Made in England

We are absolutely delighted and extremely excited to announce that all of our made to measure suits, jackets, trousers, overcoats,waistcoats etc. are all now going to be made right here in England, so we can officially carry the Made in England label.

All of our suits etc will all have the Made in England label in them and so you will be sure to know that each suit, jacket, trouser or overcoat will be made right here on these shores and with English cloth, so you really will have an exceptional piece of English tailored clothing.

Whilst other local tailors are moving their suit production abroad we have brought ours back and so from now on you will see the Made in England label on all of our suits and made to measure clothing.

To book an appointment with one of our tailors to get your English made wardrobe going, give us a call on 0845 300 9014 or email info@barringtonayre.co.uk or simply use our website www.barringtonayre.co.uk to buy online

Gentleman's Jackets

A Jacket is the perfect way to look smart when a suit isn't called for. It has also become more and more popular in casual wear, matching a well cut jacket with jeans and trainers. The selection of fabrics that you can make a jacket from is even more versatile than your suit fabrics. If you want something slightly different why not look at some wool, silk mixes, cottons, cord, linens etc.

There are however a minimum of four jackets that every Gentleman should have in their wardrobe.

Firstly - a plain navy blue blazer. Slightly old school but will never be wrong. To make it a little bit more special, have it cut a bit closer than a normal blazer and find some amazing metal buttons that you can have put on it making it more personal. If you are in the Armed Forces then have your regimental buttons, or have a Hunt or club buttons. Single or double breasted is a personal choice but steer clear of double breatsed if you are under 50.

Secondly - A linen / see sucker jacket. A must for summer and is a great way to dress up a summer drinks party whilst staying cool, look smart on flights and use instead of a jumper in the cooler september evenings.

Thirdly - A slightly more casual jacket made probably from cotton that you can wear with jeans. Never wear a blazer with jeans, it is just wrong! Have a nice cotton jacket made that is cut in a sixties style, hour glass shape if you are thinner and add some little extras like a coloured button hole to make it a little bit cooler.

Lastly - A Tweed jacket. A quintessential piece of English clothing and a must for every wardrobe. Don't be scared of tweed, you don't have to have an old boring tweed, there are lots of fantastic little mills that produce great patterns and stunning colours so that you can have something made that isn't too old and quite trendy. Tweed is fantastically hard wearing and is great in the colder months.

So, this will hopefully help a bit with your selections for your jacket wardrobe and with last posts suits you shoudl be starting to build an absolute corker of a wardrobe! Just make sure that you keep it as individual as you are. Add your own extras and little personal bits.

Style Counsel – A Gentleman’s Wardrobe

Well, we have been in London for Monday and Tuesday of this week visiting new customers across the City and popping in to see a few of our exisiting clients too.

It was an incredibly successful trip and after a rather hairy morning drive out of Gloucestershire it was great to be back in the big smoke and see so many old friends and meet some really, really nice new ones.

For one thing the congestion charge seems to have worked as it really wasn't very difficult at all to drive into the City and parking was a remarkably simple affair even if rather expensive!

One thing that did surprise me was that the City Gentlemen do seem to be more conservative than the customers that I have out here in Gloucestershire. Out of the 10 or so suits that were designed, all of them were in either grey, black or navy blue and all were pretty much cut in the same manner with more conservative make up than I had thought. They were all incredibly smart and of the finest material but was a little bit surprising considering the majority of my Gloucestershire and country clients go for braver and more adventurous fabrics, cuts and personalised extras.

I also realised that manners are not of the highest inportance to the majority of London dwellers! The lady in the shop where I had watched 10 people in front of me purchase food without even a hello or a thank you, was genuinely shocked when I said please and thank you when it came to my turn! Also no one ever seems to smile out on the streets! My clients were as always absolutely delightful but watching people bump into other people and not even say sorry did make me think how lucky we are to be out in the countryside in a seemingly more polite air.

We will be back up in London again in about 6 weeks so keep an eye out for the dates and give us a call to book in to see us.

Well it appears that our friend of Barrington Ayre, Oli Broom, who we are sponsoring on his cycling to The Ashes tour. He seems to be having an amazing time and is doing extremely well as he is now in Germany, although his technology seems to be failing him but do please keep an eye on him by following - http://www.cyclingtotheashes.com/ - and do please dig deep for his fantastic causes.

So, keep your eyes peeled and keep watching our 'Where's Oli' blog posts

As promised our new sock blogger has just sent in his sock write up. He will be blogging about his sock experiences for Barrington Ayre so if you have any questions about your foot comfort wear please email us at info@barringtonayre.co.uk and he will endeavour to answer your questions.

Mr S. is a high powered executive in London working within the fashion and retail industry so knows alot of clothing and the recent trends and fashions across the UK and Worldwide.

Mr S. writes:

‘I’m not someone who is content to get my socks from M&S and see them as one of those little luxuries one can have that is also a neccessity. Socks are something where one can show a bit of English quirk from the normal boring black or dark grey, particularly with work dress, against the majority who haven’t broken away from wearing the socks they had to wear at school. Alongside ties, shirts and cufflinks, I am always on the look out for good quality socks that will last, where the elastic at the top of the sock remains in good order, the heel and toe doesn’t wear through too quickly and my feet don’t end up sweating away in the socks from their being too hot. Very few retail outlets sell decent socks that tick all of these boxes for me, let alone also giving the choice of different colours I am after to dark grey and black.

I am not after socks that are too loud for work that would put one in the ‘geezer’ box (these colours are for the weekend!), but the two colours that I prefer for work are dark green / British racing green and port/wine red. Before trying Barrington Ayre’s Pantherella socks the best I have found previously are just a touch too hot for my feet, but in the right colours and durable. The Pantherella 70% merino wool / 30% nylon socks performed perfectly, wicking any sweat away whilst being comfortable and, so far, durable. the colour I tried was dark navy blue which is fine as a back up to my preferable colours for work and I shall soon be getting my order in with Barrington Ayre for more.

