The Cloakroom

We have been saddened this week to have to close our Brisbane store due to damage from a fire.

The shop itself has not been signicantly damaged, but we have had to re-order all our ready to wear stock and client orders as they have been affected by smoke and soot.

We appreciate your patience as we spend the next few days emptying the shop and cleaning all the ash and dust.

We hope to be open again by this Friday Oct 14th. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and messages of support during this difficult time, it is very much appreciated.

Something we seem to be receiving more of are requests for dinner or tuxedo suits.  Whether for a wedding or a black tie function a well cut tuxedo is a great one to have in the arsenal.

You may only get to wear it half a dozen times a year, but a classically styled design should see you through for 10 yrs+.

Currently our house style of Tuxedo is a 1 button peaked lapel which is edged with a contrast wool or silk trim around the lapel and on the pocket jetting.

This one on the mannequin is finished with a Le Noeud Papillon bow and a Cloakroom tuxedo shirt with hand-folded pleats running horizontally, not vertical.

It’s a busy month for Australian league star Darren Lockyer. This Saturday is his very last home & away game (before the finals), and on Monday he launched his autobigraphy. To coincide with all this activity the Courier Mail’s Q Weekend magazine ran a feature piece on him last weekend (including the cover).

Kitted out head to toe in Cloakroom gear it was great to see him cut such a figure in one of our grey flannel jackets.

There’s few sportsmen in Australia who command the respect and admiration that Darren does, and it was an honour to dress him, and very satisfying to see him looking so sharp and effortless in Cloakroom.

Over the past few months we’ve done a lot of wedding suits for guys looking to tie the knot in a sharp suit or jacket. Last month however we welcomed our youngest Cloakroom client to the books. 5 month old Sebastian was measured up for a waistcoat and elasticated pants in the same lightweight wool as Dad’s 3 piece wedding suit.

Although the waistcoat was cut nice and slim, we had to allow Sebastian a little more room downstairs (for his nappy). All going well Sebastian gets a taste for our tailoring and becomes our youngest starting life customer.

Greeting you at the top of the stairs is our new ‘shop window’, an installation that will be done by someone different each month.

This month Ben has kicked it off, and he’s put together a wall featuring records from his rare vinyl collection. For the most part it is blues compilations, and includes 1920s and 30s artists such as Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell and Buddie Boy Hawkins. The images are fantastic, especially given some of these are almost 90 years old.

*Unfortunatley due to their age the sound quality is pretty ordinary.