MEN LOSE OUT IN THE CREDIT CRUNCH

So far, there seem to be no statistics recording the reduction of spending on men’s clothing as compared to women’s in the face of economic strictures. But you can bet your bottom dollar that in the average household, it’s the female budget that takes precedence over male garment needs, following a long established pattern.

This isn’t simply because women’s fashion change more frequently, nor that women have a greater need for new clothes (though that has to be taken into consideration).
Men’s clothes last longer because they are better made, in better materials, even at the lower end of the price scale, and generally have a styling that remains fairly constant.

For design students, this has long meant that the attraction has been to go into the womenswear field, where there is clearly greater scope for design originality, for colour, fun and frankly outlandish flights of fancy. A recent increase in the numbers opting to do menswear design, welcome though it is, has seen some of these womenswear characteristics woefully applied to male outfits that leave their male models looking laughably ridiculous.

At the graduate presentations which have taken place over the summer months, a fair sprinkling of menswear collections illustrated this point. But as with the Golden Shears competition staged earlier in the year, the more outré designs attract attention to young talents that are perfectly capable of somewhat less exuberant styles.

Whether this means any of this year’s crop could adjust to the disciplines of Savile Row remains to be seen.

The tableau above, from the Graduate Fashion Week, shows designs that may be coming to a tailor near you, sometime in the future.

TOMORROW'S TAILORING TALENTS?

A HOTHOUSE of young design talent, Kingston College of Fashion kicked off the proceedings at Graduate Fashion Week in London this summer with a humdinger of a show that opened with a menswear collection – a very rare occurrence that illustrates the increased attention to menswear.

The Alexander James collection presented some impressive details, especially trousers that had fullness from a meticulous insert of fine pleats across a diagonal seam at the hip, tapering in at the ankle. Trousers in other collections also favoured a tapered, almost  gathered-in effect, with concertina bottoms.

Menswear collections were well represented in the output of Northumbria University graduates, with Maxwell Holmes one to watch. His theme was a “return to the sartorial values of our antecedents, when dressing one’s self was considered an obligation as much as an indulgence”. He moves between classic tailoring and fun casual.

These graduate collections attract big names from around the world, which see London as the source of new creative talents. They are there to snap up emerging stars but with foreign jobs inevitably fewer this year, Savile Row is being given more consideration.

Only those bent upon a studious attention to quality and long years acquiring bespoke skills will find the Row's disciplines to their liking – but Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and other design luminaries launched their careers on the basis of a bespoke training.

In a difficult year for any graduates seeking employment, some Savile Row houses and some young designers may benefit from getting together.

Tapering trousers with concertina bottoms and others with bottoms tucked into shoes were favoured by Alexander James, as above, with cummerbund-type belt. Patterned jacket, above, is by Maxwell Holmes, not shown to best advantage here.