For centuries, overheating has been one of the downsides of the
job. Dressed in traditional dinner jacket, the men of many classical
orchestras have, over the years, risked meltdown in the heat of
summer while on the concert hall platform or in the orchestra pit.
But if the gentlemen of the London Philharmonic Orchestra looked a little more cool and collected than normal in recent months, Marks and Spencer can take the credit. M&S have been testing their special new high-tech dinner suit on players performing with Glyndebourne Festival Opera in Sussex over the summer.
Made from Coolmax, a breathable fabric previously used only in high performance sportswear, the suits move moisture away from the body to the outside of the material in a process that is often described as 'wicking'.
Throw in machine washability and M&S believes it has created a product that will stop even the most highly strung musician getting hot under the collar.
Bob St. John Wright, a first violinist, said: 'We do nearly 70 performances a year in the pit during Glyndebourne and it gets incredibly hot. Even with air-conditioning in the theatre, the audience were in shirt-sleeves this summer and we were in dinner suits, slaving away playing Verdi. But this suit feels half the weight of what we usually wear. It's a real bonus.'
Andy Barclay, a percussionist, added: 'Having a suit that is also washable is great — especially as we're wearing them five nights a week in the summer.'
A spokeswoman for M&S said its designers had decided that there was a need for a dinner suit that not only looked stylish but was, in effect, air-conditioned.
Then they pondered who they could get to test it out. 'We were looking at ways of trialling it on real people but, with it being a dinner suit, there are very few areas or professions in which people wear dinner suits all the time,' the spokeswoman said.
They gave a range of suits to the LPO to model and they proved a triumph. 'They're still wearing them for their 2005–06 season at the Wigmore Hall,' she said. 'It's a good partnership.'
The Coolmax suit is exclusive to Marks and Spencer,
where it has just become available in 130 of its stores [at a price of £129].
Bob St. John Wright had only one lament. 'I just wish they made tail suits in
it.'
