Full canvas, half canvas or fused?

A perfect Suit Quality has three parameters

1. Suit Fit

2. Fabric Feel

3. Suit Construction

In this post will discuss on third parameter, suit construction. The make of your suit has advantages and consequences you should know. There are three different ways to construct a suit Jacket, 

1. Full Canvas

2. Half Canvas
3. Fused

Full Canvas

1. Full canvas / Floating Canvas - Back in the day, all suits were made of canvas. It was usually a horsehair canvas, which is sewn between the lining and the cloth of the jacket. The canvas allows the suit fabric to drape properly and will mold to your body over time (for the perfect fit). It aids in the longevity of the suit by distributing tension at stress points (shoulders, elbows), it allows the suit to “breathe” and holds up to repeated dry cleaning.

Half Canvas

2. Half Canvas - Eventually, a compromise was developed: a half canvas suit. A half canvased suit uses a sewn in canvas piece in the chest and the lapel of the jacket, and is fused on the bottom part of the jacket. This allows you to have the canvas at the most important part of the suit, and keeps the price down by having less handwork.

Fused

3. Fused -  Technology advances in the 20th century allowed manufacturers to produce all manner of goods much more quickly & inexpensively than previous possible. A fused jacket has a fusible interlining that’s glued to the main fabric of the suit – both in the front panels and in the lapels. Fusing of the jacket gives required 3D shape. In recent time a lot of development happen around quality of fusing specially on the quality of lamination, stretch and softness. 

Further by adding a small piece of canvas from shoulder to bust point in fused suit, we can cover the very critical body part for a good fit.

All three techniques have different properties & advantage, below table is comparing that. 

Sr. No	Properties	Full Canvas	Half Canvas	Fused
1	Conforms to your body & fits better with time	Yes	Partially	No
2	Fluidity	Max	Almost No	Almost No
3	Risk of delamination	No	Yes	Yes
4	Lapel Roll	Yes	Yes	Partial
5	Fabric Feel	True	Partial	Partial
6	Drape	Natural	Close to Natural	Man Made
7	Maintenance	Most	Less	Least
8	Skills required to Produce	Highly Skilled	Skilled	Skilled
9	Most Development  in recent time	Less	Moderate	High
10	Weight	Light	Heavy	Heavy
11	Expensive	Most	Less	Least

How Can I Tell if my Suit is Fused, Half-Canvassed or Full-Canvassed? 

It’s called the “pinch” test. Grab your suit between the buttonholes with one finger on each side and pinch to see if you can feel a layer of fabric between the inner lining and the outer suit fabric. If you can feel a distinct third layer that’s “floating”, then you may have a full-canvassed suit. If you don’t feel anything, you may have a fused suit. In either scenario, you may have a half-canvassed suit depending on how far down your selected haberdasher cut the canvassing and whether it overlaps with the chest piece.  Compounding all of this is the fact that there are different types of canvas, some thinner than others, which could cause you to miss it.

Like all things in life, quality starts from the inside out.

Got a question on suit jacket canvassing? Leave a comment below!