The Hampden

Our tailor has retired, just as production was lining up. You genuinely couldn't make it up. After six weeks of looking, we've found a replacement.

I drove up to Bolton to deliver the graded patterns, the cloth, the buttons and the trims. I could have sent it all by courier, but after everything it took to get here, I didn't want to let any of it out of my sight. It also meant I could sit down with the team and go through every detail before they begin.

The pattern is digitised and graded into every size from XS to 2XL. The full set has been printed and is on its way back to me.

Sample six, in Abraham Moon melton, needs no further pattern changes. The coat fits and moves exactly as I'd hoped, and it keeps the silhouette that made me fall in love with the design in the first place.

The melton toile feels like everything has finally come together. The storm cuff now attaches to its own strip of lining, so the rib can move on its own, especially when you're wearing a watch.

The real benefit is that rather than having a hard stop at the shoulder and the cuff, this will allow for movement and stop the sleeve creasing significantly when the wearers arm is shorter than the sleeve.

Back with Jonathan, we've built a new pattern from the ground up. The next sample is deliberately stripped back: no lining, no pockets, no storm cuffs, just the shape, now in melton rather than calico.

Five toiles in and we haven't reached a workable starting point to build from. So I've gone back to the original pattern and back to Jonathan now that his time has opened up.

What started as "the shoulders are tight across the front" looked as if it had a clear way forward. Instead it led to a full 3D investigation of the pattern, then four toiles, with a fifth underway.

Everything is connected. Opening up the shoulders to improve the fit made the hem at the back kick up and away from the body. So in the next toile we adjusted the hem, only to find that it changed the way the front drapes.

It was my mistake not to have noticed the issue before opening the order books, and I'm sorry it has caused such a delay. We will get this right, and it will be the coat I promised. Realistically, that means the summer.

I had the armhole backwards.

In November I blamed the tightness on the high armhole I'd taken from dress uniform. After talking it through with Giuliano, it turns out to be the opposite. The armhole is too big.

A large armhole joins the sleeve to the body lower down, so more of the coat is attached to the arm. Reach forward and the sleeve drags the whole front of the coat with it. A smaller, higher armhole sits close under the arm, and the sleeve can move while the body stays where it is.

It looks like the tighter option. It's the one that lets you move.

Jonathan's time is limited over the next few months, so I've commissioned another pattern cutter to refine the silhouette. The main focus is to improve movement in the shoulder and allow the sleeves to move without restriction.