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MenswearspeciallBespoke orready to wear?

We help you decide

lSuit care:top tipsfor sartorial longevity


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TheGentlemans Tailor


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The Number 1 Shirtmaker to the City

Heres some of you wearing them

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Suits and the City 27CITYA.M. 30 JUNE 2011

SQUARE MILE STYLESLeft: pinstripe suit by Hackett, price on application.www.hackett.co.uk; Middle: navy double-breasted suit byGieves & Hawkes, 2,250 www.gievesandhawkes.com.

Right: two-button navy suit by Brooks Brothers,from 349, www.brooksbrothers.com

THE Citys menfolk have been through

various versions of the traditionalbusiness uniform, each a reflection ofthe age in which they were worn. The

pinstriped, bowler-hatted patrician of old;the jacket-off, red-braces bravado of the 80s;the dress-down-Friday scruffs of the 90s;the wide-tied, wide-striped wide-boys of themore recent boom. Clichs all, but eachfounded in truth.

Right now, though, the City is witness-ing a bit of a golden age for good suiting.

The sobriety of the post-recession era, thereturn of heritage values and the interestin traditional craft and style, whichcolours everything from our food choicesto our TV watching witness the success ofMad Men and Boardwalk Empire has re-emphasised the elegance of a English suit.

And that chap with the bowler hat andumbrella, long an object of ridicule, is sud-denly an icon of old-fashioned style.

A few years ago people were dressingdown and it got a bit casual, but right nowpeople want to look really smart, says JohnHitchcock, head cutter at legendary SavileRow tailoring house Anderson Sheppard.Ive been in the trade over 45 years and Ivenever seen it so busy. Even when I joined thecompany they said itll turn to ready-made,

but good tailoring always comes back andright now its snowballed and a lot of thatis down to the City.

This is not simply about chaps wantingto luxuriate in the trappings of good, old-fashioned styling though. As Christ Scott-Gray of made-to-measure specialist ChesterBarrie points out, serious times requireserious sartorial effort. Where we are nowas a country and an economy, and the Cityas an institution, make it a time for people

who look as though they mean business.Its a time for gravitas.

Which means if youre still rocking thesame off-the-peg suit youve been wearingfor years, on the basis that its just aboutadequate and youd rather save yourmoney for a holiday, youre seriously

The classic English business suit was born in the Square

Mile and is having a major resurgence, says Timothy Barber

Sharp style comes home to the City

behind the curve. Carin King of menswearstyle consultancy Purple Eagle, says those

who dont make the effort to look theirbest will find themselves held back.

If you care about your presentation, itsuggests that you also care about the pres-entation of others. We know if we feelsmart or not, and if we dont, it can be

betrayed in our behaviour, our manner-isms and even our posture. Others appreci-ate your smart appearance becausesubconsiously it makes them feel good

being around you.If you work in the City, Chris Scott Gray

says the bare minimum number of suitsyou should own is five one for each day ofthe week. Patrick Grant of Norton & Sonsreckons double that more suits extendsthe life of your investment. A plain char-

coal suit and a navy suit single breasted,two button should form the basis of any

wardrobe, and from there you can investbuild up your collection.

If you cant afford too many suits, a sec-ond pair of trousers will make it lastlonger, says Grant.

Right now, the big boom area is in three-piece suits, which had almost vanished afew years ago. The skill of making waist-coats was dying out, and all of a sudden wecant make enough of them we needanother person in the workshop working

just on them, says John Hitchcock. JamesSleater of rising City tailors Cad & theDandy says that three years ago his compa-ny made waistcoats for one in 100 suits;now its as much as one in three.

Double-breasted suits are continuingtheir rather gradual return to the fray,

while even pinstripe, the pattern the Citymade famous, is beginning to pick upagain, after falling from favour amid thhestrife of the banking crisis.

The power suit is cmoing back a bit,says John Hitchcock. People could carry itoff quite well until everyone started hit-ting on bankers, but the stripes will come

back theyre what the City is all about.

Right, the City has astrong sartorialtradition.

