My Full Review of the Baron Boutique David Tennant Suit - Lots of pics

So, I got my Baron Boutique Tennat suit a couple weeks ago and I thought I'd wear it around a bit and really get a sense of it before writing a review or posting any pics. I've had some time and now I'm ready to talk.

First, I have to say that I was immediately impressed with the overall quality. This is a finely tailored suit that is a joy to wear in daily life.

Also, I know that there is some exact-replica reweave fabric coming out, which may even prompt me to purchase a second suit, but I have to say that the printed fabric looks GOOD. If, like me, you don't want to wait for the reweave then this is a very viable option and is very well done. You never even notice it's printed (except for one timy break in a single line on the trousers... if you look closely, you can see it in pic 6 below).

Since there are plenty of posts with people posing in their Tennant suits, I'll just be sticking to the details, for the most part, because there were lots of little touches that I'd never seen anyone else mention here and wanted to share. Now, on to some pics:

This is a closeup of the inside left of the jacket, showing the (normally hidden) button fastener for the top pocket (more on that in the next pic).


This is a wider shot of the inside-left... THREE pockets! Only the top one fastens (I don't have a pic showing it, but the single pocket on the left fastens as well). I don't have one to check (YET) but the middle pocket seems almost made for holding a Sonic Screwdriver. We'll see in a week or two when my CT Tennant sonic arrives.


The right side inside pocket. The leftmost button is for fastening. The other two are, I assume, back-ups in case a button is lost.


This is a peek inside the bottom coat pockets, just to show the proper faux flap and horizontal inner striping.


Here is the back of the coat. Note how the vent goes all the way up to the half-belt.


The trousers.


Close up of the closure on the trousers.


The closure, unclosed.


The Baron Boutique label and a secret pocket!


Closer on the secret pocket. It's basically a split in the waistband with an interior pocket. That's my iPhone 3GS standing upright in there, so you can get an idea of how big the pocket is.


Detail of the interior lining. It feels very nice as well.


Here, you can see that the interior of the trousers is fully lined, which even impressed my local tailor! (Note: any loose threads you see are due to getting the pants altered after I'd received them. I think I gave some slightly off numbers when ordering.)


Here's the back of the trousers, showing the proper button loop thingies. I believe "Button loop thingies" is totally the proper tailoring term for them. :lol


And closer up, so you can see the interior of the pocket... note again the proper horizontal pinstripes on the interior.


And, finally, one shot of me wearing the suit. I couldn't find my tripod, so I tried holding the camera at arm's length... not easy with a Nikon D80 DSLR. But I thought the picture was cool anyway. I'll get some proper pics of me in the suit up later. This is a pretty accurate representation of the color of the suit as seen by the naked eye.


If anyone has any questions about the suit, I'd be happy to answer.

-Shawn

Looks VERY well done. I want one now LOL

So what will the improvements be in the re-weave, either on this or the blue version? This looks pretty good to me...

Dave Ward said:

So what will the improvements be in the re-weave, either on this or the blue version? This looks pretty good to me...

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This is blue printed onto a plain brown cotton. The re-weave will be an exact match of the original, screen-used fabric, with the blue woven in with the brown rather than printed. I don't know if you could say that it's better, but if you're a major stickler for 100% accuracy (as so many here are), then you may prefer the weave. For me, the printed fabric is beautiful and I don't really think I would know it was printed if I hadn't known in advance.

The suit looks great, very well tailored. I'm still considering going through them for my jacket, but even with all the details they've really nailed it's hard to say if they'll get one or two REALLY small ones right. I'll probably just have to ask and then cross my fingers.

The difference between the current Baron fabric and the new Magnoli stuff is as he said, Magnoli's is woven like the original and Baron's is silk screened. We haven't seen it happen yet, but there's a chance that the stripes on Baron's will flake off with age like an old t-shirt. My personal complaint with the fabric is the feel of it. It feels really rough compared to the original. That said, their pattern and the quality of their tailoring is fantastic. I'd love to see some shots of the shoulder area to see if they got that part of the pattern right, as that is one of my two main concerns.

Risu said:

The suit looks great, very well tailored. I'm still considering going through them for my jacket, but even with all the details they've really nailed it's hard to say if they'll get one or two REALLY small ones right. I'll probably just have to ask and then cross my fingers.

The difference between the current Baron fabric and the new Magnoli stuff is as he said, Magnoli's is woven like the original and Baron's is silk screened. We haven't seen it happen yet, but there's a chance that the stripes on Baron's will flake off with age like an old t-shirt. My personal complaint with the fabric is the feel of it. It feels really rough compared to the original. That said, their pattern and the quality of their tailoring is fantastic. I'd love to see some shots of the shoulder area to see if they got that part of the pattern right, as that is one of my two main concerns.

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Risu, I'll get some pictures posted tomorrow of the shoulder/collar area while being worn. As for accuracy otherwise, last I heard/saw about the Magnoli suit, the back vent didn't go all the way to the half-belt which was itself positioned incorrectly and the pockets had something wrong with them. I can't remember if it was that they didn't have faux flaps or if it was that the insides didn't have the horizontal striping or both. Either way, it's not a perfect suit (accuracy-wise) unless Indy has made some changes that I've yet to hear about.

As for the silk screening flaking off concern, I don't think it's nearly as much of a concern as it would be with a T-shirt. After all, you don't tend to dry clean T-shirts and leave them on a hanger when not in use. I'm pretty sure laundering has a lot more of an effect on the silk screening than day-to-day wear.