In addition to the above, I have also tried the Sea Island Cotton socks on a more casual basis….very comfortable indeed, although I did find that they get a bit baggy quickly and I prefer a slightly thicker sock to compensate for my old and faithful shoes being rather worn on the inside heel and not having any padding there anymore.

Overall I have to say that I am far more impressed with the Pantherella socks than I thought I would be and although I probably won’t be going for the Sea Island cotton socks again, more down to personal preference, I will certainly be ordering more of the merino wool socks and will be trying out the cotton lisle socks too.’

To ask Mr S. a question please email him at info@barringtonayre

Well, I have just returned from Brazil! What a place! What a vibe and what an incredible country. The size of it is simply mind

Rio. An truly incredible City

boggling when you look at it. The Pantanal (The Wetlands) where we went to spot Jaguar, itself, is a tiny part of Brazil but is still the size of Germany, France and Belgium combined!

Rio is a City to behold and if you get chance you really must get out there, it is great fun and the fashions were very different to over here.

Firstly, everyone wears flip flops all the time. Haviannas to be precise, and we have come back with many pairs in many different colour combos and these colours may even make an appearance in some new clothing taht we are designing!

Also, the suits are extremely stylish and well cut and the fabrics are divine. A very light weight cotton or linen but mixed with a number of different fabrics to create suits that don’t seem to crumple as much when flying between cities as you must do to get around, and seem to keep people cool in the extremely hot climate whilst providing a smart, elegant and classic look, without looking like the Man from Delmonte! I have a few of these fabric samples to try out so we will be making a few of these suits shortly and then providing these for next summer and for those Gentlemen who travel abroad a fair amount.

The one thing that we will not be looking at now that we are back is the swimming shorts! The fashion with the men out there seems to be for the smallest, tightest piece of spandex, tide with nothing left to the imagination around the groin area and the paraded with much pride around the city sporting nothing else but a pair of Havianna flip flops! An extraordinary look and one that men of all ages sport, and the elder Gentlemen often are seen running aorund the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema in nothing but a small pair of shorts and some trainers! Different! That is for sure!

The worst beach wear fashion around!

So keep an eye out for the new suit fabrics and if you do get chance I cannot recommend Brazil and Rio heavily enough.

After dropping off a few shirts to a client on Saturday and then nipping into town to pick up the last few bits and pieces for our stall on Sunday at The Cirencester Polo final day, we ran into Liz Hurley working on her stall in the Cirencester Farmers Market!

She really is extremely pretty and it is so great to see more people supporting our local area and the meat from her organic farm is really rather good!

She is a firm regular at the Cirencester Polo and so we are very much looking forward to catching up with her and her Husband again this Sunday where we are exhibiting.

Please do come along and see us, have a chat and see what we do. There may even be a glass of wine or two there for you!!

See you Sunday, until then..............

We will not only be exhibiting at Cirencester Polo Club on the 20th September, but we will also be running a special competition on the day for one lucky visitor to win one of our fantastic bespoke shirts.

Simply pop in and see us for a glass of wine and a chat and see all of our fabrics, our shirts, some suits and much much more..... including our socks and ready made shirts

If you would like to pre book an appointment too then please email us at info@barringtonayre.co.uk

Our amazing Ready to Wear Shirts are now available to buy directly from our website for our special launch price!

So please follow the link by CLICKING HERE to buy your Barrington Ayre ready to wear shirt now!

We at Barrington Ayre are looking for a few more sartorially blessed people to write for our blog. We have managed to track down a fine candidate to blog about ours and other peoples socks so keep an eye out over the coming weeks to read about his exploits.

So we are now looking for a number of other bloggers to write about their thoughts and sartorial findings, so if you think you have what it takes, email us at info@barringtonayre.co.uk and put forward your case.

We look forward to hearing from you soon

This weekend saw the inaugural Barrington Ayre Shirtmaker & Tailor, 6 a side cricket tournament. The event was held at Englefield Cricket Club just outside Bradfield and was competed between 4 courageous teams.

Each team got to play each other once and then there was the 3rd / 4th Place Play Off and The Final! The Barrington Ayre 6 a side team only squeezed in to 3rd place with the eventual winners, Howorth Harriers taking the Trophy with the last ball of the tournament.

It was great to see so many of our clients and customers playing and it was a delight to take another book full of repeat and new orders throughout the day.

So keep an eye out for the tournament next year when we will be inviting even more teams to take prt and compete for the fantastic trophy.

To read about Barrington Ayre and to keep an eye out for the upcoming tournaments please visit www.barringtonayre.co.uk

It is a very exciting time for Barrington Ayre at the moment as we will be shortly launching our ready to wear shirt range. Not only can we provide the finest bespoke shirts and made to measure suits, we can now also provide our clients and our new customers the finest made ready to wear shirts.

The best news is that upon launch we will be offering for a short while a special launch offer where the shirts will be at a special discounted price, just for a short time.

Well after one of the most amazing draws in English cricket with the tail order showing the top order how to bat out to save a Test match, the thoughts of a summer and other English pursuits has been going round the office here.

A very good friends Wedding this weekend again brought out the Gentlemen in their morning suits which I have to say is one of my favourite looks and a truly English style. A Wedding without a Morning Suit is like a broken pencil...... pointless!

The English morning suit is something of style and beauty and is sonething that every Gentleman should have in their wardrobe. With this in mind we are doing a special deal on all morning suits until the end of the Ashes, so if you are off to a Wedding soon and wish to look your best please get in touch to get your special offer.

Again Barrington Ayre spent a wonderful weekend at the Cotswold Show bumping into a number of our clients and spending time catching up with other local businessmen and women and sampling many great local produces!

The sun was shining and it really was so good to see so many of our bespoke shirts making an appearance at the Cotswold Show.

We will be exhibiting at The Cirencester Polo on September 20th so please do nip down and see us and there will be some special show promotions for you to take advantage of!

Also, keep an eye out in Cotswold Style in August as there will be some very interesting little bits and pieces!!!

