Connect with:
logo
mobile-logo

Standard Blog Whole Post

Art & Antiques, Events, News

By Robin Dutt

I think that I have really had only two hats in my life. I mean professionally. Others simply didn’t fit – or if they did, only for a limited time and I grew out of them – or they of me.

As readers of this magazine might know, I have dedicated much of my life to sartorial expression and conveying the works of tailors, writers, painters and the like who have contributed so much to Savile Row and its perception. The other ‘hat’ is my life as a curator. One might divine that in many ways, both are aspects of artistic expression.

Some time ago, I was approached to create an exhibition celebrating colour, to honour the artistic contribution of an internationally renowned and loved painter/gallerist, Halima Nalecz, pictured above, in whose memory The Church Commissioners are pleased to dedicate a plaque in recognition of her tireless work over decades, encouraging, especially young artists and in many cases giving them their first shows. The site of her gallery was Porchester Place, W2 and this celebration of her work, by happy chance, is taking place opposite this.

But there is another aspect to this story. I had known Halima when the Drian (named after the experimental painter, Mondrian) her famous gallery, was a central London feature, something that emerged in the initial planning conversations.

I remember that first meeting with her very well. I was somehow drawn (the reason is easy enough to understand, given the brilliance of the work) to a painting by John Bellany in the window as I sauntered by one sueded evening.

For a moment, mesmerised by the painter’s colours and subject matter, I did not see an elegant figure in the doorway, about to shut up shop. And then, in an unmistakable drawl which some might say was reminiscent of Zaza Gabor (or so I seem to recall) ‘You really should buy zat painting’. It was Halima Nalecz, as I would later come to know.

There was life and spirit, expression, and intent in the use of bright, energetic colour – no matter the subject chosen

And I really should have. But with a number – and three noughts after it on the accompanying sticker, that wasn’t going to happen. But this well-dressed lady was persuasive and said quite directly that it was an important work which I would never regret buying.

 It is and I do.

After that, I attended many of Halima’s private views – swirling occasions where the well-heeled and the artistically not so, mingled for a very Polish-style vernissage with wine flowing (very important) and a table groaning with Continental-style goodies. The works on show were always interesting and featured now very significant and respected names in the art world such as, Michael Sandle RA, John Pelling, William Crozier and indeed, John Bellany amongst so many more. Household names, one might say – in certain households of appreciation, that is. ‘I believe in the medicine of colours’ she once said in an interview about why she painted herself (bold, beautiful blooms) and also sought out the brightly-hued creations of others.

There was life and spirit, expression, and intent in the use of bright, energetic colour – no matter the subject chosen, whether a portrait or an explosion of flowers, a landscape or an architecturally abstract work. She was one of the most dedicated gallery owners of her and any time. And of course, passion was the root of it all.

And so, ‘Kaleidoscope – A Celebration of Colour’, brings together a huge talent base of young and well-established artists whom I called upon in the grey days of various Covid Lock Downs and relaxations of, to consider being part of this show.

Some 30 or so are included, such as Andrew Flint Shipman, famed for his almost neon-coloured flowers and motifs, David Begbie who has on display, wire mesh, optic nudes in bright hues, Annie Sherburne, celebrated for her textile works, Raphael Klein who stuns with his almost laval, metallic scenes and Lennie Lee who is known for his gargantuan, boldly coloured portraits.  Andrew Gadd always delights with his soulful portraits in atmospheric, shadowy tones.

Others in the show, feature, Antonio Pacitti, Carl le Blond, Graham Hunter, Andrew Prior, Kate Plumb, Theo Platt, Tommy Seaward, Sarah Morgan and the late Howard Morgan, one of the finest portrait painters and landscape artists of recent times.

The emphasis is on the dance, the joy of colour – however interpreted.

 I am delighted to have brought, through all this talent, vibrant rainbows of diverse, surprising, and most enjoyable intent.

The exhibition takes place at 14 Porchester Place, WC2 from Thursday September 9 – Sunday, October 10, from 10am-6pm. More detail here

Picture: © Estate of Bob Collins / National Portrait Gallery, London

0 Comments

By Robin Dutt I think that I have

Events, News, Suits

Report by Daniel Evans

It was, by any standards, a remarkable achievement. The chances of holding a successful Golden Shears 2021 – often called the Oscars of the tailoring industry – looked pretty remote at the beginning of the year. Where would they be held? When would the judging be done? How would the entries be put together?

But it was a challenge taken on with gusto by Golden Shears chairman Simon Cundey. “February would have been the Golden Shears but we had to think a little bit outside the box this time round,” he says. “We are talking about the most prestigious award in craft tailoring and we wanted it to be the best it could be.”

