[Matt S]

I can also say that half canvas is not lighter than full canvas. Full canvas is often lighter because there's no fusing throughout the front. Full canvas has a range of weights. You can have heavy English military suit or you can have a lightweight Neapolitan, and both will be fully canvassed.

 

[Matt S]

Half canvas is still fused. Maybe not in the lapels but it is everywhere else in the front.

This is what people don't realise. Anything that is half-canvassed has a fully fused front. It's why half canvas is stiffer than full canvas. Some people think that half canvas is lighter than full because it has less canvas, but when they say that they don't realise that the front is fused top to bottom.

Does anyone know, is the fusing used in a half-canvas jacket lighter than in a jacket that is only fused? Anything I have that is half-canvassed has a very soft and light fusing, so these jackets are not stiff.

 

[Matt S]

I always thought that the lightness or heaviness of a suit is dependent on the fabrics that were chosen. Mine is always full canvass with fabric from VBC, Zegna and Loro Piana. It has always been light suit for me.

Canvas as well as the cloth can give different feelings of lightness or heaviness. Canvas can be different weights and have different levels of stiffness, which contribute to the feel of the jacket. Tom Ford suit jackets can feel heavy because of a lot of canvas and a stiff construction, even though they typically use lightweight cloth.

The canvas is the foundation of the coat front. It keeps it pristine. An old house without a foundation the ground underneath it can shift. Frost heave can lift and lower rocks the house is sitting on. Post rot. Houses like that the eve line goes up and down. The floors are not level. The roof line isn't straight and level and horizontal. Houses with a good foundation don't have these problems and last longer. A coat with half a foundation....?

A half-canvas jacket has more than half a foundation. It has a full foundation from fusing down the entire front, plus additional support from the half canvas.

 

[Matt S]

Fusing is chemicals. I wonder how long that last. Not to mention cleaning chemicals may change.
When the foundation is of canvas then it can be of several kinds, and put in at different angles and of different weights. If good quality it will last for a very long time. You can also press shape into them. Any fuse in the canvas or directly on to the cloth is unshapeable except by cuts. Non-fuse and non-man-made thread/yarn can be shaped with a hot iron and water and weight to create desirable shape and thread is also used for that some parts of the make up, not to mention tape made of linen or cotton. The thread and tape actually help hold the shape. All of this takes time, which adds up to money. Attaching it to the coat front is a trick, too. If done properly you get what you pay for. This is bench made and can be cheaper in the long run. Unless you are rich (whatever that means) you will probably design a garment, and fit it to your body, so it can be worn for decades. A good tailor can assist in designing the coat. On a flat pattern locating pockets, waistlines, buttons, etc. Can be perfectly places. Cut the cloth and wrap that cloth around the person and, maybe those items should be placed elsewhere. On your body maybe the pocket flaps look better narrower or wider. A good tailor wants to optimize the appearance of the customer. Store bought leaves very little ability to change. Which includes mtm. Bench made starts from. And everything is added.

I never said that fusing makes a good foundation, only that it is a full foundation.

 

[Matt S]

No doubt the fuse today is far better than the past. And the better coats would have better fuse today. The stretching and shrinking of the cloth to create contours for the body and fuse, how does that work? Is it possible?

Do most full-canvas ready-to-wear clothes even stretch and shrink the cloth for contouring? I have a lot of RTW full canvas clothes, and they don't seem to have the kind of shape bespoke does. The only RTW with that kind of shape I have experienced is Tom Ford.