Definitely, and the stretch material of the shirt would cause a lot of the flaking as well. But I'm just saying, it's a possibility.

Magnoli will be selling his fabric by the yard as well, not just as a suit, but I gave him a long list of upgrades to make to his pattern which should be done by the time the fabric comes in. If he makes all of the upgrades it'll be on par with the Baron pattern.

Risu said:

Definitely, and the stretch material of the shirt would cause a lot of the flaking as well. But I'm just saying, it's a possibility.

Magnoli will be selling his fabric by the yard as well, not just as a suit, but I gave him a long list of upgrades to make to his pattern which should be done by the time the fabric comes in. If he makes all of the upgrades it'll be on par with the Baron pattern.

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Then it'll just be a matter of whether the coat is lower for a Magnoli or for buying the fabric from him and sending it to Baron to make at a discounted price. Also on how nice the Magnoli suits are from a purely suit perspective, which is probably pretty nice but I've never really seen any shots or reviews.

The suit I bought from him a couple years back was sized incorrectly, but the quality was very good. It has a lot of the same stuff as the Baron suit as far as structure is concerned.

Hello! Been lurking around the forums for a while (love the site). Great looking suit, Jedi.

I've been thinking about getting a Baron suit too but I was wondering on how accurate the brown is. I've read a couple reviews saying that the brown was too dark.

A lot of those reviews are from 2009, though, so I'm not sure if it's changed at all.

Thanks. And again, great suit.

cryptkeeper12 said:

Hello! Been lurking around the forums for a while (love the site). Great looking suit, Jedi.

I've been thinking about getting a Baron suit too but I was wondering on how accurate the brown is. I've read a couple reviews saying that the brown was too dark.

A lot of those reviews are from 2009, though, so I'm not sure if it's changed at all.

Thanks. And again, great suit.

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Having not seen the actual suit in person, I can't say for certain how accurate it is. I can say that I know Baron has changed the fabric they used recently, after someone on this board got a swatch from the same GAP-made trousers that the Tennant suit was made of. The current Baron suit is made to match that swatch with what I can only imagine is the absolute closest brown they could achieve, with the blue stripes printed on. Apparently, a lot of attention to detail went in to getting the width and spacing of the stripes right as well.

From a purely subjective perspective, it's a lovely chocolate brown and looks fantastic.

Also, the swatch that this fabric was based on (or another swatch from accurate source material) has also been sent to Magnoli's, who are reproducing an exact re-weave to use in their suits, so that may also be an option to look into, though I can't say when. As for their accuracy, see the comments above between myself and Risu.

The Magnoli suits are also more expensive but I don't know how the new fabric will affect the price (if at all). They're supposedly also going to sell the fabric by the yard, so if you wanted to buy it and send it to Baron, they'd discount the tailoring cost (Magnoli's has no such discount if you provide your own fabric).

jedibugs said:

I can say that I know Baron has changed the fabric they used recently, after someone on this board got a swatch from the same GAP-made trousers that the Tennant suit was made of. The current Baron suit is made to match that swatch with what I can only imagine is the absolute closest brown they could achieve, with the blue stripes printed on. Apparently, a lot of attention to detail went in to getting the width and spacing of the stripes right as well.

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Ah, sounds good! Thanks for the info

If you look up my thread on the Magnoli reweave you can see a comparison picture of the original swatch, Magnoli's, and Baron's two fabrics. The color brown of the new Baron fabric is nice on it's own, but lighter than the original.

Any new word on when Magnoli will be offering the fabric (looking to get the cotton weave)?

I believe it's shipping now.

I've ordered the baron suit and its on its way right now. Soo excited! I went to macy's today to get a dress shirt, but I couldn't find the right color. Where did you get your shirt jedi? That color looks like it goes perfectly with the suit and tie combo you have.

akahizzle said:

I've ordered the baron suit and its on its way right now. Soo excited! I went to macy's today to get a dress shirt, but I couldn't find the right color. Where did you get your shirt jedi? That color looks like it goes perfectly with the suit and tie combo you have.

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I have a lot of difficulty finding dress shirts that fit me, so I actually got a pair of shirts tailored for me at a local tailor, the one pictured and a light blue one as well. They ended up at like $80-90 a piece, but it also allowed me to be really anal and make the shirts in the same style (IE: closure type, back pleats, etc.) as the Doctor's, as seen in "The Runaway Bride." In general, if you can spend the extra for custom-tailored shirts, I say do so... I don't make a lot of money, but I think the added comfort and control over color and pattern and fit is totally worth it.

Hey, my first time here, so just in case, sorry if I manage to break any rules.

I'm really interested in buying one of the Doctor Who suits from Baron (I find Magnoli too expensive). There seems to be a huge difference between the wool and the cotton though. The blue pinstripe seems to be a lot heavier on the cotton than the wool, and I was wondering if the current suit they have is the same as yours, or if they have changed it? And also, is it possible for you to post a picture of the suit, but from a bit of a distance? The thing really hesitating me is the pinstripe difference between the wool and the cotton. It'd be great if you could help thanks, and great review.

The Oncoming Storm.

I own a 10 suit in wool and another in cotton. Cotton feels and moves just right, to my eyes, wool doesn't quite do it. You can especially see the extra similarity in the cotton where the sleeves meet the shoulders, the way the fabric sits. That's just my input anyway.

So would you recommend that I get the cotton? In the cotton picture there looks like there so many really bright pinstripes.