Simon went on: “It’s been a very unusual year – in fact it’s been a very unusual two years. I can safely say that in my lifetime, the last year has been the toughest Savile Row has been through. For the Golden Shears, we filmed the judging taking place and streamed the announcement of the winners live online. All the winners impressed me. They showed a diversity of colour, a diversity of style and had some great characters who can go on to do great things for the companies they’re with or even a chance to do something themselves.”

Top of the pile this year was Richard Anderson’s Tom Carr. “I was in the pub watching the stream on a laptop with six of my mates from the trade,” he recalls. “It was great. I was elated. It was a genuine moment of shock and it was lovely to share that with friends who I have worked with and known since I started seven years ago.”

Tom’s entry was inspired by his grandfather who used to work in the engine rooms of cargo ships. “I entered a siren suit – a one-piece overall garment, popularised in the Second World War when people would hastily go to bunkers. It is something you put on quickly but look smart in as well. I added a despatch rider-inspired overcoat as my second garment. Because the siren suit had a military theme, I wanted my second garment to complement that. The overcoat doesn’t look like a replica piece – it is inspired by some key distinct features, but I gave it a bit more modern pizzazz with the cut and cloth choice.”

Tom decided to work in tailoring after looking into becoming an architect. “I did some work experience in architecture, realised it wasn’t for me so I asked myself: ‘What do I want? OK, I want nice suits, so do I either get a job and buy them in time or do learn how to make them?’

“Learning how to make them seemed more direct so I did my first work experience when I was 16. I would fall behind on my A level coursework but decided this is what I want to do. I was offered a month’s trial at Richard Anderson in September 2014 and I have been here ever since. In fact, in my first months, I actually appeared on Savile Row Style Magazine, posing in front of a Morgan car. I’ve now had my own book of customers for three years. I want to keep making more garments and build up a personal style. I want to make more clothes that I like to wear. I have zero reservations about coming into this industry. I adore it. You don’t realise before you get into the trade how wonderful it is.”

Runner-up and winner of the Silver Shears was Maurice Sedwell’s Judith Ekblom Jarrold whose entry was a male ensemble reimagined for women. “I made a female version of a morning suit – the traditional striped trousers, dove-grey waistcoat and then the morning coat but made for a woman,” she explains. “I made the waistcoat trousers as a jumpsuit so all-in-one and slightly changed some of the style details of the jacket to make it a bit more modern. I don’t see any reason why a woman can’t wear the same things as a man and for it to be flattering and something they enjoy wearing.”

Judith is now general manager at Maurice Sedwell which she joined via the Savile Row Academy. “I enjoy the variety of my job, being able to make stuff that people really want but can’t buy on the high street. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I’d like to be a part of changes that are going to happen on Savile Row – bringing more women in (customers as well as tailors) and bringing the industry into the 21st century. We love the traditions of Savile Row and we mustn’t lose them but we should also start to try and modernise and change the way that we work to suit the world we live in now. My silver medal is proof that people do like to see the traditional stuff reimagined.”

John Pickering, a trainee at Dege & Skinner, was delighted to be chosen as Rising Star in the awards. “I was watching at home with some friends and couldn’t really believe it when my name was read out,” he says. “I made trousers, a coat and a cape in tartan. It used a lot of material. There was lots of cloth and I wanted it to look dramatic when it came out on the runway. It’s definitely a winter outfit.”

Simon Cundey was clearly a relieved man when the awards were presented at a special event held at The Service on Savile Row one evening in the middle of August but felt some of the enforced changes this year could be incorporated in the future. “Covid taught us a few things about doing the event at a bigger scale,” he said. “We put together a film which we could send out and show people what was going on. And streaming the event live is something we could continue. Individual colleges could have a party on the night and stream the event so the next generation can see what Golden Shears is about. Having this moment when we had to think out of the box to make this event a success, we have opened up a few new avenues which we can explore and add into the next production.

“Going forward, we’d hope to return to hosting the event at The Merchant Taylors’ Hall in Threadneedle Street. We would have the parents, the entrants and the trade all in one place and have the excitement of having the rapport of the crowd. Just like any sport, it is a driven event where you need impact. When your trade entrant is going down the walkway, you want that roar of applause and when the winner is announced, you want their supporters to go crazy – you want the mother to go crazy and the father to be so proud and that’s what the moment is – that’s something we’ve really missed this year.”

Simon, who is managing director at Henry Poole & Co, was full of praise for the work and effort put in by the judges. There are ten – five on the technical side and five who look at the style of the entries. This year, the technical judges were Joe Morgan from Chittleborough & Morgan, Brigitte Steppputtis from Vivienne Westwood, Jonathan Becker from Couch & Hoskin, Leon Powell from Anderson & Sheppard and Davide Taub from Gieves & Hawkes. The style judges were Daisy Knatchbull, founder of The Deck, journalist and creative strategist Aleks Cvetkovic, presenter and illustrator Lilah Parsons, TV presenter Dave Berry and Tom Chamberlin, editor-in-chief of The Rake magazine.

