can give the impression of more volume; add knitwear or a waistcoat between your shirt and jacket • A double breasted jacket can add shape to your silhouette • Pleated trousers create fullness • Avoid overly skinny trousers to disguise chicken legs
Tips and tricks: • A great fitting suit can make you appear slimmer • Draw the eye to bright accessories such as pocket squares and lapel pins
Tips and tricks: • Take advantage of the extensive range of fabrics and colours readily available to you • Don’t be tempted to dress like everybody else just because you can. Find your unique style and wear it proudly
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MUSCLE MAN
Broad shoulders and chest
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT
Large biceps
Slim waist
Large quads, calves and buttocks
Common problems: • Shoulder fits but the waist is left baggy and untidy • Tight around thighs, calves and buttocks Our solutions: • Select the best sized jacket and trouser combination from our extensive suit separates collection, concentrating on fitting your shoulders and chest correctly • Our ‘Regular’ fit jackets are for you • For your trouser, focus on fitting the thigh and buttocks first
Your height also comes into play when trying to find the perfect fitting suit. Here are a few additional tips. SHORT
TALL
Our solutions: • Ready-to-wear suits available in short fittings for men from 160cm (5’3ft) • We can hem your trousers to your required length and slim the leg • Our short fitting jackets are 3cm shorter in both body and sleeve
Our solutions: • Ready-to-wear suits and shirts available in tall fittings for men up to 205cm (6’8 ft) • Our tall fitting jackets are 3cm longer in both body and sleeve • Our tall fitting shirts are 5cm longer in both body and sleeve • Our extra long trouser can easily be hemmed to the required length
Tips and tricks: • Even if you’re only a little shorter than the Average Joe, a short fitting suit may well be the perfect solution for you • Wear socks the same colour as your trousers to visually lengthen the leg • Try wearing a hat, it will add height and draw people’s attention up higher • Vertical stripes really work; they trick the eye into seeing a longer torso
Tips and tricks: • Wear shoes with slim soles to play down your height
Alterations: • We can take in the jacket waist to fit correctly • We can alter the waist and leg of the trouser as required Tips and tricks: • Your body type is often the most challenging to fit correctly, we’re here to help • Wearing shoes with more bulk can prevent you looking too top heavy
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Sheen jacket BQ1679
Thurston shirt SC4375
Churchill waistcoat BP8675
Linen pocket square PSQ10379
SHOWCASING
Sheen
Natural shoulder line
Unlined construction 3D knitted stretch fabric
Patch pockets
A new breed of soft tailoring focuses on light, unlined garments with a natural shoulder line. These garments break new ground whilst honouring the conventions of traditional tailoring. Sheen exemplifies this new direction.
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Style Counsel A soft tailored jacket can be the go-to item in your wardrobe; it can dress up chinos and a button-down shirt, or it can relax a formal shirt and tie.
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1. Italian silk tie $99 TIE29447
Style Counsel A waistcoat doesn’t just have to be part of a three-piece suit; combined with a separate jacket and trousers, a waistcoat adds visual interest. And they’re cool to wear.
2. Webber jacket $549 BP7818
3. Italian socks $29
SOC2614
4. Italian double monk $399 SHO1759
5. Burrell trouser $279
BP7818
6. Santiago shirt $129
SX0210
7. Churchill waistcoat $249 BP7818
8. Monk belt $89 BLT0859
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The Anglophile. Traditional English fabric designs are revitalised by our Italian cloth mills.
