When it comes to fine tailored clothing, it is easy to run afoul of these Shatnez restrictions. The most obvious offenders are blended summer fabrics that contain both wool and linen (which means most of our favorite Loro Piana fabrics are off limits to our observant clients). Aside from the fabric itself, most high-end tailored jackets use a number of interlinings that contain linen.

When making a Shatnez-free garment, we replace the linen interlinings with linen-free substitutes. In particular, we focus on the in the following areas that typically have Shatnez:

  • Collar Canvas: The highest quality collar canvas is made of linen and horsehair, which is then covered on one side with wool felt. For our Shatnez-free suits, we replace with linen canvas with a cotton-based alternative.
  • Shoulder Pads: Shoulder pads typically consist of a top and bottom cover, some interior batting or filler, and an additional layer of interfacing canvas.  We use 100% cotton batting in our shoulder pads, and for Shatneez-free suits we remove the canvas from the pads to ensure they are linen-free.
  • Sleeve Head: Several layers of canvas and felt are sewn into the seam where the sleeve attaches to the shoulder, giving shape to the upper part of the sleeve.  We replace the linen canvas with cotton-based canvas and linen-free interlining tape.
  • Jacket Chest Canvas: The best chest canvas is made from wool and linen fabric stiffened with horsehair and covered with cotton felt. For Shatnez-free jackets, we use a special linen-free canvas.
  • Reinforcement: Before the advent of durable, high-quality fusible tapes, tailors often used lightweight linen canvas to reinforce key areas such as pockets, cuffs, hems, darts and vents. We insure that all of our tailoring tapes and bindings are linen-free.
  • Pant Waistband Interlining: Our bespoke trousers generally use a layer of the same canvas we use for our suit jackets. For Shatnez-free garments, we remove the canvas and us a linen-free waistband stiffener.
  • Vest Canvas: Our bespoke vests are normally canvased in much the same way as our jackets. However, for Shatnez-free vests we use a special linen-free canvas.