Risu
Master Member
A couple days ago I got back from a two week trip to the UK, which I took for a number of reasons, some of which related to Doctor Who costuming. I figured I'd post about the prop and costuming relevant parts of the trip here, but if anybody wants to see or hear about some of the other stuff I can post it as well.
So there were three main things I had to do while I was there. The first of which was making a stop in to Wested Leather to place a custom order for an Eccleston coat. While I was less than 100% happy with the coat I received, it has grown on me, especially after comparing it to pictures and screen grabs. The collar is less than accurate, but I do think it's slightly less pointy than the original pattern, and the extra length that was added to the coat that I first thought was excessive may not be.
The second thing I absolutely had to do was make a stop at the Cardiff Who exhibition. Most importantly to photograph and get a good look at the Nina Ricci tie on display on the blue suited mannequin so that I could make a perfect pattern and hand it over to Magnoli to produce another great run of ties. The employees there were really nice and accommodating and let me do so. I also got a ton of pictures of Amy's Victory of the Daleks belt and the Journal of Impossible Things so that I can replicate them perfectly. Actually, I got more than pictures of the journal; I measured it, figured out the type and weight of leather, and noted the binding style, number of pages, and how many were torn out. My next run should be flawless. I also got a good direct photo of the squareness gun for anybody wanting to make a replica that needed a good image that could be converted into a template without any editing, and I got a few pictures of the Eccleston costume in which you can see the weave of the trouser fabric, the exact collar style and stitch work of the green jumper, and a whole lot of details on the coat. Notice that the wrist straps and belt have different buttons than the front closure. Also, the leather used was definitely black vegetable tanned cowhide, which is unfortunate because it drapes and distresses in a way that can't really be imitated with chrome tanned leather, even with an overdye. The liner fabric in the sleeves was white with an interesting stripe pattern, which I'll draw up at some point, and the liner in the body is a light cream sort of cotton that's pilling up quite a bit.
Close examination shows that the UniQlo shirt is a much tighter linen weave than I've ever seen, most likely due to the cotton content.
Close up of distressing and the strap button.
Coat liner fabric.
And the collar and stitch details on the green jumper. Looks like a seam and then a really wide (at least 8 mm) zig zag stitch over the top.
Sleeve liner.
Squareness gun template.
And something very strange I noticed.
This proves definitively that the BBC made replicas of the shirts, but I have no idea how they managed that mistake. Definitely an interesting one. They may have done a terrible job on the cuffs, but the actual wave pattern looks pretty decent.
And the last thing I planned to do was some shopping on Oxford Street to try to track down some identical or similar pieces to those worn by Tennant or Smith. I wasn't expecting much, but it actually turned out to be a pretty successful trip. Debenham's proved to be the best of the stores, followed by Topman (although the Topman I found everything in was actually the one in Edinburgh). At Debenham's I found a near identical copy of Tennant's Paul Smith tuxedo shirt, just minus the blue cuff buttonhole stitching. It has hidden buttons and everything and it's made by Debenham's Black Tie. Sorry for the pictures I took at home btw, they were rushed and I don't have very good light in here. The second item I found was a dark navy shirt by Thomas Nash (designer responsible for the Idiot's Lantern tie). It's a near perfect match for the John Lewis shirt worn by Tennant in the Master trilogy and Girl in the Fireplace, save for the color of the buttons, which ironically will swap perfectly with the buttons on the custom Tooth and Claw shirt Magnoli made me. Two problems solved for only 12 pounds.
At Topman I found a great match for Tennant's "10.5 metacrisis" t-shirt. It's a maroon color with a thin collar. I also found a tweed jacket made of a fabric nearly identical to the actual Donegal fabric used on Smith's jacket, but unfortunately there were too many wrong details to make the 80 pounds a worthwhile investment. Namely the inclusion of dark brown welts on the 3 outside pockets. Not really a correctable problem. And lastly, they had a pair of boots that I guess are their take on the Layer Boots. The difference being that they have a slightly different toe shape, the layer matches the rest of the boot, and it's roughly twice as tall. You can get them in black or brown. If you get brown you can dye the rest of the boot black, I chose to go for more accuracy and I'll be replacing the top layer altogether.
They appear to be out of stock in black, but here are the brown ones.
"PETER" FOLD DOWN BOOTS - Boots - Men's Shoes - TOPMAN USA
They don't seem to have the tweed jacket on the site, but here's another that was made of the same fabric.
BISCUIT DONKEY SKINNY BLAZER - Men's Jackets & Blazers - Mens Clothes - TOPMAN USA
Lastly, I found a couple of ties at John Lewis in Cardiff. The first was the tie Steve Ricks found a while back that looks sort of like a crossover between the Duffer and Nina Ricci ties. I guess they aren't sold out after all. The second is a very good match to the other tie Tennant wears with his blue suit. The flowers are a bit more pink than in the photo, but I plan to fix that the same way I made my previous close enough more accurate, with a fabric pen.