The same cloth. Contributing writer Michael Whittaker muses on the similarities between jazz musicians and tailors. The jazz joint was furnished with low lights, candycoloured bottles and an elbow scarred counter top. Tonight, there was that something in the air that makes a man walk the streets, searching for a place like this. A place both old-school and vanguard. A place where the music snatches up the past, rearranges it, and throws it into the future. A jazz house. A man walks into centre stage. The band forms behind him. Someone trims the bar lights, and a bare bulb above his head opens: revealing a face etched in stories. He looks back at the audience with silky eyes, awaiting the last double-cough that precedes their silence. He’s at home, in the jazz house. He bends over and unclasps his instrument’s case. He begins separating his trumpet from the felt. Light flashes along the Selmer’s surfaces as he connects its neck to its body. He attaches a fresh reed. All in silence, in ritual assembly. He stands, straightens his cuffs. Blinded in light, he can’t really see the audience, but he feels them there. Their
unseen eyes make his hairs stand on end. He’s got ten thousand hours of sweat behind him, and he’s about to fight to make it all worth it.
If you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know. - Louis Armstrong
The man’s grandfather had told him: ‘Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.’ And he’d come to see the truth of those words with his own eyes: men with songs suffocating inside them, living in regret. You had to fight with everything you had to even hear that song over modern life’s noise. Then you had to work even harder to make the world listen.
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This man had found his song though. He’d practiced until the horn became his third lung. Until his music expressed everything his words could not. He’d fused with its sound. He’d paid his dues, playing thousands of nights in hundreds of haunts. Then one day he was called upon, and he stepped under that bulb and he became part of history. Part of a tradition of innovation and tribute, called jazz. But call it whatever you like. Louis Armstrong said ‘if you have to ask what jazz is, you’ll never know.’ The man just wanted to express everything that was locked inside of him, everything that needed to be set free. To get that song from inside to outside, he had to demand an exactness from himself. And when that happened, when he began to play, his story crossed the stage and awoke something within the audience. Something that made the very hairs on their necks, backs and arms stand up cold. They were outside of time. They were in the presence of a jazz musician. ***
As a young man I travelled to Italy, to see the great cathedrals, but found a new religion in its streets. Tailoring. The trip was paid for with inheritance money. My late grandfather had left me a piece of advice: whatever you do with your life, do it with artistry and love. The rest, he said, would take care of itself. I found myself at an out-of-the-way tailor in Milan. Jazz music was playing from a Casio cassette radio. Eventually, the elderly Sarto came out. He’d sensed something about me, noticing the way I studied everything. The way I took no detail for granted. In my broken Italian, I asked what the life of a tailor was like. He thought about this, and in English, he replied, ‘You must have a hunger for perfection. You must have a thirst to learn a language of beauty and balance. The language of cloth. You must teach yourself to work harder than anyone else. And if you do these things, you will have the chance to enrich men’s lives. You will be a tailor.’
I am now a tailor. Every day I speak the language of cloth. Every day, jazz music plays from a Casio cassette radio in my workroom.
are balanced by absolute technique. I am devoted to tradition, but these suits stand out. I pay tribute to the past, but I have to innovate. I am a tailor. ***
The suit is both a necessity and a reward. The suit is modern armour.
I cloak my customers in suits of powerful beauty. A hard-working mind is one thing. A hard-working mind in a masterfully constructed suit is another. That suit helps to give a man the purpose required to succeed. The suit is both a necessity and a reward. The suit is modern armour. I craft my customers a second skin, perfected through my long years of training, late nights and early mornings of trial and error. Inside and out, these suits
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I watch my brother do what he was made to do and play that trumpet in the arena of his art. We are cut from the same cloth.
Michael Whittaker is an international fashion model, and the face of this season’s campaign. He sidelines as an academic and writer, his work has appeared in publications such as i.D and The New York Times. His writing partner is Thom Shackleford, a business graduate currently going through a quarter-life crisis. To work through this, he now studies English Lit and does freelance writing. The pair are currently working on a play to be performed later in the year.
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1. Cusak jacket $399
BQ5479
2. Italian reversible pocket square $69 PSQ12375
3. Brown derby $375 SHO2155
Style Counsel Making the simple complicated is common place; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
4. Monk belt $89
BLT0959
5. Brosnan shirt $229
SC1779
6. Italian socks $29 SOC1879
7. Washed Beck trouser $199 BQ2700
- Charles Mingus
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Step it up. A little effort goes a long way.
