Readers Question - Affordable Bespoke

Hello Style Salvage,

I hope you are well. Love everything about the blog, a real refreshing (and adult) take on men's fashion. Just had a quick question which I was hoping you may be able to help me out with. I'm looking to get hold of a bespoke suit (a penchant of yours I know), but am looking to get one a little cheaper than the £2,000 price mark. Have been doing some serious reading on the askandy forum which has proved quite informative, with a few places coming highly recommended for a price of £1,000. My only slight concern is that they probably tailor for the professional classes and my 2-piece isn't for work (I work in TV so would prob be a little toooo much) but for lounging and wearing to dinner etc. Just wondered if you had any recommendations for places around the London area that may do a reasonable bespoke number, with a young-outlook. Plus, I'm tall and skinny, so any where you think they may be able to cater to that would be great. Anyway, any help you could offer would be gratefully received, even if it's just pointing me in another blog direction.

Thanks

Thomas

We love receiving readers questions here at Style Salvage (we still can't believe that people actually value our sartorial opinion) and the most recent question is my favourite thus far. I say this only because it is something that I have been questioning myself, where can I find an affordable bespoke suit without taking a trip to the Far East? I'm quite sure that there is nothing quite like dressing in bespoke. The comfort that comes from the perfect fit combined with the pleasure from owning a piece of true craftsmanship finished off by the quiet confidence you gain from knowing that there is nobody in the room better dressed. A bespoke suit is certainly worth the investment but it is taking that first leap which is quite daunting...I should know because I'm still standing on the edge of the board myself. However, receiving this question has reignited my desire to jump in to the wonderful world of bespoke myself. So as well as researching the options for Thomas I will be looking for myself as well. Over the course of the next week I will scour London and beyond for the best, affordable bespoke (and the best of the rest) solutions available which will presented to you in daily segments. There is a wealth of information out there but it is difficult to find and presented poorly at times and therefore we would like to present the ultimate guide to buying bespoke over the course of next week. In the meantime The English Cut has this great advice on picking a bespoke tailor which will hopefully wet your appetite.

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Pattern Cutting as Art: A study on Anansi

To coincide with the Frieze art fair Paul Smith will be exhibiting the latest body of work from Hormazd Narielwalla entitled ‘A Study on Anansi’ from 10th to 21st October at his Furnishing Gallery. The exhibition will consist of a set of ten artworks drawing inspiration from two sources, Savile Row tailoring patterns and traditional African Anansi tales to create a new body of work.

A Study on Anansi is a celebration of the popular character from West African and Caribbean folklore brought to life using the discarded patterns. "Anansi", the trickster, is the wise and clever Earth God but I have to confess to turning to my trusty friend google, for answers. Despite my ignorance, many aspects of these stories have trickled through to Western society and into children’s stories, super-hero characters and fictional literature. In some versions of the stories Anansi created the sun, moon and all the stars. This attribute of the stories makes it through into Narielwalla’s work where Anansi dances, teases and entertains himself with his most prized creation, the sun.

I first came across Hormazd Narielwalla's work at EXIT Gallery's "A Fairytale About Fashion" exhibition. Narielwalla's Dead Man’s Patterns was a design story, beneath the trappings of menswear into the book, the man, the pattern, and his images really captured my imagination. and I just had to post about it. The artists work originates from sets of bespoke patterns, which of course belonged to former customers, now deceased, from a by-gone era. These patterns have recorded a history of intimate dialogues of customer measurements and fittings over a lifetime but no longer have any practical use to the cutter and are often discarded. The talented Hormazd takes these fragile pieces of parchment out of their original context and breathes fresh life in to the creases and careful folds, along finely traced pencil marks and measurements. Opportunities are created by giving these pieces of discarded paper a chance to breathe, simply in the act of extracting, giving them a new lease of life as art objects.

For this work, Narielwalla's uses scans, photography, his own sketches and digital composition to create a set of playful artworks that have a traditional look and appeal. Creating bespoke clothes for the rich and powerful has made Savile Row iconic but in this evocative work Narielwalla is showing us tailoring patterns, as they have never been seen. The patterns are reinterpreted and resurrected; the lives of people measured through tailoring are brought back to life as works of art through even older tales from another world.

For the past year and a half Hormazd has had the opportunity to work closely with Dege & Skinner's cutters and tailors. It is in this private tailoring environment that he truly began to consider tailoring as Art. Hormazd has recently been awarded an international scholarship to read a Doctorate in Philosophy at London College of Fashion and his main focus will be on pattern cutting as Art. The artist is currently working on the memoirs of Master Tailor and Chairman of the firm, Michael Skinner. Skinner's story will be narrated through his own pattern cutting journals whilst studying at the prestigious Tailor & Cutter Academy. I can't wait to find out more information on this project and as soon as I do, I'll share it with you. In the meantime, enjoy the selection of artwork above.

