SUITING FABRICS: BRIGHTER COLOURS ARE BACK

In general, suitings are getting finer and lighter in quality. The shades can be summery light as grey, beige or soft blue, very modern like mid and brighter blues or classical dark. Fresh accents make the designs livelier and more colourful and emphasize the comfortable lightness of the fabrics.

On the other hand, small micro-designs and semi-plains are very fashionable. They can be very elegant and the right choice for different kinds of occasions. For the real luxury and elegant look, superfine wool and silk qualities are still appreciated.

Homer
For the first time, Scabal has added the softness of mink. This luxurious 230 g Super 150’s wool with a twill ground weave offers 34 articles in fancy checks, stripes and semiplains.

Eos
To complete the suit innovations, Scabal has developed the Eos ‘Box Collection’
- the season’s exclusive luxury line. Blended with silk, this ultra-soft Super 180’s offers 16 articles in light fancy stripes of grey, light blue and beige, and a classic range of radiant mid and dark blues.

Caravelle
regular travellers will certainly appreciate this new lightweight, low-crease, wool and micro-fibre cloth. It is a 240 g performance quality offering plains and stripes in classic shades.

Heroic
It is back to basics with this 280 g revival from the 1960’s when Scabal brought out its first-ever Super 100’s. No special finishes, no new effects, just a plain good quality. The design of the 57 articles is more colourful too, with fancy checks, and strongly contrasting stripes in red, blue, yellow and dark brown, and a range of semiplains.

Mirage
This Super 130’s quality has now been upgraded to a Super 140’s and at 210 grams, it is even lighter then before. A high performing summer fabric with a plainweave construction in 31 articles, predominately beiges, greys and light blues.

JACKETING FABRICS

For the new Spring-Summer 2011 season, designs are getting more colourful and have more contrast. Lively fresh large window-pane or glenchecks are the must haves for this season.

Also important for jackets as well as for trousers and suits are pure linen qualities. Because of its unique cool touch, it is always the right choice for the hot sunny days. Scabal offers with “Pure Linen” a complete new collection of this comfortable quality.

Mosaic
This collection contains three qualities – Super 130’s, Super 100’s and cool wool – offering a brighter, fresher and more colourful look. As the name implies, this line is all about fancy windowpane, vichy and glen checks, with high-contrast whiteblue and black-blue designs.

St. Tropez
A casual linen and cotton jacket range. The design is relaxed, with strong windowpane and vichy checks in a wide range of fancy shades, including pink and green. St. Tropez offers a range of different qualities mixing linen, denim, cotton, wool, silk and cashmere. Double-faced fabrics make it ideal for relaxed soft jackets.

COLOURS & CUTS

The Scabal Spring-Summer 2011 collection is inspired by three colour themes. Each one carries the selected palette through a range of suit or jacket designs with their complementary shirts and accessories.

Grey, blue and beige
The theme with the widest appeal is undoubtedly the classy grey-sky blue and greybeige selection. It immediately takes you in two distinct directions – business and casual. The business route is based solidly on wool suits in greys and blues, as classical as the mixed British summer sky. This is strong Scabal territory – timeless and elegant, in plains, stripes and checks. The informal direction leads to jackets, with a wider choice of materials such as linens and cottons. Checks predominate on ground shades of grey and blue, splashed with fresh whites and beiges. Soft jackets appear throughout the 2011 collections after a successful first season – due in part to Scabal’s ability to personalize its attractive giacca camicia garments with a wide range of options, including contrasting undercollar, elbow patch and buttonhole features.

Pink and sky blue
The second theme is a fresh, summery pink and sky-blue palette. More vibrant, more casual, the collection features jackets, soft jackets, shirts, ties, knitwear and scarves.

Playing with orange
Scabal’s third direction is a semi-casual beige and dark brown theme. The main topic is mixing orange with suit and jacket ground shades of brown and beige, producing a warm, comfortable feel with splashes of intensity. Both of these colour themes present double-faced designs for bomber-style jackets, accentuating the relaxed credentials of Scabal’s new summer collections.

Staying slim
“Last summer, the British was back and it looks like they’re here to stay for a while” muses Olivier Vander Slock, Sales & Product Director at Scabal, on the styles we will see in 2011. “But although the British style is classic, traditional, rather formal, our collections radiate summer colours and freshness.” The slim look stays with us, with short jackets and unpleated trousers. “The slim look will be nicely presented again this year by the false three-button jacket,” affirms Olivier. “The wearer has three buttons but displays only two, thanks to the rolling lapel that covers the top button and gives a firm line down towards the waist – accentuating the slim, elegant look.”

The ideal jacket? A personalised jacket
The best jacket is always the one in which you feel comfortable and which gives you an elegant look. Even if current fashion supports adjusted shoulders, care should always be taken that the shoulders are not too narrow nor broad. Here, made-tomeasure is important because it can correct any problems with fitting shoulders. Also, the bottom button must always remain open! In addition to being more elegant, this emphasizes the clothing’s proportions.

With or without?
A tie refines the look, especially when matched with a good pocket handkerchief. However, care must be taken to choose the correct width of tie, which should follow the same rules that apply to the jacket’s lapel. In general, the width of lapels and ties are narrow. The standard width of a tie is 7,5cm at its base point, whereas ten years ago, it was 9,5cm.