We are incredibly proud and rather excited about our fantastic new range of ready made shirts that will be arriving in the next couple of weeks! These will all be made from the finest 100% cotton from the finest mills and will exude the same style, class and elegance that our bespoke shirts do.

The shirts will be available in a number of colours and fabrics and to mark this special launch there will be some amazing special launch deals!

So keep your eyes on the website over the coming weeks and grab your special price ready made shirts when they arrive!

With the Wedding season in full swing we are finding that more and more of our Grooms, Best Men and the rest of the wedding party are choosing rounded collars for their bespoke shirts. Despite some of our local rivals having a little pop at our so called 'gimmicks!' of having the wedding date embroided on the shirt and having the wedding colours embroided around the button holes, these little personal touches that make the wearers wedding shirt even more special are proving even more popular than ever.

The Grooms Wife to be spends so long picking out the perfect dress and having the day that she has always wanted, it only seems fair that the Groom and his Wedding party really should make that extra bit of effort to have the best possible shirt and clothing that they can have.

Our so called 'Gimmicks' are not gimmicks at all, they are personal touches that add to the quality of the shirts that we provide. Barrington Ayre use the finest quality cotton from the finest mills and have some of the most highly skilled cutters and seamstresses available and with our amazing choice of little extras to make your shirt a true one off, we really can provide the best shirts available across The Cotswolds and the UK.

In fact we have become some what of a trial blazer of mens fashion and style across the region and the other shirtmakers are now copying our styles, including following our trend for rounded collars, as well as our marketing ideas and promotions. It always makes us giggle a bit that they spend lots of time writing about how our little extras are just gimmicks but then a month or so later they end up copying our shirt styles! Style is something that we know a lot about so just keep an eye on what we do and then watch our styles and ideas be grasped by other local companies.

Barrington Ayre, the first for style, class and fashion ideas in shirts and clothing across the region and UK. Give us a call to discuss your needs and ideas and we are always here to help. 0845 300 9014 or via email tom@barringtonayre.co.uk

With the summer beating down on Old Blighty again over the weekend, the run of linen shirts continue. Linen shirts really are the perfect accompaniment for not only the summer but in fact all year round. The cool fabric looks incredibly smart and keeps the wearer cool during the hot days but is also a great shirt for under a jacket in the cooler months. So please do not feel that a linen shirt is only for Summer!

We have also been making a number of linen shirts recently with larger stiffer collars which is slightly against the norm but look fantastic and when we joined a couple of our clients in France last week for a special supper party every gentleman around the table was wearing one of our linen shirts but all in different colours and designs which really shows the versatility of this fabric. A large Chateux, fine French wine, incredible food and wonderful company, the perfect way to spend an evening!

We have also just sent our first overseas suit out to Nigeria! Not only are our shirts finding a real International market it also appears that our suits are following suit! excuse the pun! We can take measurements over the phone or via a form that we can send out, or if you are a business person or individual who does travel to England at all, please give us a call and we can meet you anywhere to measure you up for a suit or shirt or provide you with our wonderful range of socks and jumpers.

So fingers crossed the weather will hold and that England will finally work out how to play 20Twenty cricket this afternoon!

Barrington Ayre Shirtmaker & Tailor are delighted to announce that they will very shortly be launchinga brand new Ready to Wear clothing range to compliment their made to measure and bespoke clothing range.

With the continued growth of the Barrington Ayre Made to Measure clothing range throughout the region and now across the UK, Europe and Africa and the US, the Cotswolds based Shirtmaker and Tailor has decided to launch a ready to wear clothing range to allow their customers to have a complete clothing range of the same quality and style as their made to measure range.

Tom Wharton, Owner says, 'Our made to measure customers are continually asking us if we can provide them with ready to wear shirts, jumpers and polo shirts to compliment the made to measure clothing that we have made for them, for the more casual and smart casual side of their wardrobe. So we have designed and made a wide range of beautifully crafted top quality shirts, polo shirts, and jumpers as well as a full range of fantastic accessories so that they can have their ready made clothing from us, safe in the knowledge that it will be to the same high quality and design as our made to measure clothing .'

So keep an eye out over the coming weeks and months as we launch different lines throughout the summer, with special launch offers to be had. All the launches will culminate with the full range being on display at the Cirencester Polo End of Season Day on September 20th at Cirencester Park at our stand.

We had a fantastic day at the polo on Saturday at Cirencester Polo Club and it was fantastic to meet so many people there. The polo was great fun and well done Marlborough for turning up at such short notice after Eton had to withdraw due to the swine flu bug.

It was such a successful day that we just wanted to let everyone know that we will be having an even bigger and better stand on the 20th September in the main Members tent where you can come and chat to us about yoru sartorial needs, be fitted for a suit or shirt, check out our socks and jumpers and by then our new range of ready made shirts, and accessory range. If you would like to book an appointment for the day please let us know by calling 0845 300 9014 or please feel free to nip in and have a drink and a chat with us and we can show you our fabrics and measure you up there and then.

We will be doing a few other shows during the summer too so kep an eye out for announcements of where and when on the website.

We recently made some wonderful shirts for another wedding in Stratford Upon Avon that was happening this weekend and the Groom had 2 shirts made for him, one for the wedding itself and then another one with his married initials and the wedding colours throughout the whole stitching of the shirt for the reception. Although other local shirtmakers have recently been having a little dig about our so called 'Gimmicks' for our wedding shirts, all we do is offer the Groom, Ushers and Wedding party exactly what they want with outstanding shirt and suit quality, and so if a bespoke shirt maker can not make exactly what their customers want then are they really offering the service that they should be?

To discuss your needs for the suit, shirt or item of clothing that you have always wanted and dreamt of, please get in contact and we can discuss every aspect of your clothing and make sure that you get the piece of clothing that you have always wanted.

Over the next few weeks, we will be running our 'Looks for Summer' where we will be giving handy little tips and special clothing help to make sure that you look your best this summer.

Just a quick one to let people know that we will be at the polo in Cirencester Park on Saturday for the Eton game at a small stall near Steppes Travel. Our shirts are the this years prize for the seasons best polo player so we thought that we should show off everything that we do to our local market.

