THE FUTURE IS GETTING BRIGHTER

AS we emerge from the huddle of winter, from the chrysalis of protective apparel, blinking into the bright light of Spring, so a desire to shuck off dreary dark clothes in favour of something a little brighter is as natural as the birds and the bees.

Too many men still stifle this impulse, conditioned by all those years of  dark and formal uniform. But freer spirits are indulging in the sort of colourings and patterns that will make heads turn and horses stare. Go on, give in to it, and take a leaf out of the sort of designs featured here.

Gresham Blake, based partly in Brighton and partly in London’s fashionista hot spot of Spitalfields, devotes his latest promotion to numbers that once would have sent a traditional tailor apoplectic.

Brightly patterned suits, shorts suits, abstract patterned jackets, bar striped sports jackets all illustrate how far we have come from the sober sides of yesteryear. Though these may be seen in a ready-to-wear context, he is more than happy to provide similarly extrovert materials for his bespoke creations.

With such alumni as Ray Winstone, Richard E. Grant and Steve Coogan  among his fans/customers, he attracts those who want originality – though he is equally at home with the kind of classic dark business suit that even the most eccentric of dressers continues to appreciate.

Check out his website, quite one of the best, at www.greshamblake.com 

Alan Bennett is one of Savile Row’s most respected tailors, steeped in the classic craft of the Row, and rescuer of many an old tailoring name. Yet for all his traditional training and pretty conservative (small c) persona, he has made suits and shorts suits in the brilliantly coloured and patterned cloths of Dashing Tweeds.

For those who don’t know of Dashing Tweeds, it creates wonderfully colourful cloth designs, produced in British mills, and has just opened its first shop on Sackville Street, just around the corner from the Row. There’s a fine collection of ready-to-wear here as well as accessories and of course the cloths.

Alan Bennett is the man who made the first shorts suit for Dashing Tweeds director, Guy Hill, as well as a variety of other equally eye-catching outfits. Here, he has used a fine silk cloth for this immaculately tailored, double breasted style.www daviesandson.com

John Pearse has a peerless pedigree as an originator, starting way back when at Hawes & Curtis, and going on to be the supremo at the iconic ‘Granny Takes a Trip’ shop in London’s Kings Road during the 1960s. A somewhat frantic lifestyle followed, here and in the US, before he settled down to doing what he does best, fine tailoring with an edge, at his discreet shop in Soho.

He  likes to create funky designs and show them in his window, where they certainly catch the eye – as this brilliantly coloured jacket. Some may be bought as ready-to-wear, some may provide inspiration for bespoke outfits.

He remains an individual tailor, something of an iconoclast outside the Savile Row loop, but very much of its standards. www.johnpearse.co.uk