So for anybody looking for good costuming items, now you know where to find them.
So there were three main things I had to do while I was there. The first of which was making a stop in to Wested Leather to place a custom order for an Eccleston coat. While I was less than 100% happy with the coat I received, it has grown on me, especially after comparing it to pictures and screen grabs. The collar is less than accurate, but I do think it's slightly less pointy than the original pattern, and the extra length that was added to the coat that I first thought was excessive may not be.
The second thing I absolutely had to do was make a stop at the Cardiff Who exhibition. Most importantly to photograph and get a good look at the Nina Ricci tie on display on the blue suited mannequin so that I could make a perfect pattern and hand it over to Magnoli to produce another great run of ties. The employees there were really nice and accommodating and let me do so. I also got a ton of pictures of Amy's Victory of the Daleks belt and the Journal of Impossible Things so that I can replicate them perfectly. Actually, I got more than pictures of the journal; I measured it, figured out the type and weight of leather, and noted the binding style, number of pages, and how many were torn out. My next run should be flawless. I also got a good direct photo of the squareness gun for anybody wanting to make a replica that needed a good image that could be converted into a template without any editing, and I got a few pictures of the Eccleston costume in which you can see the weave of the trouser fabric, the exact collar style and stitch work of the green jumper, and a whole lot of details on the coat. Notice that the wrist straps and belt have different buttons than the front closure. Also, the leather used was definitely black vegetable tanned cowhide, which is unfortunate because it drapes and distresses in a way that can't really be imitated with chrome tanned leather, even with an overdye. The liner fabric in the sleeves was white with an interesting stripe pattern, which I'll draw up at some point, and the liner in the body is a light cream sort of cotton that's pilling up quite a bit.
Close examination shows that the UniQlo shirt is a much tighter linen weave than I've ever seen, most likely due to the cotton content.
Close up of distressing and the strap button.
Coat liner fabric.
And the collar and stitch details on the green jumper. Looks like a seam and then a really wide (at least 8 mm) zig zag stitch over the top.
Sleeve liner.
Squareness gun template.
And something very strange I noticed.
This proves definitively that the BBC made replicas of the shirts, but I have no idea how they managed that mistake. Definitely an interesting one. They may have done a terrible job on the cuffs, but the actual wave pattern looks pretty decent.
And the last thing I planned to do was some shopping on Oxford Street to try to track down some identical or similar pieces to those worn by Tennant or Smith. I wasn't expecting much, but it actually turned out to be a pretty successful trip. Debenham's proved to be the best of the stores, followed by Topman (although the Topman I found everything in was actually the one in Edinburgh). At Debenham's I found a near identical copy of Tennant's Paul Smith tuxedo shirt, just minus the blue cuff buttonhole stitching. It has hidden buttons and everything and it's made by Debenham's Black Tie. Sorry for the pictures I took at home btw, they were rushed and I don't have very good light in here. The second item I found was a dark navy shirt by Thomas Nash (designer responsible for the Idiot's Lantern tie). It's a near perfect match for the John Lewis shirt worn by Tennant in the Master trilogy and Girl in the Fireplace, save for the color of the buttons, which ironically will swap perfectly with the buttons on the custom Tooth and Claw shirt Magnoli made me. Two problems solved for only 12 pounds.
At Topman I found a great match for Tennant's "10.5 metacrisis" t-shirt. It's a maroon color with a thin collar. I also found a tweed jacket made of a fabric nearly identical to the actual Donegal fabric used on Smith's jacket, but unfortunately there were too many wrong details to make the 80 pounds a worthwhile investment. Namely the inclusion of dark brown welts on the 3 outside pockets. Not really a correctable problem. And lastly, they had a pair of boots that I guess are their take on the Layer Boots. The difference being that they have a slightly different toe shape, the layer matches the rest of the boot, and it's roughly twice as tall. You can get them in black or brown. If you get brown you can dye the rest of the boot black, I chose to go for more accuracy and I'll be replacing the top layer altogether.
They appear to be out of stock in black, but here are the brown ones.
"PETER" FOLD DOWN BOOTS - Boots - Men's Shoes - TOPMAN USA
They don't seem to have the tweed jacket on the site, but here's another that was made of the same fabric.
BISCUIT DONKEY SKINNY BLAZER - Men's Jackets & Blazers - Mens Clothes - TOPMAN USA
Lastly, I found a couple of ties at John Lewis in Cardiff. The first was the tie Steve Ricks found a while back that looks sort of like a crossover between the Duffer and Nina Ricci ties. I guess they aren't sold out after all. The second is a very good match to the other tie Tennant wears with his blue suit. The flowers are a bit more pink than in the photo, but I plan to fix that the same way I made my previous close enough more accurate, with a fabric pen.
So for anybody looking for good costuming items, now you know where to find them.