Picture: GETTY


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Suits and the City28 CITYA.M. 30 JUNE 2011

espoke,

THE difference between bespoke,made to measure and ready to

wear is neither incidental norarbitrary. It is very important in

the consideration that goes into buy-ing a new suit and is tightly defined.

The term bespoke tends to bebandied around pretty liberally today,but in the context of tailoring it rep-resents a wonderful tradition thatexhibits the best of British craft.It means a suit that is cut byhand, creating a unique paperpattern, and made by hand, usu-ally in the vicinity of the cut-ting. It creates a suit that fits

better than any other.Made to measure (MTM) is

best thought of in the contextof ready to wear (RTW). The lat-ter was pioneered by theItalians in the 1950s, who seg-mented the male form intodifferent sizes for mass pro-duction. The vast majority ofthe worlds suits are nowmade this way.

MTM is usually made in thesame factory, just individually.Instead of making a batch, a fewspecific measurements are punchedin to the master computer and onesuit pops out, cut to your personaldimensions. The chest, waist, sleevelength, trouser length and trouser

waist are yours. Which means it fitsperfectly, right?

INFINITE MEASUREMENTSWell, not quite. Even MTM suits thattake into account more than a dozenmeasurements rarely fit as well as

bespoke. Imagine the long, S-shapedcurve of your back, seen in profile.How many measurements does ittake to recreate that? I think themathematicians would tell us thenumber is infinite. The fact is,

bespoke patterns are often drawn andcut by eye, with the cutter using hismeasurements and notes as a guide.MTM will never take into account theamount you stoop or which shoulderis lower than the other.

So bespoke is always better? Again,its not that simple. First, it costs a lotmore. MTM usually costs between

500 and 1,000; a bespoke SavileRow suit will set you back 2,500to 4,000. Whether its worthspending five times as muchdepends on how much youvalue the make of the suit andhow hard it is to find a suit thatfits you. The latter point can bemisleading: a lot of men thinkthey are an average size, buttheyve never looked at theirsuit from the back and seenhow it collapses into wrinklesas soon as they put it on.

PRACTICAL AND AESTHETIC The way a bespoke suit ismade has advantages that are

both practical and aesthetic.The work that goes into every-thing from the lining of the

waistband to the stitching of thepockets means the suit will last a lotlonger. And even the hand sewing ofthe buttonholes creates a sharp,raised stitch that its easy to becomeobsessive about. As John Hitchcock,head cutter at bespoke tailor

Anderson & Sheppard puts it: Abespoke suit is a great work, and onewhich will last you for exactly as longas you look after it.

But quality and fit are semi-inde-pendent. Chester Barries range is agood example. It stocks RTW andMTM suits in its Savile Row store thatare 70 per cent handmade and haveall the bespoke accoutrements likethose lovely buttonholes. Its not as

Sartorial expert Simon Crompton says it dependson how you prioritise fit, quality, style and cost

simple as just trading up from readyto wear to made to measure to

bespoke, says Chris Scott-Gray atChester Barrie. They overlap andintertwine, depending on your priori-ties.

Theres also the question of style.

The tailor Timothy Everest offershandmade RTW, aimed at customers

who love the detail and trappings of,say, a Donegal-tweed button-up jacket

but cant afford to have one made. Aswith those willing to pay 2,800 for aRalph Lauren Purple Label suit, they

buy the design and aspire to the fit.

GOOD VALUEBespoke is a wonderful process but itcan be frustrating few customersare capable suit designers, at least

when they start out. But such is thefashion for better-cut suits now thatluxury brands like Daks and AlfredDunhill have started offering MTMservices, while even high street

brands like Reiss and Moss Bros aregetting onboard with good-valueMTM. Pick the design off the rail and

just wait a few weeks to have a suitmade that fits you better, even if ithas none of the handmade quality ofa true bespoke number.

In the end the choice betweenbespoke, MTM and RTW means decid-ing how much you care about fit,quality and style as well as cost, and

you need to understand what a partic-ular retailer is offering you in thosecategories. Getting it out of them,however, may be just as hard as decid-ing what you want.Simon Crompton is the author of the mensstyle website www.permanentstyle.co.uk

THE resurgence in suit wearing overthe past few years has seen a slewof young companies appear offer-ing tailored suits at recession-

friendly prices. The denizens of Savile Rowmay turn their noses up at such upstarts,who make no bones about saving costs bymaking their suits abroad, but theres nodenying the value they offer. A suit cut toyour personal measurements and tastecan be purchased for as little as 400.