So if you are nipping over to watch a spot of polo or fancy coming for a fantastic day out please pop in and see us. We will have all of our fabrics and bits and pieces with us and you shouldn't be able to miss the rather smartly dressed up tailors dummy!!

If you do fancy popping over and have something specific in mind please let us know before hand but we will have a full range of shirt, suit and clothing fabrics as well as socks and there may even be a few little teasers for our rather nice new ready to wear range and our new accessory range!!

Very much looking forward to seeing as many of you as we can on Saturday and don't forget that it is Father's Day soon so it is the perfect time to get your special present ordered!

With the weather being so beautiful it has really been one of the most enjoyable and busy Bank Holidays that I have had for a longtime. On Saturday we nipped up to the Windrush near Bourtin on the Water for a spot of fishing on my Wife's Families stretch up there, and it was so nice to see that the river was in such good condition and that there were fish all around although not many took the flies! It was a great day and a fantastic way to catch up with some friends and discuss some new ideas for a new range of bespoke shirts and clothing, so keep an eye out for some new exciting ranges coming very soon.

Sunday was spent playing cricket against the Barbados High Commission which has been taking place for the last 45 years, 2 years before Barbados was even Independent! We were very honoured to have the High Commissioner himself and the Deputy High Commissioner in attendance and it was another fantastic occassion even if we didn't win! Although to be fair we have only won 3 times in 45 years but it is always fantastic day out and there were so many people in the crowd and with rum, wine and laughter aplenty it was the perfect advert for cricket!

They have even invited us out to Barbados next September to play in a competition for all of the teams that The High Commission play in the UK, so we are now on the lookout for sponsorship to help with the cost, and obviously Barrington Ayre will be making some specially tailored cricket blazers for the North Cerney Cricket Club.

If your club needs some tailored blazers or club wear please get in touch and we can help you be the smartest team around!

So what sort of thing should you go for when you are getting married and want a special shirt or suit to commemorate your special day?

1. Well, this is something that you will (hopefully!) do only once in your life so it is important to make the most of it.

2. This is the day that you will be photographed more than any other day in your life so you need to make sure that you look the best that you can.

3. Your Wife will have spent year sdreaming about this day and months and months finding her perfect dress, so it is pure courtesy to make sure that you look the best that you can and compliment her with your clothing.

4. Stick with plain colours. The traditional colour is white and I would only suggest going away from this if you go with another plain colour like blue or pink.

5. Don't go too over the top with your collar, stay with a classical look, but maybe have a front fastening collar that fastens behind the tie giving you a very controlled and stylish look.

6. Why not add the date of your wedding in embroidery onto your cuff to commemorate your special day?

7. You could also add yours, and your Fiances initials embroided on your shirt too?

8. Add a little bit of colour by having the stitching of your button holes in the same colour as your Wedding colours?

I hope that these little ideas can help you but if you do need anymore ideas or want to chat things through please feel free to give us a call on 0845 300 9014

Whatever you wear you can wear bespoke. Whether it is an overcoat, a jacket, a suit, a pair of trousers, a shirt or even your boxer shorts, we can make them for you. Once you have had one item of clothing made for you it becomes incredibly difficult to go back to buying off the peg clothing. The fit is perfect, the style is exactly what you want and you have picked the fabric, cut and little extras that you have always wanted.

So, if you have had this done for you once can you really go back to buying something that is mass produced again?

Well, the cricket season is in full swing and and after an extraordinary game on what appeared to be a field that had just been mown by a fly-mo before we played, and resulted in only 79 runs between the 2 sides! we had a very close friendly game on the Sunday. Yours truly took 2 catches and hit 66 and this will hopefully put me in good sted for my touring teams first game this weekend, unless the weather puts pay to everything.

On the subject of cricket, we can also make bespoke cricket blazers, so if you want something a little bit special for your team please get in touch.

Well we are looking after 2 dogs this weekend as ssome of our friends are away but that will never stop the shirt and suit selling! I dropped off 9 shirts on Saturday morning and promptly got asked back to measure up some suits and an overcoat.

The Wedding season is also in full swing and after taking measurements and design desires for another Wedding party on Friday it is safe to say that love is well and truly in the air and our little Wedding personalisation extras like having the date of the big day embroided on the shirt is proving incredibly popular.

 Something else that is proving incredibly popular at the moment is the Groom having a specially designed shirt made for their Best Man and Ushers. We usually pop the Wedding date on these shirts too as well as adding their own initials.

 This is not only an incredibly generous gift, but it is one that will allow the Wedding party to never forget their friends special day.

 We can also do this with suits if you want to be very generous to your Wedding party.

It was also our first cricket league game this Saturday and despite havinga strong team out we seem to come apart a bit and suffered a rather embarrassing defeat by 100 runs. I like to think that it was due to us having the worst of a very soft wicket batting second but I tend to think that we were all still a bit in 20Twenty friendly mode!

Yours truly couldn't follow up with another knock over 40 from number 5 this week but instead managed to give his wicket away by miss timing a sweep and being as plumb LB as you could ever be for 8. I did take a skyier of a catch so at least something went right!

We have just developed a very new exciting range of Old Boy shirts. The first shirt that we have introduced into this range is our Old Wellingtonian (Wellington College) Shirt. The Old Wellingtonian colours are under the collar and cuff of these bespoke shirts, so that you can show your loyalty to your Old School whilst wearing a beautifully crafted bespoke shirt.

We can put this Old Wellingtonian fabric under any shirt, so please get in touch to discuss your needs.

See more photos on our Gallery

Well, it is that time of year again, the cricket season has started and I have rather sore legs from keeping wicket without warming up!

A very good friend of mine agreed to play for our village team this weekend and he is also a very good customer of Barrington Ayre. In fact he is a great fan of good stiff collared shirts and this gave rise to a discussion later that evening over a couple of quiet ciders about the pros and cons of stiff or soft collars.

