Happy Christmas to all my readers!

Wow - another year has flown past - and what a year it’s been!

Photo by Scott Sebring

It started back in January with a once in a lifetime opportunity when I made the Ultimate Tennant Suit. To have the chance to put into practice the actual way the suit was made was an amazing experience. The timing was perfect, as I had a couple of months before started learning traditional hand-tailoring techniques, which I put to great use in making the suit.

Photo by Scott Sebring

I had to follow the suit, and with three days notice ended up going to Gallifrey One in LA!
There I met up with a number of my online friends and many of my readers who had no idea I was going. I also had the privilege of arranging a group photograph with four of my Tennant Coat clients, which was the highlight of the trip.

By the end of April news broke that THE Series Six Shetland Tweed fabric had been found, as well as the Series Five Donegal.

It was like the Tennant Suit all over again: making an iconic jacket in the exact fabric. I was lucky to find the correct buttons and elbow patches to finish it off.

In August the culmination of many month work came to fruition when I took delivery of  my rewoven Tennant Coat lining. I had been searching for years to find a suitable alternative, but finally took the plunge and commissioned my own recreation of it.

The past few months of the year have been taken up with making a popular new garment in my repertoire - the Green Greatcoat.

I spent a while carefully researching the pattern, fabric and construction until I got it just right.

Then in late November I attended Chicago TARDIS, where I entered the masquerade competition wearing a test version of the Colin Baker Six Frock Coat. I won Best In Show: Workmanship for my tailoring – for which I am very proud.

This was one of three coats I had made, the other two were for the wedding of some close friends which is due to take place just before Christmas.

Looking back it has been an exciting year, with more projects than I could have thought to have taken on.

And as the year comes to a close, an even more exciting development is breaking.

More on that in the New Year, but trust me, it’s gonna be worth the wait . . .

Magnoli replica Giorgio Armani tie - the comparison

You will have seen recently that I bought one of the Magnoli replica Giorgio Armani ties.

I think it is great, don’t get me wrong, but I had the chance to compare it one-on-one with a genuine Armani tie, and the results are, to say the least, interesting.

My good friend Kevin, whom I tailored The Ultimate Tennant Suit for, is the lucky owner of a the correct brown version of the Armani tie, that the latest Magnoli is a replica of.

If you looked closely you will have seen him wearing it at a photoshoot at the San Diego Comic Con (see below).

I caught up wit him recently at Chicago TARDIS, and we both happened to have our Armani ties (my replica and his original) so it was the ideal chance to compare them like-for-like.

The real Armani is on the bottom of the picture above, and you can see that the background is several shades darker than the replica.

Duffer tie on eBay

After a long absence I see another St George by Duffer tie has hit eBay.

As I deviously reported, ties like this have often reached prices such as £92 and £112.

The US seller of this tie was a bit more savvy than previous, and clearly knew what he had and its worth.

This time around there was a bidder’s dilemma – either bid conventionally, starting at $99, or buy it outright for $349.

I noticed that a bidder did both, by placing a maiden bid then revising it to the BuyItNow price, which at £224.94 is by far the highest one of these ties has gone for.

I see it has gone to a good home . . .

Bonhams auction - 15th December 2011

Doesn’t time fly!
It doesn’t seem that long since the last Bonhams auction, and the next in December is soon upon us.

The online catalogue has been posted and there 23 Doctor Who items, most of which are from the Tennant era.

Amongst them are some of Tennant’s SUITS! But don’t get too excited – none are the pinstripe versions – they are all relating to Human Nature and Family Of Blood, when The Doctor is incognito as a school teacher.

Bonhams sale 19073
(15th December 2011)
Entertainment Memorabilia

As usual I have separated the items by Doctor era, and you can see the rest of the items here:

Lots 154
1st Doctor (1963-1966)

Lots 154a
Seventh Doctor (1987-1989)

Lots 155 - 156
Ninth Doctor (2005)

Lots 185 − 191
Eleventh Doctor (2010-2013)

Here are just the lots relating to the Tenth Doctor

Lot 157
Doctor Who - The Christmas Invasion, December 2005
A partial Sycorax costume, comprising: a full length red velvet robe, with split side-seam for arms, and hook and eye fastenings to back; a pair of gauntlets with rubberised metal effect wrist braces and gloves coated in plastic shards giving stone effect, both labelled inside Sycorax Leader Gauntlets; a pair of boots being shoes with coarse wool fabric over upper and to leg portion and fibreglass metal effect boot covers, one labelled inside KARL; together with a brown leather belt, with square cut detail and brass buckle (6)

Estimate: £350 − 450
Sold for £563

Magnoli replica Giorgio Armani tie - review

Over the past few years Magnoli Clothiers in New Zealand have been releasing a series of replica Tennant Ties; from the original Daniel Hechter (see far left); to the iconic Christian Lacriox (see left, middle); as well as the St George by Duffer (see near left).

