Paul Smith reissue shirt - the review

Well, my reissue shirt arrived yesterday, and I’ve now had a good chance to look it over and can venture some opinion on how it looks, and it’s not entirely positive I’m afraid.

I had high hopes for the shirt, and to be honest I’ve been left a little disappointed. If someone knew the exact cut and details of the shirt, it would be Paul Smith, but sadly they seemed to have missed a trick here.

Now, it’s slightly difficult to do a true like-for-like comparison, as to my knowledge no-one ever found a perfect, as screen-used shirt. Several flavours of the Scroll Striped shirt surfaced, each showing one or more of the key style features, but not all of them. I am therefore going to do a side-by-side with appropriate shirts as needed, as well a reference images from the broadcast episodes. The reissue shirt is always shown on the LEFT.

FABRIC

At first glance the shirt is made from the right stuff, with the correct design, but again, looking closely and putting it side-by-side with an original release shirt, it is not quite right.

The fabric used is much whiter, where first time round it was a more natural Colour with a sight yellow cast to it (see left).

The printed pattern is now much sharper and the scroll lines are thinner than before.
The distressing on the lines also appears to be slightly different, which is curious. It is almost like a redrawn copy rather than the original artwork reprinted.

BREAST POCKET

This is the easy one - the JohnAnthony shirt was the only version seen with a breast pocket, and the reissue shirt correctly does not have one.

CUFFS AND PLACKET

At first glance the cuffs are great, with the stripes, but once you start looking a bit deeper, things are a bit amiss here.

The cuff is a good 15mm narrower than my Mobi shirt (see above) and as a result means only four stripes are visible (though my blue shirt would have had five, if the fabric had been placed better!).

Matt’s shirt clearly showed five full stripes (see left).
Also, if you look very closely, the buttonhole in the placket is red rather than white, but more on that later.

While we are here, also note that only one of the cuff buttons is done up. Now I thought this was down to The Doctor’s haste in getting dressed, but I have noticed that in Flesh and Stone he wears the shirt in the same way (see right).

Could this be a little quirk matt introduced to make how he wears it unique?

BUTTONSTAND

The buttonstand is an odd one here. The screen used shirt has a single line of stitch on either side of the stand, a few mm from the edge – here we have two parallel lines, firmly holding the edge down.

It is also not an accurate three columns of scrolls wide (see left).

BACK TAILORING

The shirt Matt Smith wears is one of the tailored fitted versions. That is to say there are two darts either side of the back and the pleat running the height of the centre back is sewn top to bottom. This pulls the shirt in by a good 4 inches.

The reissued shirt has the darts, but the back pleat, like the buttonstand, is sewn so it ain’t going anywhere, with two parallel lines of stitch at the pleat’s edge (see right), making it into almost a surface sewn strip of fabric, like a faux pleat!

COLLAR

The collar on the reissue shirt is some 5mm shorter at the collar point compared to an original (see left).

The collar stand is also noticeably shorter.

PAUL SMITH DETAILING

There are a number of tiny design points that are often included in a genuine Paul Smith shirt, and the screen-worn shirts show a number of these.

Ribbon Loop
On the back of the collar stand is a 2 inch loop of crimson ribbon (see above, right). this is sewn with red thread, and shows through to the inside of the collar.
This is totally missing in the reissue shirt.

Hanging Loop
The original shirt included a detail often seen in shirts: a small loop sewn into the centre of the yolk back, at the top of the pleat (see above, right). The reissue shirt simple does not have this (see above, left).

Red Button Hole
Some Paul Smith shirts have the button hole on the right placket sewn in red, rather than white (see screen grabs with Cuffs And Plackets, above).

Embroidered PS Motif
As an alternative to the red buttonhole, some Paul Smith PS shirts have a red PS motif sewn on top of the right placket (see above, left & centre) or a bar of red embroidery on the bottom hem (see above, right).

EXHIBITION SHIRT

Interestingly, someone has sent me some images from the official exhibition display at Newcastle of the Matt Smith costume, and the shirt on display is a little surprising (see left).

Displayed under the tweed jacket, it mainly obscured, but what is visible of the shirt is a bit odd.

The cuffs do not match each other! (see below)

The lines of scrolls between the stripes are clearly a burgundy colour, not black as they should be; plus they are spaced from the stripes, where they should clash and be slightly covered by the stripes.

If you look closely, the stitching on the cuffs are not consistent: the leading edge has its line of top-stitch in a different position, as well as the width of the stripe on the edge being a different width.

Looking around the bow tie (see left), it is possible to see that the scroll lines do not show any of the distressing on the Paul Smith shirts – the lines are unbroken and clean.
Those aren’t Paul Smith buttons either.