Stiff collars are fantastic for more formal occasions where as the softer collar is for more casual affairs. I would always suggest that you wear a stiffer collar with double cuffs however you have more freedom with your cuff selection with a casual shirt.

Please feel free to give us a call to discuss your ideas, and of course I will keep you up to date with my cricketing exploits! I scored 42 and kept wicket this week by the way!

I was out seeing a customer recently and his colleague was in his office whilst I was measuring him up for a couple more shirts and a suit. Whilst this was going on the question of why you should have your clothes made for you came up?

Personally, I think that since you are wearing your clothes every day you really should make sure that they fit correctly and since first impressions count so much now a days you really should make sure that you make the best impression possible, and when your clothes are beautifully made for you, you will certainly make an impression.

My customer, who has had all of his clothing made with us, said that it makes him feel better, and more confident. He said that becasue he knows that his shirts and suits fits properly he is confident in the way that he looks and feels incredibly relaxed and never has to worry about his appearance. His shirts never pop out, it fits his neck and broad shoulders properly and everyone always comments on how well dressed he looks which he loves!

He also said that people await his arrival at parties etc. to see what new shirt he is wearing and then many of the Wife's and Girlfriends use him as an example of how their men should dress!

So I think it basically comes down to the fact that if you want to feel confident, look great and have people look at you in awe, you need to have your clothes made for you.

Well Easter is coming to an end, it has been a fantastic weekend with the chance to catch up with Family and friends as well as doing some business! The last couple of days has seen a number of linen shirt orders come in. With the warm weather and the hope of a decent summer people are now looking ahead to their holidays and time abroad and what better way to prepare than to have a few linen shirts made?!

Linen is a fantastic fabric from which to have your shirts made as it is light, versatile and comfortable whilst still looking smart and elegant. The light fabric is perfect for the hot summer months.

Please give us a call to discuss your linen shirt options

Well, the Bank Holiday is upon us and unfortunately the weather isn't quite as good as we were hoping! After dropping off a lovely new made to measure waistcoat this morning to a client I have been writing & designing our new brochure which will be available very soon.

I have also had the privelage of being able to watch, whilst writing this brochure, a chap rebuild a large section of one of our Cotswold Dry Stone Walls. I have to say that it is truly amazing how much skill and precision it takes and it reminded me of how lucky we are to still have such trades and skills around in this day and age. The patience, skill and designed actually reminded me rather a lot of tailoring!

Easter is actually a very special time for me as it marks the last service that I ever sung as a Westminster Abbey Choir Boy all those years ago. Easter Monday was the last day I pulled on my cassock and ruff and sang my little heart out to the Hallelujah Chorus by Handel. My memories of my Prep School days at Westminster Abbey and that last singing day as a treble will always be extremely happy ones and therefore all of us at Barrington Ayre wish you and your Family a very Happy Easter.

Just imagine. The beautiful British summer is here, the sun is spreading wide it's ever warming arms, the birds are singing and the smell of freshly cut grass and fantastic smelling flowers is hovering in the air.

You are strolling out and about in the town but you just don't know how to look smart whilst still staying cool.

Have you thought about a linen or lightweight jacket? A beautifully cut jacket made just for you, in a wonderful lightweight fabric will be something that you can take everywhere whilst still looking sharp and stylish.

Keep an eye on our blog for more little sartorial ideas for the forthcoming summer.

We are delighted that this week we have made a shirt for an Ex Springbok Rugby Union player, Thinus Delport. Thinus played 18 times for South Africa and has always had a problem finding shirts that fit properly due to his sheer size. So after hearing about Barrington Ayre through another one of our customers we popped over to fit him up for a couple of shirts, including one for his forthcoming wedding!

We will be sure to pop up some photos of Thinus in his shirt and we will also be following his rugby when he returns to Japan.

Well! you can now order our bespoke shirts directly from our website! just click here and you are just steps away from designing your perfect bespoke shirt

Or as always, give us a call to book yoru appointment

It has been another extremely busy week & I was having a lovely long chat with one of our customers mid way through the week. We were chatting about how much enjoyment there is not only having made to measure clothing made for you but also in the enjoyment that we take from making it!

We came to the conclusion that it is one of lifes little pleasures having clothing made for you, and not only do you have a great time having it made you also carry that feeling with you everytime you wear it.

The suits that we have in production at the moment show the multitude of creative freedom you really do have when you your suits made for you. Some are very classical with beautiful herringbone fabrics & others are far more modern with sharp lines & extremely vibrant linings.

There are also a couple of rather fun & exciting little extras that eachsuit has but we are not giong to give away our secrets on the blog so please give us a call to discuss them

We have just got back from the Worcester versus Gloucester rugby match at Worcester, and although it was a shocking result for Gloucester, especially after we had played the whole game in the Worcester half it was a fantastic day out and we met some fantastic people. We were very kindly invited by one of the Directors of English Mutual who are one of our most regular & favourite customers and to join them & a number of their best clients at such a great event was a real privilege.

In fact, one of their Directors is a great experimentor with his bespoke shirts. He loves the different fabrics under his collar & cuffs & some of the shirts that we have made for him with the stitching matching the contrasting fabrics have been some of the best & most pleasurable shirts that we have made.

To see how you can really experiment with your bespoke shirts, or to be fair any of your made to measure clothing, including our suits, please give us a call & we can have a chat about what you would like to have made & how we can do it.

The only limit for having your clothing made by us is your imagination.

I understand that it may seem a little bit early to be chatting about country jackets as the sun has finally raised its head & the weather is warming up, however there are still many country pursuits going on & with the start of the point to point season there are lots of opportunities to wear fantastic working backed shooting jackets.

We have a huge range of country fabrics to choose from and with our special working backs for our made to measure country shooting jackets you will have enough room to swing your shooting arms in complete freedom whilst still looking incredibly smart.

We are also getting prepared for the one day cricket internationals that are starting on Friday and we do hope that England hit some form and finally win an international! Why not have a look at our linen range of bespoke shirts or our light made to measure suit fabrics to support our chaps in the Caribbean & prepare for the forthcoming summer!

