Savile Row : Style Magazine

FOR MEN WHO KNOW BEST

TAILORS AT No 1 LONDON

The seasonal menswear jamboree of London Collections: Men – more succinctly referred to as LCM – hit town early in the New Year, boasting a small exhibition and a cavalcade of catwalk shows.

This event, which attracts a motley crowd of bloggers, students, fashionistas and serious menswear buyers from around the world, has grown rapidly since its inception just three years ago. Focused upon ready-to-wear and designer collections, it is the male equivalent of the highly successful London Fashion Week for womenswear, and like the women’s event, has become an international draw noted for its original design element.

Into this maelstrom have ventured a number of bespoke practitioners. They represent the move towards offering ready-to-wear collections by tailors keen to develop an online trade. Ede & Ravenscroft, Kilgour, and Gieves & Hawkes were among the Savile Row names who gave individual presentations of their ready-to-wear.

Savile Row staged its own presentation with a grand social event at Apsley House. This magnificent pile on Hyde Park Corner boasts the ultimate London address – No 1, London – which dates back to when it was the home of the hero of Waterloo, Lord Wellington. Still owned by the Wellesley family, leased to English Heritage, it provided a fabulous backdrop of paintings, furnishing and objet d’art for an exclusive menswear evening.

At top, a trio in formal evening dress; left, the big overcoats that will be big next winter; below, riding and country wear ;and formal mess wear below.

Arranged in tableux of military, country, evening, formal day and casual styles throughout the house, there were outfits from Henry Poole, Anderson & Sheppard, Chittleborough & Morgan, Edward Sexton, Richard Anderson, Welsh & Jefferies, Maurice Sedwell, Gieves & Hawkes, Huntsman, Chester Barrie, Lutwych and Richard James.

Wellington would certainly have been wearing a uniform made of British wool at Waterloo, as would his army. So it was perhaps fitting that this lavish party should be supported by the Woolmark Company, especially as most of the tailored outfits on display were made in wool cloths from English mills.

This is the bicentary year of the Battle of Waterloo, and there will be many grand occasions held at No 1 London in the year ahead. It was therefore quite a coup for Savile Row to be granted use of this elegant setting by the Earl of Mornington at the very start of the year.

A happy throng of London’s tout monde crowded into Apsley House, with a fair sprinkling of celebrities and international visitors, and gave some attention to the clothes and their setting, whilst enjoying champagne and canapés.

It was a pity there was not identification of the individual outfits. This is perhaps taking Savile Row’s renowned reticence for self-promotion to excessive lengths – their own labels hidden away inside the inside breast pocket of a coat – and somewhat at odds with the promotional object of the exercise.

Continued over, click here

To view snapshot videos from some of the shows at LCM, click on the links below.

The English Gentleman at Apsley House

SPRING 2015

:: SAVILE ROW Style Magazine ::

	HOME

	APSLEY HOUSE PARTY

	VIDEO SHORTS

	TAILOR SHOWS

	ROW IN THE MOVIES

	NEW SRB CHAIRMAN

	GOLD STANDARDS

	DINING OUT

	DRINKING UP

	TRAVEL NOTES

	SUBSCRIPTION and contact

	TAILOR LISTS

	To register for future editions of www.savilerow-style.com click here. The Spring print edition of Savile Row Style Magazine will be out in April. To order or take out a subscription, click here Contact Brittany Dorrell at brittany.srs@outlook.com for further details.

:: NEWCOMER ::

THERE were plenty of original and even somewhat whacky menswear designs offered up at the LCM shenanigans, revealed in a variety of showcases around town. What was particularly heartening was the quality of the clothes, from the most casual to the more formal classics.

The LCM collections are largely aimed at a young-ish, style-conscious and adventurous market that now demands quality as well as originality.

One of the newcomers to the exhibition of new ranges staged in Covent Garden was CSB London. However, the man behind the brand is by no means a newcomer to the menswear industry.

Christopher Brogden started off studying tailoring at the London College of Fashion and won an award there from the Merchant Taylors Society some 15 years ago.

He went on to gain experience in designing at such leading brands as Emanuel Ungaro, DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger and then Crombie, and was responsible for the launch of Crombie’s autumn/winter collection last year. With that under his belt, he felt it was time to launch his own company, with the resulting first collection presented at this LCM.

It has a clean, well tailored but relaxed look to it, slim tailoring, preppy, cropped trousers.

He was inspired, he relates, by the ‘flaneurs’ or dandies of the 18th century, who were so committed to taking time to admire art, style and architecture around Paris in the 18th century that they took pet tortoises for walkies to ensure a slow perambulation.

“I want to eventually move on to do bespoke, as well as made to measure,” he reveals. He has a source set up ready to start making made-to-measure coats and suits. “This should be ready to go in a few months, with a turn around of four to five weeks.”