Could this be a cheap copy? On display as screen-worn?????

Discuss. . . . 

Paul Smith shirt - BACK IN STOCK!!!!!

This week is one of the few times dreams come true for Doctor Who cosplayers!

The much demanded and anticipated Paul Smith ‘scroll stripe’ shirt worn by Matt Smith in series five is now finally back in stock, having been brought back by popular demand.

Paul Smith Shirt | ‘Scroll Stripe’ Shirt

Now, word is this is a very limited run, and will only be in stock literally, while stocks last!

So if you want one – grab one quick.

The webpage is accompanied by some great pictures of the shirt, and to preserve them when stocks are expired, I have included them here, at their full resolution (click on the pics to enlarge).

The shirt includes pretty much ALL the design details demanded: the buttonstand is three columns wide, with the buttons visible (see below); there is no breast pocket, as some found shirts had (see above).

The cuffs are striped, with two buttons on the cuff, though strangely there are three buttons in the placket, not one as screen-used.

The back is tailored (see below) as was the one Matt Smith wore, in the same way as the shirts that were available from JohnAnthony.com.

The photos do not show the red embroidered PS motif on the placket of the right-hand sleeve, but this may be a prototype and it possibly appears on the sale shirts.

The only sad news is that there will be no blue colourway to accompany this burgundy version.

Still, best not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Instead we should all offer a MASSIVE thank you to everyone at Paul Smith who made this happen – they have made a lot of Doctor Who fans very happy!

Paul Smith is cool!!!

Paul Smith PS shirt - reissued!

Great news has finally been confirmed for those wanting a Paul Smith PS shirt identical to the one worn by the Eleventh Doctor.

Paul Smith announced this week that the shirt has been brought back by popular demand and will be available via their Internet store and in the Floral Street branch in London's Covent Garden.

There had been number of versions of the shirt discovered over the past year, none of which were 100% right. Some had the right fitting, but lacked the striped cuffs; others had the cuffs, but had concealed buttonstands; and another had the right butonstand, fitting and style, but had French style double cuffs, though striped.

There has been a photograph issued of the shirt, and it looks perfect in every regard. It has the right cuffs; visible buttons; looks to be a tailored fit; and does not have a breast pocket, that appeared on a couple of the version of the shirts found.

The shirt will be on sale from mid October 2010, and it is not known how long they will be available for, or what quantities have been made, but it has been described as Limited Edition – so grab one quick when you get the chance.
The shirts are to be priced at £119.

To find it quicker, the shirt has the item code PCXD/164H/WHO-P, and it should be findable with that code.

I will post a direct link to the shirt once it appears online.

Other news about the reissued shirt
can be read at TARDIS Newsroom
and Sabotage Times

All change!

I’m not referring to the Number 11 bus – but the Number Eleven Doctor!

The new series of Matt Smith episodes is currently in production, and some on location pictures have emerged, showing The Doctor’s NEW costume!

Some pictures were knocking around when the Christmas special was being lensed, but they were quite distant and not top quality. These new ones, however, have been taken by paparazzi and so are much higher res and show a lot more detail.

What they do show are the complete change of costume assembled for the new series. Now, it doesn’t at first glance look that different, but like the season 19 vs season 21 Fifth Doctor chance, it is a revisiting of the constituent parts.

So, what’s changed?



JACKET
It’s still a tweed, but it doesn’t take much to notice it is a different pattern of fabric with a much bolder checked pattern. What you might not notice at first glance is it is a three-button closure, rather than a two-button like before (see right).
The elbow patches are basically the same!

SHIRT

It’s no longer a Paul Smith shirt, and appears to be a white shirt with a pale coloured grid or gingham check. The cuffs are distinctive for a 45 ˚ chamfered corner (see above).

BOOTS
The All Saints boots are out, and some look-a-likes are in. They can be distinguished by the stitched arch across the brow of the boot (see right).

TROUSERS

These look very similar to the TopMan ones previously worn, but are of a more waxy finish and have distinctive deep back pockets (see left).

ACCESSORIES
Matt appears to be wearing the same braces as before, and a similar bow tie (bow ties are cool, btw) but it does seem to be a shade bigger than before.

11 shirt - pattern cutting

A couple of months back I started work on producing a replica Matt Smith shirt.
To make it work I need to pull two aspects of the shirt together before I can make my first one.

Firstly, I needed to match the squiggly pattern design, which I have now done (see left), as well as the stripes for the cuffs.
You can read about that under Pattern Repeat and Screen-accurate Cuffs.

The other thing I need to do is sort out the pattern for the shirt itself.