One of our new suit clients came up with a rather nice idea this week, he wanted to have his shirt match his new made to measure suit but in a very subtle way. So what we came up with was that we made his bespoke shirts with the button hole stitching in the same colour as the lining of his suit. This is a fantastically subtle but very stylish little touch & we will be suggested this to a few more of our customers in the future!

After having to make 13 bespoke shirts for a couple of clients in under 2 weeks for a special do & having a number of suit appointments as well as shipping out an incredible number of socks all over the World this really has been an extremely busy week for us & the fine bottle of wine that has just been opened from Hamilton Yorke wine merchants has never been more welcome.

please keep an eye out for some incredible announcements that we will be making over the next couple of weeks and we will keep you abreast of the exciting goings on right here on our website

Keep an eye out for us too at the country shows around the South West this weekend & never be afraid to pop up and say hi. You will know it is us by our branded Barrington Ayre body warmers & jackets

well it is that time of year again & we were delighted to attend our first Point to Point meet of the season with an afternoon out at The Duke of Beaufort's Hunt Point to Point at Didmarton. It was a fantastic, if not a little bit chilly, day with not too much money lost on the races!

The Barrington Ayre jacket was out in all of it's glory & we had a number of clients popping up & tapping us on the shoulder to say hi, which is always so nice & makes our work even more enjoyable

We have also added a huge amount of photos to our online gallery too as we had a massive shipment of bespoke shirts so we thought that we would share a few more pictures with you!

If you have any questions or want to get in touch and organise a time to meet us at the Point to Points or country shows around the area please either email us or give us a call on 0845 300 9014

This week has been rather busy already matching clothing for people. We have been inundated with enquiries about matching favourite shirts, or shirts that no longer quite fit or shirts that people have seen. This is something we love doing & are really rather good at!!

All you need to do is send us a photo of the shirt that you are wanting to match, or even better the actual shirt itself & we will do the rest! If the shirt doesn't fit anymore then give us a shout and we will send over our measurement guide so that you can match the shirt that you have always loved but have it fitting you perfectly.

We have also made a couple of waistcoats for people this week who wanted to turn a 2 piece suit into a 3 piece, so we went to see them armed with our fabrics, matched up the material & then measured them up for a bespoke waistcoat! simple!

So if you do want any clothing matched, or an old piece of clothing revived in matching material then please don't hesitate to contact us

Why not have a look at our new Help for Heroes shirts. We are so incredibly proud to be supporting this amazing cause & because of this we have designed a new Help for Heroes shirt where the top button are a different colour. If you buy one of these shirts for £88 we will donate £10 directly to Help for Heores.

If you want to donate directly please use the donation button that is on our homepage.

Any questions, please give us a call......

As you may have noticed there is quite a different look to our webiste now, with a new easy to pick range of  3 shirt categories. These are Everyday, Elegance & Luxury. Take a look, see what you think.

We are also incredibly proud to announce that we can now make made to measure suits, trousers, jackets & basically anything else that you will ever want. Made to measure clothing from Barrington Ayre! what more could you want!

Also, even more excitingly & an ioncredibly proud moment for us. We are now going to be working with Help for Heroes to give something back to all of our brave servicemen & women. Every time you purchase one of our Help for Heroes shirts we will donate £10 to Help fro Heroes.

We are absolutely delighted to announce that Barrington Ayre can now provide all of our customers & potential customers with a full range of made to measure clothing. Whether it is suits, jackets, trousers, waistcoats, or country clothing that you are after, we can make it for you! And as with all Barrington Ayre clothing we can offer you an unbelievable amount of little personalisation extras to make your cloths as individual as you.

A recent entry from another company (who do spend an awful amount of time trying to slag us off!!) has rasied the discussion about calling clothing bespoke or made to measure. After a long running battle in Saville Row about the exact same thing it was legally ended with the decision that bespoke clothing is as the dictionary states & is not a word only to be used by Saville Row.
The Oxford English dictionary & the Cambridge dictionary's definition is as follows:
Bespoke - adj. (of goods) made to order & Bespoke - adj. made to a customers specifications.
So whether you call it bespoke or made to measure, all of Barrington Ayre's clothing is made specifically for the customer in the exact cut, style, etc. that they want & is a completely individual piece of clothing that no one else has & fits them perfectly & in the exact way that they want with all of the little personalisation extras that they have asked for. Therefore, you can call it what you like, but just be sure that our clothing is the best around & will be as individual as you are.
All of our bespoke / made to measure clothing is now available so call us to book an appointment today

So the 3rd Test has finally got under way after the debarcle of the 2nd Test, and England are stepping up to the plate after their humiliating defeat in Jamaica.  All of this fighting English spirit got me thinking, in these hard economic times we really must stand up and be counted so we are looking at ways to celebrate this true English fighting spirit by offering some amazing English offers, so keep an eye on the website for some very special offers. 

After simply emailing our potential customers quotes from our existing customers when we have been ask, we have finally decided to pop up some of the quotes on our website. So, have a little look at the quotes and let us know what you think.

This week has been very cold & snowy but today it seems to have turned a little bit & the rain is beating down so hopefully we will be able to finally see the ground outside the office with the melting of the snow!

Barrington Ayre will be down at Wincanton at teh racing this week so if you do see us down there don't be shy about tapping us on the shoulder & having a chat about all of your sartorial needs.

Well. This week has basically been dominated by the weather. The snow out here in Gloucestershire has just continued to fall & Barrington Ayre were snowed in on Friday! Over 3 feet of snow fell during Friday & Saturday & even the snow plough couldn't get anywhere near us so we have all been out gritting teh road & trying to get some sort of vehicle out to see our customers!

We battled on & managed to see new customers but it has been interesting at times!

Our first monthly column in Cotswold Style came out this week & our founder, Tom Wharton has been answering sartorial questions for people from all over The Cotswolds & Europe! We are very much looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for his next column!