All good ties, but the one which was worn the most, the Giorgio Armani, as been a long time coming.

Today the postman brought me a narrow, thin, long package . . .  my Magnoli replica Girogio Armani tie!

Carefully opening the packaging, I found it wrapped in cellophane. The tie inside looked great!

The Girogio Armani tie is Tie Seven in my Tie Index, and although I don’t own an original, I have seen one close-up, and from what I recall this is a pretty good replica.

I cannot vouch for the weave and scale of the design, but it has been worked directly from an original - abet blue version - so the shapes and proportions should be spot on.

Repica Giorgio Armani tie

I was looking around the net this evening, and came across a new item on the Magnoli website - a replica Giorgio Armani tie!

This is Tie Seven from my Tie Index, and from the single detail image looks to be quite a good reproduction of the design.

How well it looks close-up remains to be seen, but it is due for shipping in late November, so we shall see.

Me And My Tennant Suit - Evert Joosse

It’s been a while since I have run a Me And My Tennant Suit, but we’re back with a Ten from the Netherlands.

PROFILE
Name Evert Joosse
Age 36
Location Oosterbeek, the Netherlands
Favorite Doctor Peter Davison (Five)
Maker of my suit Magnoli
Colour of suit Brown with blue pinstripes

Evert got his Magnoli Tennant Suit in January 2011. “I had wanted one for a lot longer than that, but that was when everything finally came together”, he told me. He has also had very good experiences with Magnoli Clothiers in the past, so decided to go with them.

Tennant isn’t his first Doctor. “From about the age of ten I have been a massive Doctor Who fan.” he explained. “At that time I used to watch Peter Davison, who is still very much my doctor. And I have always been in to wearing suits, as I find them both stylish and comfortable.”

From that early age he always wanted to dress like the Doctor, which in his case meant cricket sweaters and a penchant for beige clothing! “Which is fine when you are a child,” he says, “but when you grow up people expect you to dress differently. Therefore it was a happy day for me when the Tenth Doctor came around, looking great and stylish, but in a way that you can get away with.”

RIP Textile King

I had a genuine feeling of deja vu today.

In September 2010 I reported the closure of Soho Silks, a fabric shop I used to visit quite a lot. It was secretly there that I found the rolls of genuine Blue Tennant Suit fabric hidden away in their basement.

Well today I was in town, and discovered the closure of not one, but TWO further establishments I used to frequent – one a great loss the other a deserved closure. But more of that later.

Textile King

This was not the most pretty of shops from the outside, but it hid a treasure trove of suiting and tailoring materials which I found myself returning to again and again.

The brown fabric I used for Ian Cummin’s Frock Coat (see left), as well as another I did him in a navy blue were sourced here.

More recently I found it was the perfect place to get the buttons for my Matt Smith Shetland Tweed Jacket, and had reason to believe it could we have been the original source for these.

I was told on more than one occasion that Ray Holman, the costume designer for series five, had frequented there and bought the material for Captain Jack’s shirts when he worked on Torchwood.

The proprietor had been shown a sneaky preview of the Matt Smith costume well before it was launched and I gather at one point even Russell T Davis had been a visitor when he was Executive Producer!

So the shop does have a bit of a special place in the Doctor Who lore.

Ultimate Tennant Suit does SDCC 2011

This past weekend was the San Diego Comic Con.

It’s one of the biggest conventions in the US, and is a major draw for the cosplay community. All manner of costumes from every show you can think of and as many you have never heard of get to be paraded around the venue.

One costume you will know if you read this blog is the Ultimate Tennant Suit, worn by Kevin Coppa.

During the weekend he had the chance to get some great portrait shots taken by Lydia Chen.

Here are the photos she took, while Kevin picks up the story to the photoshoot.

So I got to take the Ultimate Tennant suit to The San Diego Comic Con 2011. Steve had done an incredible job as always and after he and I both got to show it off in public for the first time at Gallifrey One 2010, it was time to take it to it’s sophomore geek-gathering.

I spy with my little eye

Over the past few year, Magnoli Clothiers in New Zealand have been progressively working through the canon of Tennant Ties.

So far they has tackled Tie Two, the Daniel Hechter (see below, left); Tie Four, the Christian Lacroix (see below, centre); and Tie Ten, the St George By Duffer (see below, right)

Known to be in the pipeline are two popular ties: Tie Seven, the Giorgio Armani; and Tie Eight, the Nina Ricci.

Well, if you take a look on the Overstock Section of the website, there is a Tennant Suit jacket for sale (see below).

If you look very closely the photograph is taken with an early test version of the Tie Eight!

Mystery of the fourth tie - SOLVED......?

I had a very exciting email form one of my clients this week relating to the Rocha John Rocha tie, one of which had been sold at the Feb 2010 Bonhams Doctor Who auction.