Simon explained: “We take the garments to the five technical judges. First, they evaluate the sketching and the style, second, they look at the pattern so what you see on paper in terms of design is formatted into the pattern and, finally, they look at how the pattern has arrived in the final garment. That adds up to 50 per cent of the marks. The other 50 per cent comes from the style judges who look at the garments from a fashion point of view.”

And Simon was quick to thank the partners and supporters of the Golden Shears – The Pollen Estate, owner of the majority of buildings on Savile Row, The Merchant Taylors’ Company and The Drapers’ Company, CAPITB Trust and The Textile Institute. “Without their invaluable support, we would not be able to hold the event,” said Simon. “We depend on their backing.”

Simon has seen the awards develop since they began back in 1974. He says: “Golden Shears has become a lot more creative with brighter, bolder colours. You can’t just turn up with a two-piece suit – there has to be a little twist to it. A lot of it is taking something from the past and tweaking it for the future. When Golden Shears was started by Robert Bright, it was all about the classic, fitted look but now you have the avant-garde-ness that really generates it but it’s done with taste. Everything is styled and crafted to the highest quality.”

To celebrate the awards at The Service, the drinks were sponsored by Savile Row Gin whose MD Stewart Lee said: “We are delighted to support this event and congratulations to the winners. On behalf of the company, we would like to present each of the winners with a bottle of Savile Row Gin.”

0 Comments

Report by Daniel Evans It was, by any

Dining

OenoHouse, the London flagship commercial space for the fine wine investment company OenoGroup, has launched as an elegant fine wine boutique with tasting room and outside alfresco terrace.

Branded as an intimate space in the heart of the city, OenoHouse will be a top fine wine shop where wine lovers can sample and buy rare and iconic wines from all over the world.

Led by a team of international wine experts, it will welcome a rotation of pop-up appearances from some of their favourite brands such as Penfolds, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, and Liber Pater which will attract fine wine collectors and consumers alike.

Wines served at the launch included Château Haut-Brion, Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Mouton Rothschild, Château Latour and Château Margaux.

OenoHouse is run by an all-female team. Newly appointed General Manager Luisa Martinello, former Manager of Harrod’s wine shop, is joined by Assistant General Manager Katerin D’Alfonso who was former head sommelier at Browns Hotel.

And lest you were wondering, Oeno (pronounced “Oh-Way-No”) is named after oenology (the study of wine or “oinos” from Ancient Greek).

0 Comments

OenoHouse, the London flagship commercial space for

Media and Music, News, Tailor News

Book review by Robin Dutt

I have interviewed Dame Vivienne Westwood on several occasions and each time was a discovery. Perhaps the first was most memorable.

I arranged to have tea with her at Fortnum and Mason – the fourth floor (the best of their restaurants) and she turned up one early summer afternoon in a twinset and a cloth crown. Somehow Toytown.

One might imagine that the ladies who met for their regular tea and a slice were (in their Jaeger, Nieper and Aquascutum separates) a mite bemused. For, La Westwood commanded and still commands a room. Then there was the time she sent male models down the catwalk half dressed. Let me qualify.

Shirt, tie, jacket all present and correct. But they wore nothing – at all – on their lower halves thus affording the viewer a charming chance of, shall we say…comparison? A pointe de vue indeed. Strangely, it didn’t look shocking at all. Perhaps it was heroic, Grecian…

Autumn-Winter 2013: Westwood in Paris

‘Vivienne Westwood -Catwalk’ is the latest (and impressively heavyweight tome) charting the internationally feted designer’s presence on the runway. She has made several firsts and is an inspired climate change/environmentalist speaker. She gave a swirling speech at the Wallace Collection some time ago wearing a headband emblazoned with the word ‘Chaos’ and one might have been reminded of a delightfully dotty grandmother one didn’t have the honour or temerity – or chance to have.

I once attended an event where she had created a salon of gorgeous models in King’s Cross Station parading in evening ‘gowns’ made of fine, woven floral carpets, by Brintons – the scion of which I had taught PR and Marketing to – an age ago at some posh college. That she knows how to stage a show is not in doubt and this book, weighing in at surely half a stone, attests to her legacy.

Her debut was in 1981 but her real beginning was as the godmother of Punk, a few years before, creating sex-pleasure iconic and ironic modes for Kings Road denizens and beyond, her shop with the fast-paced clock spinning backwards, a clue as to her love of and reliance on the past for inspiration. And that has never changed. Glamour and grit – danger and sophistication. It is clear that this artist plays with an especial palette. She is passionate about intellectuals and philosophers.

