While we’re all enjoying these lazy and warm summer days, what could be better than another round of Scotch & Soda? OK, so it’s not always easy to come up with an intro to ease into another eulogy to the wonders of the sleeveless garment we know as the waistcoat. This time round I’m back with another number from the Dutch guys at Scotch & Soda. They have been quite good at including some more than half-way decent waistcoats each season in recent times, and have also managed to make them right.
The previous waistcoat I presented from Scotch & Soda was a quite pleasing tweedy number (if the type of tweed is not clearly marked I refuse to give more credit than that, as while all tweeds lift a garment up, only the big name tweeds such as Harris Tweed give maximum bonus points). This time it’s a plain, dark blue number in, and I had to check this twice to make sure, a man-made polyester outer material. My oh my, how disappointing. Here I go and make such a hoopla over the quality and heritage of the materials used and they sneak a modern(ish) man-made material under my radar. Utterly shameless.
Still, we must forge ahead. The cut of the waistcoat is again a traditional 3-pocket variant, with some nice detailing round the pockets. The pockets would appear to be of a decent size, so could have been useful for carrying the sort of things chaps like to put in their waistcoat pockets, but they’ve been stitched closed and I haven’t had the heart to cut the stitches. On the inside the lining is in two different cotton materials, and very much nicer and more vintage-looking than the outside. Plus there is a pretty decent pocket on the inside.
Scotch do add nice little touches, like the happy little labels they put inside most of their pieces. Whilst I’m under no delusion about the number of garments they produce, little touches like this do add value and always bring a little smile on my grim features when I notice them.
Fit-wise this is a pretty good waistcoat again, although it was a better fit before I lost weight. The somewhat oversize fit does highlight my one issue with it though (that is, apart from it not having a more illustrious outer material and being made in China…), the rear cinch. Notice how it has good hardware, but the placement cinches the back in an asymmetrical way? I can’t imagine the designer wanted the cinching to be on one side only. Placing it in the centre would have been more pleasing.
In summary though, not a bad waistcoat. Pretty well-made, and usable settings that for me are quite formal (and as we’ve established, I’m not a suit and tie kind of guy).
[…] Waistcoat Wednesday: Scotch & Soda, another round please! […]