The entrepreneurs behind these busi-nesses make strong claims for the qualityof the product too. James Sleater and IainMeiers, the former City bankers who threeyears ago founded Cad & the Dandy(www.cadandthedandy.co.uk), point out

that their Shanghai workshop employstailors trained by Savile Row pros, making

suits by hand. Their top tier suits sell for750 and are cut in London, before beingput together in China a process they alsoundertake on behalf of other London tai-lors for suits that sell at Savile Row prices.

Another of the most established nameson the scene is A Suit that Fits(www.asuitthatfits.com), which celebratesits fifth birthday this week. It employs100 tailors in Nepal, who are paid 50 percent over the local rate, and where fund-ing from the company has paid for a sci-ence laboratory and a new rubberisedplayground at the local school. Its suitscost on average 450, though they startat 200. The company operates nation-wide, with 12 permanent, appointment-

only studios and 18 other locations whereits tailors stop once a week.

If these businesses names reflect theirfounders eagerness to separate them-selves from the sober deference of SavileRow, then so does their approach to tech-nology and marketing. Cad & the Dandy,who are making rugby player MikeTindalls morning suit for his wedding toZara Phillips, won a major award for theiruse of online tech to make the flow ofbusiness between them and their suppli-ers more efficient.

The website for A Suit that Fits, mean-while, hosts style blogs from several of itsemployees.

We wanted to make tailoring accessi-ble, says co-founder David Hathiramani.The name came out of the idea of a suit

to fit your personality, your style and yourbudget.

Below, grey purewool hosack suitfrom ChesterBarrie, 595.www.chesterbar-rie.co.uk

The rise and rise of tailoring that wont break the bank

Below, bespokethree-piece suit byThom Sweeney,1,635.www.thom-sweeney.co.uk

James Sleaterand Iain Meiers,founders of Cad

& the Dandy

Bmade to measureor ready to wear?


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CHESTER BARRIES OFFER FOR READERSChester Barrie, the made to measure and ready towear specialist with shops on Savile Row and inthe City branch of House of Fraser, is offering CityA.M. readers an extra 10 per cent off in its cur-rent summer sale. The offer is only available at

the House of Fraser store on King William Streetby the Monument just bring this issue ofCityA.M. with you to claim your extra discount.www.chesterbarrie.co.uk

SIMON CARTERS NEW STOREMenswear and accessories brand Simon Carter whose products products are stocked everywherefrom Selfridges to Bloomingdales is launching athird London shop on Lambs Conduit Street inBloomsbury [pictured left]. The company has also

just relaunched its website, where plenty of itsEnglish-styled items can be picked up:www.simoncarter.net

DAKS LAUNCHES MADE TO MEASUREBritish sartorial brand Daks, whose flagship storeis on Old Bond Street, has launched a made tomeasure service. Customers are measured up byin-house tailoring experts, and guided through

fabric and style options. Every suit is made in

Italy, and takes up to six weeks to be ready.Prices start from 1,450. www.daks.com

ALFRED DUNHILL CUSTOMLuxury brand Alfred Dunhill [its HQ, BourdonHouse, pictured right] is offering a different takeon Made to Measure. Customers can choose fromtwo signature Dunhill cuts (one a traditionalSavile Row fit, one with a slimmer, more contem-porary shape), as well as choosing the type oflapel, vent and pockets. Theres also custom shirt-ing to choose from. Measurements will be kept onfile, and the service is available at over 80 Dunhillstores worldwide. www.dunhill.com

TM LEWIN LAUNCHES WHITE LABELTM Lewin is introducing a new range of hand fin-ished suits and shirts under the title White Label.Suits are available in 120s wool and cashmerecloth, while shirts come in 140s and 180s cottons.

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AUSTIN REED FLIES THE FLAGAustin Reed is launching an expanded offer ofsuits with British cloths, with 11 mixers coming inmade exclusively from local cloth, as well asrelaunching the Sumit shirt, originally brought outby Austin Reed himself in 1909, with interchange-able collars (cut away or classic forward point.)