She referred to her one time paramour, Malcolm McClaren in one of my interviews with her as ‘a Svengali’. Expression for her is all. Rejection of experiential experience is naught.

Perhaps she believes that fashion is simply a matter of recycling ideas. But it is how those ideas are recycled that is of the utmost import. And also, why? Ideas do not die. Yes … plunder the eighteenth century, reconfigure a piratical look, give a name to tumble-down Mid Western Prairie dressing aka the Buffalo Girls, go Pagan, sculpt chunky penis buttons (and even make male and female genitalia pasta shapes – the better to soak up the creamy sauce) and contemplate the glories of ‘Ultra Femininity’, ‘Showroom’ ‘ Civilizade’ and ‘Hypnos’.

She has frequently returned to favourites – tweed, tartan, bias-cut silk, the corset and the frock coat and these (more than) elements appear many times in her panoply of catwalk imagery. And then there is the iconic leather or suede boxy jackets, flappy shearling luxury car salesmen coats and strappy boots which have been ripped off the world over.

One of her early shops was simply called ‘Sex’ and this theme has remained the centrepiece of each and every one of her catwalk presentations. Well…they do say that sex sells. ‘The only reason I’m in fashion is to destroy the word “conformity”‘ says England’s most controversial Dame.

And she also advocates not to buy her clothes but buy well, repair, re patch. She is a firm believer of the fact that one will have ‘a more interesting life if one wears interesting clothes.’

Alexander Fury’s insightful texts which accompany the photographs are well-observed and enthusiastic. And Westwood is keen to convey her love of the magical power and significance of textiles. Even when I was a student, it was a given that the textile itself was the designer – allowing what could be possible and appropriate. Indeed you can force tweed, cotton, velvet, silk to do anything in terms of design. But will it be correct? The very tissu has a voice. And every true designer has an ear.

In her own words she declares, “my love for English tailoring and Savile Row fabrics: chalk stripe, pin stripes, tattersall – barathea in hunting red – black velvet looks seductive with tartan”.

It just might be that she alone on this special isle reminds the world of that uniqueness of English tradition. But done … her way.

Vivienne Westwood – Catwalk (Thames & Hudson)

0 Comments

Book review by Robin Dutt I have interviewed

News, Tailor News

It could be said that tailor Joshua Millard might be an experimenter of “elemental exaggeration” in clothes, suggests Robin Dutt.

Seemingly oversized and capacious, sporting larger than usual details such as cuff straps and pocket flaps in leather for instance, his desire is to convey a certain fluid rusticity to his line. Shapes and styles are often traditional – the staple Norfolk jacket, for example and the use of tweeds and shearling seem firm favourites.

In some ways, this young designer might be said to share the same or similar ethos to Dame Vivienne Westwood who has often expressed the utilitarian smartness of well-cut and often ‘floating’ clothes in her collections, a sinuous body curve partnering a more strident sleeve line, for example.

Millard, after entering the Carnaby X London College of Fashion: Kingly Street Tailors competition (originated by Shaftesbury), was awarded a two-year rent-free space at the tailoring studios at 26 Carnaby Street and has recently opened his new permanent store in Carnaby’s Newburgh Quarter.

Joshua Millard: ‘clean lines, palette and comfort’

Since the 1960s (and a shade before) Carnaby Street has – with a few wilderness years to consider – has always been home to tailoring, experimental fashion and even ironic modes of dress for men and women.

In the 60s and 70s and a skip away from Savile Row, the Carnaby creators were continuing the tradition of the uniqueness and global desirability of British – not to say English – clothing that was feted by film and pop stars and young fun-seekers in equal measure.
Without being purposefully and obviously eccentric (as Millard’s cut is faithful to British tailoring) his silhouette is immediately noticeable and different and the fusing of the spirit of town and country only too evident, from the clothing itself to the consciously styled photography featuring unusual models.

Millard says: “I want the shop environment to echo the sensibilities of the British countryside through rich texture and materials, yet balanced with clean lines, palette and comfort.”

With the country in mind, this ethos extends, for example to the rails, crafted by Millard himself from fallen ash trees. A portion of each sale is donated to PlantLife to aid endangered wildflower growth in UK arable locales.

Indeed, comfort in clothing should be thought of as a tailoring hallmark anyway, rather than the erroneous view held by many of formality and tightness. Drape and shape conspire to provide form following, form fitting garments which do not constrict and convey their wearer’s personality.

Shaftesbury, which owns and manages a 16-acre property portfolio in the West End of London, will continue to support young British tailoring talent, offering two new London College of Fashion Graduating Tailors the opportunity to work from 26 Kingly Street in September 2021.

Joshua Millard is at 1 Marlborough Court, Soho, W1F 7EE

0 Comments

It could be said that tailor Joshua