The non-suit, Rembrandt’s late-60’s ta smart-casual.
1946: A small tailoring workshop at 135 Vivian St, Wellington. The start of our journey.
CELEBRATING
1946
1956
1966
YEARS OF SARTORIAL EXCELLENCE
Slim lapels, slim ties and a crisp white pocket square. Pure Mad Men style.
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Classic pieces worn well; proof that the 70’s and 80’s fashion wasn’t all bad.
1976
ake on
A double-breasted duo from the 90’s.
1986
Never underestimate the power of a great suit.
In hindsight: what were we thinking?
1996
2006
2016: Rembrandt exemplifies modern tailoring.
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2016
Here comes the Groom. The wedding of Jeff & Jess. The thought of a wedding often conjures up images of white gowns with flowing trains, beautiful Bridesmaids and colourful flowers. These things are important but it’s missing a key ingredient to support the multi-tiered wedding cake of success... The suits. They are the pillars. The suit arms the Groom with confidence as he stands in unity with his fellow suited brothers, whilst displaying a stunning contrast against the white or ivory dress worn by the woman with whom he vows to spend the rest of his life.
Jeff Hunkin is a perfect example of the many Grooms who come to us requiring suits, shirts and accessories for their upcoming wedding but are not quite sure where to begin. This common scenario gave us the idea to create a video to demystify the process of dressing the Groom and Groomsmen. We want to show grooms how easy it is to get involved in their wedding attire and treat it as an excuse to have a few laughs with your close mates.
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View Video rembrandt.co.nz/herecomesthegroom
THE BIG
Decisions Made to Measure for the Groom. Nothing fits better than a made to measure suit, so it’s a natural choice for your wedding. Jeff selected a vibrant blue merino cloth, woven in Italy. We crafted Jeff’s suit to his unique body shape and measurements in our Wellington factory. He opted for a two button, notch lapel suit with flat front trousers. Made to measure suit prices start from $1495. Suit hire for the Groomsmen. The contoured cut of our hire jackets and the adjustable trouser waistband accommodates all shapes, and so regardless of how much wedding cake you tuck into, you’ll still have room to move. Jeff’s four Groomsmen wore navy notch lapel suits with Jeff holding the limelight in his more vibrant shade.
Ready-to-wear shirts. White dress, white shirts. Ivory dress, ivory shirts. A simple rule of thumb to follow if you’re not sure where to start. Jeff and his Groomsmen wore shirts of the same white fabric with Jeff’s being a slightly slimmer fit with a French cuff. Finishing touches. Jeff wore the same polka dot pocket square as his Groomsmen but in an alternate colourway. The subtle difference shows who’s who without too much fuss. Brown leather Oxford shoes and matching brown belt complemented the blue suiting. To let the suit and pocket square do the talking, plain navy silk ties complete the look.
Santiago shirt $129 SY1001
Italian reversible pocket square $69 PSQ12070
Silk tie $69 TIE6279
Monk belt $89 BLT0859
Made to Measure suit
Style Counsel On the wedding day, get everything prepared early but get dressed as late as possible to avoid putting creases in your suit and shirt while waiting around.
Punched toe Derby $375 SHO1659
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Winter wear. From Wayward Heir.
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Purchase 3 shirts receive $100 off
1. Rimini jacket $499 BQ02475 2. One-of-a-kind wool bow tie $69 BWT0000 3. Brooklyn shirt $129 SD1300 4. Punk trouser $199 BC2399 5. Vintage pocket square $49 PSQASS01
Style Counsel Mixing new pieces with op-shop finds is the perfect way to express your individuality. Here we’ve taken vintage fabrics and used them to create brand new, one-of-a-kind pieces – it’s the best of both worlds.
Rembrandt cutting room team - 1968
Sydney l Auckland l Christchurch l Dunedin l Palmerston North rembrandt.co.nz
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