The Ultimate Matte Suit

Fashion often swings like a pendulum: what was once hot or in vogue will, inevitably, swing back out again.

Let’s take the shiny suit for example. You know the type: the style a foreign footballer may wear to collect an award. Often grey, possibly with some contrast piping, it catches the light like a Quality Street wrapper and looks just as cheap.

Anyway, throw it out. The menswear pendulum has swung back over to the non-shiny side – the matte suit, if you will – and the ultimate version has to be one in grey flannel.

The History Of Flannel

Made from wool, flannel is a soft woven material brushed to create extra softness. The brushing process uses a fine metal brush, which rubs the fabric to create fine fibres from the loosely spun yarns.

The word flannel is thought to have a Welsh origin. The French term ‘flanelle’ began to be used in the late 17th century, and the German ‘flanell’ was first seen in the early 18th century. In the 19th century, flannel was made in the Welsh towns of Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Hay on Wye and Llanidloes. The expansion of its production is closely associated with the spread of carding mills, which prepared the wool for spinning.

At one point, Welsh, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Irish flannels differed slightly in character due largely to the grade of raw wool used in each area: some being softer and finer than others. Originally developed as a military cloth to avoid snagging, flannel developed into a luxury fabric as milling became more refined over the last one hundred years.

Nowadays, the colour of flannel is produced by dyes – originally this was achieved through mixing different coloured wools in varying quantities.

Industry Leader: Fox Brothers

One of the most famous producers of flannel, today, is the Fox Brothers mill in Somerset. Founded in 1772, Fox Brothers is credited as the original creator of flannel. Knowledge, craftsmanship and heritage are at the heart of the company’s fabric making process, with many of the workforce having followed their fathers and grandfathers into the business.