Informale x The Local Merchants: The Informal(e) Suit

We proudly introduce The Informal(e) Suit exclusive to The Local Merchants.

Informale has some part to play in us opening our store. I (Sam) met Steve Calder, owner of Informale, some years back at a Permanent Style pop-up that he was flogging at down Saville Row. I loved everything I tried on, including things like the WS50 Workshirt and J002 Jungle Jacket and by the looks of it, a lot of people did too due to the high sellout of styles, which had me perplexed; why was no one stocking this in the UK? This gave birth to an idea in mine and Ed's heads: maybe there's a niche market we can slide into where we curate smaller, interesting brands that have cult followings in the UK and sell them ourselves. Over the years this built from a napkin scribble to The Local Merchants.  So it's only right that our first collaboration would be with one of our influencers, Informale. 

Since launching in March '22, we have been Informales Soul UK stockists, and it sells out nearly 100% of every drop. Two styles, in particular, that our clients love are the T005 Linen Drawstring Trousers and the WS50 Workshirt. 

The T005 was Steve's first style, and he launched it with the linen, double-pleated, high-waisted drawstring trouser. It is probably my favourite Spring/Summer trouser. The fit and drape are perfect, and the balance between tailoring and informality is what we think is so appealing to today's market. 

The WS50 is the moleskin workshirt. It's called a shirt, but in our eyes, it's much more than just a shirt and more of a jacket. It has double patch and flap chest pockets and 3 hidden horn buttons. The most versatile piece Informale does.

So we thought these two styles would make a banging casual summer suit, and that is where the idea of 'The Informal(e) Suit' was born. However, we knew we needed to do it in a colour different from any of Informales previous pieces. We were eager to use charcoal but couldn't find the right grey; in our search,  we stumbled across a grey Irish Linen with a touch of earthy green in it and decided this was the baby. It was a hella lot more sexy and interesting than charcoal and was different enough to the greens that Steve had used previously. What we love about this fabric is how in certain lights it looks grey and in others green, it also has a beautiful luster without being shiny. Green Smoke is the name we gave the colour because smoking and green are both cool things.

So the samples came in and we adored it off the bat. A few tweaks to the collar and boom! We were ready to go. We had great fun on the shoot and chose two friends of 'The Locals' to model, Andy and Pete. Two of the most stylish people in our town may both have moustaches and little hair, but they are entirely different to one another, showing just how versatile the suit is. See it styled with other Informale items we stock. We hope you like it!