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NEWS FROM THE SHOPS

How to take a

Savile Rowlegend global

CEO John Durnin tells Timothy Barber whyGieves & Hawkes is going up in the world

FOR all that its seen as a bastion ofsteadfast, stiff-upper-lip Englishness,Savile Row has always been a place ofshifting sands. Tailoring houses have

hopped from one address to another, oth-ers have swallowed up their failing rivals,

new blood has appeared regularly to shakeup the establishment while other tailorshave come and gone.

Take Gieves & Hawkes: one of the grand-est, greatest names on the Row, occupier ofthe splendid premises at No 1 Savile Row,particularly famous for its naval and mili-tary tailoring and its royal clientele. In fact,until 1974 it was two separate businesses Gieves on Old Bond Street, Hawkes & Co onSavile Row. An IRA bomb did for the Gievesshop just as the two firms amalgamated,the new company bringing four combinedcenturies of sartorial history together inthe old Hawkes & Co shop.

Jump forward three decades, and thesands have been all over the place. Boughtin the 90s by a Hong Kong billionaire, thecompany grew to 25 shops in the UK andalmost 100 in China, the latter doingsteady business while the homeland oper-ation foundered.

Enter John Durnin, appointed as CEO ayear ago with an ambitious two-stage plan:shore-up the UK business, and then takeGieves & Hawkes global. Part one of thestrategy has been done the 25 collectivelyloss-making UK shops have been reduced to15 profit-making shops, designs have beenoverhauled, management restructured andthe Savile Row HQ given a massivemakeover. The latter development includesthe introduction of concessions for compli-mentary businesses bespoke shoes, vin-tage gifts, a grooming salon and a newshowcase for the magnificent military out-fits from which Gieves & Hawkes derives somuch of its history.

Getting your home right, whetheryoure a family or a business, is incrediblyimportant, says Durnin. I want Gieves to

be an emporium of wonderful services,something that most brands dont botherdoing. Youve got the core of the business,

which is bespoke and ready-to-wear suits,but I want to add on other interests andmake it a fantastic, interesting experience

when one comes into the store.

INNER SANCTUMIts certainly that. In one room, the expan-sive, marbled booths of the Gentlemans

Tonic grooming salon come with theirown flatscreen TVs; round the corner,

bespoke shoemaker James Ducker sits in aglass-fronted booth surrounded by lastsand leather as he fabricates 2,000footwear; a sales room on the street side iscrowded with the vintage luxury bric-a-

brac of stylish antiques specialist Bentleys,ranging from beautiful ancient luggage toan ejector seat.

Meanwhile, an inner sanctum at the back of the shop has been converted tospecialise in selling just blazers a cele-

bration of Gieves & Hawkess naval tailor-ing history, and a signifier of the changesDurnin is making.

When I joined, we were selling just oneblazer at 400, he explains. Now wereselling 18 blazers, ranging from 850 to2,500. People are not coming to No 1Savile Row for an opening price point blaz-er. Weve now got the widest choice inLondon, at a price point justified by thequality of the cloth and the craftsmanship.

If Gieves & Hawkess three strongest suitsare its heritage, its strength in bespoke tai-loring and its flagship premises, Durninmight well be its fourth. While he says hisstrategy for reinvigorating the brand fitsonto one piece of paper, its noticeable thathis eye is on every detail, down to the cut ofthe ready-to-wear suits or the antiqueobjetsthat decorate the shop.

Importantly, he is not a man of the Row:he spent the previous two decades livingand working in luxury business in Asia,

most recently overseeing Alfred Dunhills Asian operation from Hong Kong. Hebelieves his outsider status at Savile Rowgives him a crucial sense of perspective.

CASUAL WEAROne of the things I noticed over here isthe way the English underestimate them-selves, he says, Gieves and Hawkes beinghis case in point. He considered the brandto be seriously underdeveloped. Were sit-ting here with this business with a gen-uine, extraordinary provenance,

wondering if the rest of the world will beinterested in it. Of course they will be.