We hope you haven't been too affected by the snow, but if you do have any interesting stories, please let us know

With the amazing success & enquiries generated from the article in Cotswold Life, Barrington Ayre are taking up a monthly page answering questions from The Cotswold Style readers. the section will be called Off The Cuff! keep an eye out for these articles on our website. Or even better go out and buy the magazine!

It has been a very busy start to January with things going incredibly well & shirts literally flying out the door! There is going to be a new department arriving at Barrington Ayre soon, so make sure you keep checking back at the website for this exciting news!

We are delighted to announce that we have just appeared in the January edition of Cotswold Style magazine - a double page spread in fact! we are so delighted to appear in such a great magazine ad just keep an eye out for next months issue!

To read the article please follow the link from our home page

Well, Christmas Day is nearly upon us and from all of us at Barrington Ayre we just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Thank you for all of your support this Year and we look forward to seeing & hearing from you all again in 2009.

We are delighted to announce that Barrington Ayre Bespoke Shirts is clothing members of staff from The Bathurst Arms pub in North Cerney. This award winning pub's Manager, James Walker asked Barrington Ayre to make his staff shirts for their Christmas presents this year and we were delighted to oblige.

With the cold realy taking hold at the moment the sale of our beautiful Cashmere socks have been going through the roof! so make sure that you don't miss out by buying directly from our online shop.

Special Little Christmas offers now available to buy online from Barrington Ayre. After 2 weeks in Panama, returning to the cold weather, we have decided to launch our special little Christmas offers, perfect for anyone's stocking this year. Just follow this link - http://www.barringtonayre.co.uk/userimages/procart30.htm

Panama was truly amazing. What an amazing country. From Caribbean beaches to the deepest jungle, from the beautiful Pacific coast with its amazing surfing beaches to the quite extraordinary Panama Canal, this country really does have it all.

Yours truly, really was the tailor of Panama!

great news!! people have been badgering me over the last couple of months to put up a Forum on the site, although I have to confess that I wasn't entirely sure what a Forum was but after much pushing from a number of clients I have finally popped one up! you can find it under the Barrington Ayre community tab on the left of the home page.

We have been in London a number of days this week measuring a vast number of clients who are getting their orders in before Christmas and I have to say that Remembrance Day is seemingly taking hold of people far more than I have ever seen before.

Not only was nearly everyone I saw in London wearing a poppy but when mine fell on the floor at a cash machine a builder who accidentally trod on my poppy jumped back and then bent down, straightened it out and handed it back to me. It was a fantastic moment and after observing the 2 minutes silence this morning I was very proud to be British.

Another busy week coming up and a couple of big measurement days so I better get prepared. So until next time......

New Sock Subscription Service now available from Barrington Ayre.

How often do you find yourself running short of socks and then never finding the time to get out to buy new socks that you actually like? well, this is the perfect service for you then! Simply pick the socks that you want, how often you want to receive them and we will do the rest! simply!

To read more visit - http://www.barringtonayre.co.uk/page34.htm

Barrington Ayre have just launched a brand new 'Referral' incentive. Introduce someone to Barrington Ayre and if they buy a bespoke shirt you will get 20% OFF your next order.

Simply contact us at 0845 300 90 14 or email us info@barringtonayre.co.uk to discuss things further

Barrington Ayre Bespoke Shirts have just launched their new Country Clothing Range, to allow their clients to be the best dressed person on any shoot, hunt or outdoor country pursuit, in time for the upcoming seasons. To co-incide with this launch Barrington Ayre bespoke shirts are providing a special Country Wear package to include, one bespoke country shirt, one pair of shooting socks, 1 pair of shooting garters and one English made merino wool jumper for only £149.00 including vat.

Barrington Ayre Bespoke Shirts now have an online shop! You are now able to buy the finest Pantherella & Scott-Nichol English made socks direct from the website! Pantherella are known throughout Britain & across the world as a name synonymous with quality and comfort. All of their socks have a unique hand-linked toe finish which make every sock the most comfortable you will ever wear.

We are also able to offer the finest English made knitwear from John Smedley. John Smedley are world renown as one of the finest knitwear makers & we are very proud to be able to offer their products from our site. Once you have worn a John Smedley jumper you will never buy anotehr make as long as you live.

I had just delivered another 6 of our bespoke shirts to a number of clients around Cirencester and one of them asked me why our shirts were so much cheaper than our competitors? he jokingly wondered if we had our shirts made in a sweat shop out in the Far East?! This is most definitely not the case. With this question in mind I decided to tell everyone about our shirts and our fabrics.
Firstly all of our bespoke shirts are made in France, not out in the Far East. Our manufacturing department is run by people who have been in the business for years and the shirts are made by some of the finest seamstresses in Europe.
Secondly, all of our fabrics are the finest Egyptian cotton and are all made in Italy, the finest manufacturer of cotton in The World.
So why are our shirts so much cheaper than our competitors? the simple answer is that we do not add as large a mark up on our shirts.
Barrington Ayre's whole philosophy is that we believe that everyone should have the right to wear bespoke clothing if we can offer this privelage at a price that doesn't break the bank balance, then we shall!
Barrington Ayre's business model is very different to most other shirt manufacturers so we can still produce the finest bespoke shirts, from the finest Italian fabric all made in Europe without charging the World for them.
So if you would like to experience the real joy of having a bespoke shirt made specifically for you from the finest Egyptian cotton, made in Italy, with the choice of mother of pearl buttons, hundreds of fabrics a wealth of personal little extras to let you make the shirt that you have always wanted, simply either log on to www.barringtonayre.co.uk or email us at info@barringtonayre.co.uk or call us on 07511 794702 organise for one of our visiting tailors to come see you at your home or office.

We are delighted to announce that this week saw us successfully deliver a number of our bespoke shirts to our first International customer! all the way from Cape Town, South Africa. Richard was given our name by a member of his family who we make shirts for on a regular basis, and last time he was over on business, we met up, measured him up, got his shirts made and hand delivered to him when he was over last week!

