I recently got this tuxedo made by the German tailoring company Maximilian Mogg, when Max was visiting London for his running sessions.Richard Geldingon North Audley Street.
I would love to have something from Max both because I know readers will be interested, and because I personally admired Max’s unique style of tailoring – his classic square shoulders, long jackets, wide trousers. In fact, maybe that’s the same reason; I am also a student, and I wanted to know what it would be like.
So would a Mogg suit make me ‘cool’? (A portmanteau Max uses, combining ‘smart’ and ‘sexy’)
Overall I think Max (and it was Max each time, personally) does a good job with the balance, which is among the bestmade to measure I have. But I’m a little unsure about the style, which turned out to be a bit smaller than I expected.
The coat is a good fit, with nice sleeves and a clean back. There is a touch of creasing at the shoulder line where my shoulder rolls forward, and a small gap at the back of the neck, but both are minor. Max and I actually went back and forth about whether we could tighten the neck at all, and it wouldn’t be a difficult thing to fix in the future.
The pants are higher and wider than I usually have (natural waist, 23cm hem) but I really like them for something more formal and wearable. The fit and leg line are good, and both the pants and the jacket are very comfortable.
In terms of fit, remember that the best comparison for a suit like this is not a hand-made bespoke (with more time and freedom to get the fit right) but another MTM, and even then not a high-end one with hand-stitched chests and lapels.
The design of the Mogg suit is actually a little lower than most of the MTM we’ve covered over the years. It is fully canceled but has a few hand details and a machine attached collar. And that’s reflected in the price – a suit bought in the EU starts at €1800 (£1560).
There is a list ofmy favorite MTM tailors hereby the way, now Mogg will be added to it.
In terms of style, the jacket has a folded, ribbed shoulder, a wide lapel, and a very high buttoning area (17½ inches from the shoulder seam). And when I say relative, I mean related to certain tailors – you seein this articlethat it is equal to Ferdinando Caraceni for example, but the other tailors are all inferior.
The most striking feature of the Mogg dinner jacket is the shape of the lapel, as it is wide, bellied (curved) and relatively short (determined by the buttoning area). This is always a big feature, but especially in a dinner jacket where the lapel is usually a separate part.
I should make it clear that while Max and I talked a lot about suit style, I was always confused about the style of his house so I used this clip to show the type of look that was preferred.
Although Max is thinner than me, we are the same height and this is the style that he wears and readers will have seen on him online. I even tried on the jacket she wore earlier to get an idea of the cut, as it was very similar.
The only significant change Max makes to his suits is to give the pants a flare.
So if the style is on point, why does it feel less attractive – less stylish – than I expected? (Above, some photos of Max online.)
I asked Max this, and he said he gets a lot. Contrary to someone like their husbands, the design is actually not unusual, especially if you have had English tailoring, with its formal shoulders and long jackets.
Of course, being a little unconventional is a good thing in many ways. It means that a Mogg suit will appeal to and work for many people, and very few MTM brands offer tailored tailoring. Most are short, round, soft – southern Italian.
Personally, I was looking for something a bit more stylish though – a casual piece to sit next to my tailors at Ciardi or Assisi – hence the look for a dinner suit. As a personal thing I might as well go for the low buttoning, now I see the look of those rounded lapels on me. Similarly wide lapels from Edward Sexton or Chittleborough & Morgan seem to work better for me when they’re lower. And those of Caraceni were specific.
On the flip side, I really like the ratio of the jacket to the pants, with the broad shoulders balanced by the length of the jacket, and the wide pants feel comfortable and flattering to me.
The shirt and bow tie are also Maximilian Mogg, by the way, so there’s that element of his style included.
The shirt is marcella in body and collar, with a very light voile back. I like the collar design a lot (slightly pointed, slightly long) but I think in retrospect I should have had a plain front, not studs, as the cut of the coat only shows one stud.
The bow tie is their house style, finished. One end has a typical bow shape, the other is a material line (see image above). This makes it easier to tie, although the fault is that the bow is small, not full.
The material for the tux was black barathea from Dugdale (420g/m, 3110). The facing on the lapels and elsewhere is grosgrain silk, but it is Italian with a light weight. I think I probably prefer the English I had in the past, as it has more texture. That’s not for everyone.
The shoes are therevelvet opera pumps from Baudoin and Lange; old PS cufflinks.
The price of the dinner suit was €2750; made to measure suits usually from Maximilan Mogg start at €1800 for those sold in the EU and €2500 for those sold abroad. Excludes all shipping, duties and taxes.
There is also a bespoke level, starting at €5500 and €6700 for EU and non-EU.
Maximilan Mogg has a shop in Berlin, and staff in London, Cologne and New York who make appointments for other matters – in London at Richard Gelding for example. They currently hold regular trunk shows in Zurich, Vienna, Paris, Hamburg and Los Angeles.