Although I have a couple of Paul Smith shirts, each to a differing fit, my plan is to make a shirt that is much more of a classic size, rather than the over-tailored tight fit of the Paul Smith originals.

But instead of pattern trace my shirts, I am going to use a commercial pattern by Burba (see right) as a starting point.

It is a fairly straight forward shirt pattern with a number of permutations of style, but I will be making my own adaptions based on what I have learnt on my recent college course, as well as how the real Paul Smith shirts are cut.

I also have a cunning plan to make the cutting of the shirts a lot easier in the long term. I was originally going to have the fabric printed, then cut it out to my adapted pattern.
However, I have realized I need to make quite a few changes, so my plan is to make all those changes in a digital format, then directly apply the pattern shapes to the printed fabric itself.

First thing I need to do is scan the entire Burba pattern, which I have to do in A4 bits and patch together (see left).
To aid matching up, I spray-mounted it onto dot and cross paper first, giving me alignment reference. This also made it more robust for scanning.

I will not be using all the pieces. For example the collar comes in three styles (see on the left edge of the image), but none of them are to the right shape. This I will crib directly from my Paul Smith shirts.

I then retouched to remove the background paper colour so it was easier to trace in Illustrator (see above).

The pattern contains a range of sizings, from S to XXL, all of which are superimposed on top of each other. You can see this in the sleeve shape.

To start with I will trace the L size and make sure the pattern works. Adapting it for the other sizes will then be a very simple job.


Anyway, after tracing just the pattern pieces I need, and making the necessary adjustments and adaptions along the way, I can then impose them together.
I need to remember to duplicate and flip certain pieces, such as the sleeves, and mirror others such as the back, only half of which comes in the pattern.

The outlines are then transfered into Photoshop and used as a mask to outline the shapes I need (see left).

I have filled the spaces available on this first run with spare sleeve plackets.

Due to a size limit on files for Spoonflower, I had to break the pattern across two sheets: one with the body of the shirt and the collar (see above); the other with the sleeves and cuffs (see below).

As a back-up insurance policy, I also made up a single yard of plain pattern repeat, in case part of my design does not work as intended. I can then redesign it and cut it from the spare fabric before feeding the revisions back to my master pattern.

It’s then just a matter of placing the order and waiting for the fabric to arrive.

Well, all that was a few weeks back and this weekend the package arrived (see below).
A quick inspection and everything looks to have worked just as I planned. All I need to do now is cut it out, and make up my first working prototype.

Very exciting stuff!

The Third Way

After everyones excitement of find the Paul Smith PS shirts last year in burgundy and blue; then the discovery of another shirt in blue, but with more screen-accurate cuff; there now comes yet another variation!!

This time it has cuffs with stripes, but these cuffs are french-style cuffs, intended for use with cuff links, though there does appear to be a button to do them up with as well (see below, left).

Paul Smith shirts often like to have little hidden details that only the wearer knows about and can see. The striped fabric is on the inside of the french-cuffs, and when worn conventionally cannot be seen (see above, left).

They could be folded inside out to display the stripes, though it would make them a bit bulky.

Thanks go to Ryan for sending me the pictures and sharing with us his amazing find.
Well done Ryan!!!
(And well done for wearing your watch face down.)

11 shirt - Screen accurate cuff modifications

As the broadcast of the first Matt Smith episode drew nearer, we started to get more publicity images of Matt in costume.

The only image til now that showed the cuffs on the burgundy shirt had the jacket over the top, so it was only possible to see the edge of the cuff and two stripes burgundy around it (see right). At this point it was thought that the sleeve straps had been butchered and adapted to modify the cuffs, which at the time made sense.

Later, through a reader of my blog, I found another variant of the shirt in the blue, which appeared to have a lot of the modifications needed already done – and the cuffs were pre-striped into the bargain.

The stripes, however, covered all of the cuff, not just a couple around the edge (see left).

This had caused a flurry in the forums, as it started to look like I had acquired a more likely Paul Smith shirt compared to what had been found to date.

A clue to confirm this then appeared a few weeks later in the 3-D trailer, where it was very briefly possible to see that the blue shirt had more than just a couple of stripes on it (see below).

My new shirt was looking more and more like the real thing. But we still had not seen all of the cuffs on the burgundy shirt. Could this be fully striped too, like my blue shirt?

Then finally, as the broadcast of the series drew even closer still, one particular image published in The Sunday Telegraph Magazine caught my attention (see left). It shows Matt wearing the shirt, but without the tweed jacket, so for the first time we got to clearly see the cuffs, and yes, they were just like the blue shirt I had!