And that doesnt just mean suits.Durnin is introducing casual wear great, luxury weekend wear as hedescribes it as well as leather goods incollaboration with renowned English bagdesigner Bill Amberg. Its this mix of fineSavile Row suiting, luxury fashion and

multi-purpose shops that he intends totake to new markets, with plans for shopsin America, Japan and Asia Pacific.

Durnin is well aware that there arethose who tut and frown at such ambitionand change. I havent been in the UK longenough to be tainted by those kind of

views, and Im not interested in it, hesays. Moreover, a trip down to the shops

basement cutting rooms, where a hubbubof cutters, seamstresses and apprentices

work their highly-skilled magic on suitsand uniforms of every persuasion, showsthe extent to which the bespoke heart ofthe business is thriving.

There are 20 tailors down here, its myfavourite bit of the building, Durnin says.Youve got artisans down here, andtheyre the reason that once youve had a

bespoke suit you cant go back. It is a realtreat, something people aspire to, andthats how it will continue.

People arenot comingto No 1Savile Rowfor an entrylevel blazer.Our pricepoint is

justified bythe qualityof the clothand craft

John Durnin in theblazer room of theGieves & Hawkes

store at No 1 SavileRow

Picture: MichaTheiner/ CITY A.M.


9/11

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Suits and the CityCITYA.M. 30 JUNE 2011 33

For summer:the Italian alternativeThe great traditions of Italian tailoring offer lightweightoptions with plenty of continental flair, says Timothy Barber

ANYONE who found themselves

wilting in the heat earlier this week will understand thesense behind owning suits of

different weights. There are plenty offine, lightweight English cloths, but ifyoure after a summer suit with realpanache consider going Italian.

Or more specifically, Neapolitan the Milanese tailoring tradition innorthern Italy is closer to the Englishone. Down south, suits are designedto make one look as stylish asMarcello Mastroianni in a Fellini film,however sweltering the weather gets.

Italian fabric like Loro Piana is very light, and very good for anItalian summer, says Luca Rubinacci,27-year-old scion of a Neapolitan tai-loring dynasty the Rubinacci shopon Dover Street in Mayfair must rankas one of Londons most beautiful tai-lors. Hes something of a style iconhimself thanks to regular appear-ances in the popular Sartorialist fash-ion blog. Its a much lighter, softersuit to wear like wearing a jacketthat feels as soft as a jumper.

Not only is the fabric different, butthe structure as well theres muchless of it. The inner canvas of aNeopolitan suit is feather-light, whiletheres very little padding in theshoulder and often no sleeve lining.

NOT JUST FOR BUSINESSWhere the English suit is really a con-version of military attire for corporatelife, the Italian suit reflects a culture where aesthetic sophistication is away of life. This, after all, is the cul-ture that gave us the man-bag so thatthey didnt need to put anything in

their pockets that would spoil theline of the suit.

In Italy the suit was always notjust for business but a real dress-codefor everyday life, whereas in Londonit was more of a business thing, saysRubinacci, who nevertheless noteshow the appeal of Neapolitan tailor-ing is as broad now as that of Englishtailoring. Before, our customer wasonly Neapolitan but now hes from allover the world, and our average cus-tomer is now 30 years old.

Be warned however if youre buy-ing a lightweight, Italian-style suit,dont expect to get as much wear outof it as one made closer to home. PaulRead of Square Mile Italian tailorsMax Hence, has a useful analogy.

An English suit is like a Land Rover dependable, wont let you down,hard wearing, he says. An Italian suitis a Ferrari it turns heads and looksbeautiful. But if you drive a Ferrari likea Land Rover, youll ruin it.

Read says the Armani look of the80s and 90s still gives people the ideathat Italian suiting is boxy and baggy,

when the opposite is true the tradi-tional cut is pretty slimline, worn, asRubinacci says, like a second skin.

But of course, anything is possiblein the bespoke world, and if you wantthe lightweight Italian feel with a bitmore structure, youve only to ask. Atleast then youve more chance ofshrugging off any passing heatwaves,while looking quite the continentalaesthete.www.marianorubinacci.com

www.maxhence.com

Luca Rubinacci:you wont seehim on a BorisBike.