So if you are reading this from abroad (or even from the UK!) please feel free to get in touch with us and we can work together to provide you with the perfect bespoke shirt that you have always wanted

until next time.......

Barrington Ayre are looking at offering our clients not only our fantastic range of bespoke shirts but also the finest English made socks and the ultimate in English made jumpers. This new development will also coincide with us offering an online shop to let our customers buy directly off the website. Please keep an eye on the website where we will be announcing our launch date.

until next time......

Barrington Ayre proudly sponsored Frocester Cricket Clubs Annual Sportsmans Ball this month. It was another fantastic occasion with Graeme 'Foxy' Fowler being one of the main speakers at the Ball. He recounted many stories of his cricketing days and how he was the only person to score 2 centuries in one match with a runner, even if the runner did celebrate Foxy's century by raising his own bat!! & how he scored the first century for England in India.

It was a cracking evening and one we will certainly be supporting again!

Well we are now 3 games into the Twenty20 Cup competition and Gloucestershire aren't doing as well as they would have hoped! Barrington Ayre's man, Ian Fisher has been pretty consistent throughout the 3 matches:

versus Worcestershire - match lost - Ian Fisher 0-27 off 4 overs - run out for 8 runs

versus Warwickshire - match tied - Ian Fisher 1-27 off 4 overs - DNB

versus Northamptonshire - match lost - Ian Fisher 1-18 off 3 overs - LBW for 10

we will be hoping Gloucestershire improve over the coming weeks and will be keeping a close eye on our chap!

until next time....

We are now incredibly proud to announce that we are going to be sponsoring Ian Fisher from Gloucestershire Cricket Club. Ian is a fantastic cricketer and not only is he a Yorkshireman, like our Founder, he is also famous for his incredible fitness and work ethic and this is why Barrington Ayre decided to sponsor Ian for this season. We will be keeping you up to date with how Ian is going on on the website

Barrington Ayre have joined with The Cotswold Show to offer one lucky visitor the chance to have a Barrington Ayre Bespoke Shirt made for them absolutely free!

All you have to do to be in with a chance to win this fantastic prize is to buy a ticket!! Yes, it really is as easy at that!

http://www.cotswoldshow.co.uk/html/golden-ticket.php

Just click on the link above and learn more about this fantastic show, taking place on the 5th and 6th of July this year.

We hope to meet many of you there!

so, until next time......

Over the last few days we have decided to update some of the site and make it a little bit easier to pick your perfect bespoke shirt. Now all you have to do is go on to the fabrics tab and pick which sort of fabric, e.g. plain, checks, stripes, linen, contemporary, you fancy having your bespoke shirt made from.

Please feel free to have a look round the site and let us know what you think, after all we are here for you so let us know how you want your bespoke site set up!

Our very talented photographer, Justin Short of www.shortworks.com has taken a few more snaps, so get on to our site and have a look! but here are a couple just to wet your appetite!

So, there have been two friendly games of the new cricket season and the founder & owner of Barrington Ayre, Tom Wharton hasn't started the season quite as he wanted to! With 1 not out off three balls in his first innings he unfortuntaley followed that up with 1 and out, off 3 balls in his 2nd innings!!

however his bowling has proved a little bit more successful with 4 overs bowled, 3 maidens and one slightly less successful over conceeding 9 runs!!

On the subject of cricket, Barrington Ayre are now proud sponsors of Ian Fisher, the Gloucestershire Cricket Player. We will be sponsoring him over the next season and will be sure to keep you up to date with his progress.

so, until next time.....

We are extremely pleased to annouce that Barrington Ayre is now the proud sponsor of an annual prize at Wellington College. We will be sponsoring a prize for each Captain of the 4 major sports & this week we went down to fit out the Captains for their bespoke shirt courteousy of Barrington Ayre, Bespoke Shirts.

Strangely enough each Captain went for a plain coloured shirt with contrasting white collar & cuffs!

Each year the Captains of each sport will receive a bespoke shirt made by Barrington Ayre which will be presented at Speech Day.

We are also very proud to announce that we will be offering a special discount to Wellingtonians, Old Wellingtonians & their parents so if you qualify! just get in touch with us & we will give you all of the details.

So, until next time....

well, the fly fishing season is here again & this week we went out fishing with one of our oldest clients. Unfortuntaley yours truly didn't quite have the result he was after managing to hook on to precisely zero fish!!

However our client seemed to have some 6th sense when it came to talking to the fish & managed to pull out 3 beauties with the heaiest being 5lbs!! lucky man!!

Also this week we had some incredible feedback from the announcement that we would shortly be making bespoke ladies shirts. We have agreed to do our 1st two orders already due to some serious persuasion from the ladies involved so I will keep you all informed on how they look.

This week is going to be a very exciting week for Barrington Ayre as we have our first professional photo shoot! A number of people have been selected from the photos that we received & I am off to scout locations on Tuesday & the photos will be taken this Saturday. I very much look forward to sharing the photos with you.

So, until next time......

It has been another busy week for all of us here at Barrington Ayre. We spent Saturday at the last day of the VWH Hunt for this year, where a number of our clients were sporting some of the new Barrington Ayre Country Shirt range. It was a fantastic day out although finding out that we had locked the car keys in the boot of the car did take the shine off it a little bit!! but after some fantastic work with a stick & some well placed hands we did manage to get back in without any damage!

Also last week, our friends at www.muddymatches.co.uk put up a link to Barrington Ayre so that their members can take advantage of our beautiful shirts and make sure that they are looking their finest when they embark on that all important first date!

With the 1/2 price bespoke boxer short offer on now, when you buy any shirt, it looks like another bust week for everyone here! so until next time.......

Barrington Ayre are extremely proud to introduce Mr Tabbs! our resident tailoring expert. If you have any bespoke clothing questions, Mr Tabbs is the man to ask!

Whether you want to know what sort of shirt that you should wear for a formal wedding, or what sort of cut would suit your shirt, Mr Tabbs is the man to ask!

So all you need to do is go to the Ask Mr Tabbs page, send Mr Tabbs your questions and he will do the rest!