1920 men's suit
August and December 2019
inspired by "Peaky Blinders"
final sketch
This project was a birthday and Christmas present that I made for a friend. Because he’s a big fan of the series “Peaky Blinders”, I decided to make him a 1920s suit inspired by the show. First I made him the trousers and the vest for his birthday in August and then I finished the costume with the shirt and collar for Christmas.
some reference photos
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Peaky Blinders - BBC Studios
The front of the vest and trousers are made of a light grey wool with mustard stripes, and the back of the vest is made of a grey lining. Because of the striped pattern on the wool, it was very challenging to cut out all the pieces, because I wanted them to be perfectly symmetrical.
This costume also has a lot of pockets: four in the vest and three in the trousers. They were mostly done by hand, to avoid visible stitches but also to get a more precise result.
The vest and trousers were completed in three days during the month of August.
Vest and trouser pockets
Cuff details
For the shirt, I chose a white cotton because I thought a colored shirt wouldn’t suit the striped wool very well. I drafted the pattern for this shirt myself to make sure it would fit perfectly but also to recreate the exact look of a 1920s shirt. The main specific of a 1920s shirt is the collar. Usually collars would be made and worn separately from the shirt, which means that the shirt’s collar needed to be flat and pretty small.
Most of the details of the shirt, such as the collar and the cuffs, were done by hand to avoid stitch lines. It took me three days in December to finish this shirt.
The last piece of the costume was the collar, which was made separately from the shirt. It is a pretty simple design so it didn’t take me long to finish it. The tricky part was finding the right button, but after a long search, I found the perfect one!
separate collar
Just like the “Medieval knight surcoat” project, this costume was a surprise gift. This means that I wasn’t able to do any fittings during the process. So, even though I had all the measurements I needed, I was a bit stressed out because I wasn’t sure if the costume would fit until it was finished. But in the end, everything fitted really nicely and it looked amazing!
"By order of the Peaky Blinders!"
The costume is completed with a few accessories: suspenders, a pocket watch and no “Peaky Blinders” costume would be complete without the iconic flat cap!