The sale of the tie, along with three others, had been the part inspiration for my Tie Index, and when I was compiling it I fully expected all the ties to surface at some point. I was suprised the to have one left over - the Rocha John Rocha tie.

Having established it's non-show on screen, I did keep an eye open in case a supporting actor had worn it and it had been wrongly attributed for the auction. Still no luck there.

It was looking like the Mystery of the Fourth Tie would never be solved . . .

Anyway, so now the new lead.

Another TWO alternative ties on eBay

If you missed out on the recent eBay auctions of two St George ties, an Armani and a Thomas Nash – then it’s worth noting that keeping an eye on the new listings can turn up some pretty good near-best alternatives.

Personally I found a Paul Smith (see left) tie that was a dead ringer for Tie Eleven in my Tie Index (see right).

Well, one of my readers had some similar success with another from Ten’s wardrobe.
He spotted this tie on eBay.

Aquascutum

Thomas Nash tie -target acquired!

Confession time.

When I wrote about the latest couple of ties to appear on eBay, I knew who had bought one of them – me!

I decided that although the Thomas Nash tie,was only seen in one episode (The Idiot’s Lantern, see left), it is a distinctive design I wanted to add to my collection.

I only stumbled across the listing while looking around for other things, and how anyone else found it with the title dr who prop tie, I don’t know!
But find it they did and it had risen to over £200 not long after it started.

I held back, and didn’t bid until the dying seconds of the last minute of the auction, and put in a killer bid. Luckily for me it only pushed the price up £5 from where it was, and the tie was mine!

My PayPal account was notably lighter though!

Replica Daniel Hechter Tie -Magnoli Third Incarnation!

Last month saw the release by Magnoli Clothiers of a third, and much improved version of their Time Lord (now Hechter) Tie (see below).

Here is my review of it,
plus the previous incarnations leading up to it.

Since David Tennant took control of the TARDIS console back in late 2005, his fashion sense inspired a  generation of cosplay enthusiasts to dress like him.

In the early days there was the Honest Dragon Suit and Coat, which could be easily accessorised with a suitable pale blue shirt and the right coloured Converse All Stars.

The one slightly more elusive item was the correct tie.

One tie received a lot of exposure, having been worn in David Tennant’s first photocall in July 2005 (see right).
It was not worn in his debut story, but was seen in the Christmas Red Button story, Attack Of The Graske; before appearing in the Season Two opener, New Earth. It was subsequently worn twice more in Series Two.

We later found out was a Daniel Hechter tie (Tie Two in my Tie Index) but this was not known at the time.

Idiot's Lantern tie on eBay!

Only last week, a friend of mine secured a pair of GAP Trousers from the French version of eBay.

Prior to that we saw the sale of a Giorgio Armani and a St George by Duffer tie on eBay.
The Armani tie achieved US$144.50 and the St George GB£112.

St George by Duffer - Tie Ten in Tie Index

Well, if you missed that chance, maybe you were more lucky when another St George tie popped up last week.

From the same seller as before, it had a similar £3.50 opening price, but only scraped £92 when it closed on 21st April following a frantic three-day auction.

Most of the bidding was on the last day, when it saw the sale price nearly quadruple!

GAP trousers –see, it does still happen

The Ultimate Tennant Suit I made recently resulted in a fair bit of interest regarding the original GAP trousers.

I have had a number of emails from people who greatly appreciated knowing where the fabric was sourced from, stating that all they needed to do now was find the requisite number of pairs to make themselves a similar suit.
Annoyingly however, they were only a single-season garment from way back in 2005, so there is zero chance of walking into a branch now and finding a pair – even on their reduced to clear rail.

The only realistic option is eBay – which is how my client, Kevin Coppa, came by so many pairs himself. It was a lot of patience, and many hours trawling listing that eventually paid off.

And just to show it was NOT just a one-off, another client of mine, Jonathan Le Targat from Paris, has recently found another pair, this time on the French eBay site (see below).

Tie: Utopia!

Just to prove that it does happen, there has recently been a couple of ties on eBay which are identical to the ones worn by the Tenth Doctor!

Giorgio Armani - Tie Seven in Tie Index

Last month a Giorgio Armani Tie (Tie Seven, in my Tie Index) came up (see above). Based in San Francisco in the US, it had a $4.99 starting price, and ultimately sold for $144.50.

The description was as follows:

You are bidding on a beautiful Giorgio Armani (white label) necktie. Although pre-owned I am very confident in saying that it is in near mint condition without even the most minimal of fraying at the tips. It has been worn 2-3 times maximum and treated with the utmost care in a smoke-free home.

The base color is rich chocolate brown with blue undertones; pattern is brown circles with blue squares inside. 100% silk of course.

As I need to make room for new purchases, my wardrobe clearance is your chance to win this and other items at a fraction of their original cost. New Giorgio Armani ties now retail $145 on average, however I will start the bidding on this item at a low $4.99.