There was then some criticism of those who had done the sleeve strap modification, saying it was all wrong – which in truth it was. However, the straps are not that long, and even when pressed out fully, they only gave enough fabric to add two stripes around the cuffs. It would never have been possible to add stripes to the entire cuff using this method.

This calls for a plan B.

So, I have a fully striped cuff in the form of my blue shirt, and I have already scanned and found the pattern repeat of the shirt body, so all I need to do is the same for the cuff. Spoonflower will do the rest (bar the sewing!)

It’s not quite possible to flatten the entire cuff out to scan it, but I can get most of it in there (see right).
Despite what you might think, scanning fabric never gives an accurate colour result, plus the weave shows through the image, so this will need to be retouched out. The process of doing this will change the colour further, so I am not even trying to retain the colour that is there – at this stage I am just after the design and shapes that make the pattern.

What I am aiming for is a mono artwork, which I can then colour match to the burgundy and the blue as needed (see above).

One annoying quirk of the Paul Smith design is that for some reason the squiggles between the stripes on the straps and cuffs are actually a much darker colour, almost black, so I need to mask these off and colour them separately.
It’s a bit time consuming, but worth the effort.

Next I need to pattern trace the blue cuff so I have a template for the artwork. This way I can make sure I have enough length of stripes to cover the cuff.

Finally I can colourize the mono artwork to the burgundy and blue (see left).

The cuff’s buttonholes complicate things somewhat, so the plan is to not bother even trying to retain the existing cuffs – I will instead create and entirely new replacement cuff which I will swap for the existing one.

My artwork done, it’s now just remains to order the Spoonflower fabric (see below) and wait for it to arrive.

Check back soon to see how my new cuffs look once the fabric arrives.

If you have one of the standard Paul Smith shirts and would like to have your cuffs replaced with more screen-accurate ones, please get in touch with me for a details.

Email me at tennantcoat@me.com.

Paul Smith modifications - a review

As the proud owner of one of Steve Ricks’ famous Tennant Coats, it was only a matter of time and money before I commissioned him again. This time though, it was the Matt Smith look I was working on.

A bit of background: when those pictures were published of that Southerndown beach shoot in July last year, a lot was made of the tweed and bow tie. However, for me, the two most striking elements of the costume were the boots (oh those elusive All Saints...) and the shirt; such a strange but stylish pattern, when combined with the bow tie and tweed gives a strangely modern but retro look at the same time. In fact, when I first snapped eyes on the shirt I thought ‘old-man’s shirt’ - kind of knackered, charity shop style. It wasn't until you venture up close and see that design that you realise there is more than meets the eye.

My good friends on Gallifrey Base went into costume over drive and we soon worked out the various brands: All Saints boots, Topman trousers, Harris Tweed jacket and... a Paul Smith shirt. Yes PS by Paul Smith to be precise, but I was surprised.

I checked out the John Anthony website and they were selling the burgundy shirt, but only had S, M and XXL. Now if I knew what I know now about the sizing, I would've snapped up the XXL there and then, however I decided that at £55, I wanted a good fit. So I noticed an alternate colour, navy blue and grabbed an XL and was disappointed to find it was very very snug. Now I don’t consider myself a particularly large chap, but I was making this thing bulge out in a not too attractive manner! So, in the wardrobe it went for a while.

When subsequent filming shots of Matt Smith were released from Croatia (I think), he was sporting that navy shirt (he had been in burgundy up until then). I was immediately fired up to get this shirt of mine wearable. Enter Steven Ricks.

So impressed was I by his customer service and top quality work, I asked him whether he could mod my blue shirt in the MS style - the factory shirts come with little blue sleeve straps to tie the rolled sleeves back. These are removed and stitched onto the edge of the cuff to create a distinctive finish. Also, the buttons are covered by fabric on the PS shirt but not on the Doctor’s.

Steve told me to send the shirt to him so he could examine the pattern so he could prepare a reproduction and while it was in his possession, he would perform the mods. Not only that, but he said that he could also provide me with more breathing space by letting it out at the back.

When the shirt returned to me a few weeks later, it was as you will see it on screen. Finished beautifully, the cuffs are brilliant now and the buttons are visible (on a button stand I believe - am not particularly well versed in tailoring parlance). But this is the clincher - it fits like an XL now. God knows what kind of sizing Paul Smith were using for the factory shirts - I nearly went for a Large, which is what I am in a Marks & Spencer type shirt. All this for a very reasonable price.

Steve Ricks: The man is versatile, thoughtful, very amiable and communicative and above all, his final product is so worth investing in. I can now wear this shirt day to day and not worry about breathing in the whole time. Money well spent.

All I need to do now is find those damn boots...