Pic: SCOTTSCHUMANN


10/11

Tips for looking after your suit


I

F you spend a lot of money on asuit, and even if you dont spendthat much, you want it to last.

That much is obvious, but veryfew men treat their suits with the careand attention they should. Thosefrayed edges, creases that wont disap-pear and worn out linings are just aslikely caused by hanging it on the backof a chair, wearing it every day, sling-ing it on a clothes hook in the officeand other neglectful actions on thepart of the wearer as they are sympto-matic of the suits basic quality.

lThe first rule is to own more thanone suit acquire as many, of as highquality, as you can, and see it as a long-term investment. Treated well, a suit

will last years if not decades. Consider buying two sets of trousers for thesuits you wear most commonly.

lNever wear a suit two days in a row hang it and allow it to regain its nat-ural shape in between wears.

l That process can be helped if you

dont immediately return it to thewardrobe when you hang it. Hang itout and allow the suit

to breath, rather thanshoving it in a wardrobe whereits pressedagainst other gar-ments, and wheremoths and mitesget attracted tofresh sweat andstains. Yucky buttrue.

lThe cardinal sin is to dryclean a suit too regularly itsimply isnt necessary. Thechemicals in dry cleaning eatinto the suits fibres, damagingand weakening them. A coupleof times a year at most is all thatis required, even for the hardest-

worn suit, says Christ ScottBrown of Chester Barrie.

l Instead of dry cleaning the suit, geta high-quality, soft-bristled clothes

brush and brush the suit down aftereach wear. This removes particles ofgrit and dirt caught in the fibres. A

dual-headed brush from KentBrushes [pictured] costs 36(www.kentbrusheslcom).

l Invest in good hangers get onesthat are as thick as possible.

l Use steam from a kettle or steamiron to help creases drop out natural-ly the heat from the steam willrelax the fabric and give it a fresh,invigorated look.

l If youre travelling and you donthave a steam iron to hand, hang thesuit in your hotel bathroom and runa really hot bath. When you put the

suit on in the morning, itll lookcrisp and fresh.

l If you have to press out morestubborn creases such as at the backof the knees, always place a damp

cloth over the fabric, and keep theiron on a low setting.

Accessories

for sartorial successPOCKET SQUARES: Instead of the dull white stripe, consider these styles

Watches that mean businessThese watches work in any situation understated but perfectly masculine,trumpeting cool sophistication and clarity over extraversion.IWCsPortugueise Automatic (8,250), on the left, is a lesson in classy proportionaldesign, while English brand Bremonts BC-Solo aviation watch (2,250)achieves excellence through simplicity. www.iwc.com; www.bremont.com

Round cufflinksfor perfecteleganceClockwise from top left:Watch movement cufflinks byWilliam & Son, price on applica-tion, www.williamandson.com

Enamel red, white and blue cuf-flinks by Brooks Brothers, 109,www.brooksbrothers.com

Sonia Spencer round cufflinks,30, www.soniaspencer.com

Simon Carter Brummell cufflinks,40, www.simoncarter.net

Multi-point foldWear it for: making a speechIts the trickiest to fold, and is a bit showy forwearing every day, but if youre getting up infront of people it will add flair. Lay thesquare flat and fold the corners across andup to overlap each other, forming an arrowshape. Fold up the tip of the arrow, and slot itin your pocket with the corners pointing up.Blue and white polka dot silk square byHackett, 15. www.hackett.co.uk

Triangular foldWear it for: boardroom meetingsLay the pocket square flat in a diamondshape. Fold the corners at the side into themiddle, tucking one under the other to thewidth of your breast pocket. Fold up thebottom corner so that its tip is a couple ofinches below the top corner and stick it inyour pocket, adjusting its angle as you seefit. Red and pink silk hanky by Harrods,9.95. www.harrods.com

Puff foldWear it for: client lunchesThe puff fold suggests a certain hale andhearty ebullience in the wearer its can beboth subtle and extrovert, relatively infor-mal but rather dashing. Lift the pocketsquare from its centre, pull it between yourthumb and fore finger and fold it over,before stuffing it elegantly into your pocket.Animal print pocket square by William &Son, 55. www.williamandson.com

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