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Style Salvage Speaks to... Lodger (Part Two)

Following on from where we left off yesterday, please make yourself comfortable for part two of our interview with Nathan Brown. In part one we talked about how his passion for shoes developed in to Lodger and how the last nine months have been. In the concluding part we talk about balancing traditional craftsmanship with the very latest technology and kit, the idea behind the Gentleman's Corner and finish off with a few recommendations.

The custom fit starts out with a 3D laser scan to build a virtual model of each foot. Above is the scan of Steve's feet.

SS: We love how Lodger strikes the right balance between beautiful, time consuming handcrafting, traditional shoe making machinery and the very latest technology and kit. Was this balance a key facet of your vision for Lodger?
Nathan Brown: With the laser scanner, it was my view that there was all this technology but no one really knew how to apply it. You could go out there and say you want to revolutionise shoe making but I think that is a very dangerous thing to say. The way we pitch our technology is that it is an additional benefit. However cool the scanner is, if you are a size nine and have a regular width it can't really do anything more for you but if your foot is like mine it comes in to play. We can take six different widths and nobody else can stock that. It was very much about starting off the company from scratch, not accepting the standard fair. Like shoe trees for example. A proper shoe tree will make your shoes last longer than anything else you could possibly do and the shoe companies know this but they use it as an excuse to sting you for another £50 to £75. I thought this was a bunch of crap. We just price it in now and don't take a margin on the shoe tree, which is why we include them with every pair. The shoe bags are made out of bamboo, because it is better for the environment, it is shaped for less waste etc. We design everything, from the images on the shoe boxes to enable you to see what's inside.

Aside from just the tech it was us reimagining and taking nothing for granted. Reimagining from the ground up. What it is built around is twofold. Firstly, we are passionate about shoes and we want to show that we have thought about all the details and secondly, we like people so the experience in the shop is all about the product whilst relating to people. The rest of it, we don't really give a shit about, we don't have the attitude which comes with luxury sometimes. We love sitting down and having an espresso with a customer and chatting about shoes.

The July shoe of the month on display with a few sartorial options.

SS: Gentleman's Corner is an extension of that idea. What frustrates us about many shop/label blogs is that they tend to be pointless aside from updating people on stock and new products. Whilst talking about product design, Gentleman's Corner discusses other brands that you admire and ones which you think your customers might be interested in which is extremely rare.

Nathan Brown: Originally the Gentleman's Corner wasn't a blog. The idea was to have a corner of the shop devoted to things that we like and that is where the gentleman's corner started but by the time we got going we decided against doing it in the shop and turned to the web instead. The concept was formed in the real world but then applied online and I think that is why it has a different feeling, it wasn't "let's do a blog" but "let's find a way to talk about the things we like".

SS: Do you think you'll go back to having a physical corner in store?

Nathan Brown: We incorporate elements of it in to the store now. We have the display table which currently has the Scabal suit on it because we want to show the shoes in context. With that blue striped shoe alot of customers told me they liked it but they just didn't think they could wear it. So a lot of what we are going to do with the photography of the Gentleman's Corner is going to put the shoes in to context. The blog has become an organic part of what we do. We only serve the booze that we like, we only show the clothes on the table that we like and wear, the magazines we like. At the moment we are stocking Man About Town and the Rake. The Rake is a great magazine and I thought that it was stupid that you couldn't get it in this country and now we are pretty much sold out of it. The reason we sell Man About Town is because I love Hugh and the magazine, I felt guilty that we would be stocking a different title so called him up and asked for a few copies. We big up things we like and things we think are good. We don't make a penny on the magazines but we like showing off cool things people might not see otherwise.

Issues of the Rake and Man About Town on sale in store.

SS: Having grown up literally surrounded by trainers, have you got any desire to explore that area with Lodger?

Nathan Brown: Quick answer: yes. Longer answer: yes but. Haha! The thing is, most of the trainers that shoe companies put out are awful, they are heavy, they are poor, they are what an old fashioned shoe company thinks a sneaker looks like. So I definitely want to reinvent. We were actually doing something with one of the big three sneaker brands about doing bespoke, English made trainers and we've got a couple of prototypes in the office. I can't talk about it but they are freaking gorgeous, they are stunning. We are going to do something at some point but it certainly won't be the usual, traditional shoe company trying to make sneakers.

SS: What are you thoughts on the current state of the shoe industry? What excites and infuriates you?

Nathan Brown: Firstly, I'm a lover not a hater. I've got as much of a shoe collection as my large feet allow, so I genuinely love other brands. Starting Lodger wasn't because I thought that there was nothing good out there but I thought we could push it further. I'm certainly coloured by my perspective which is why we do shoes which are classics with a twist rather than full on fashion. I just feel that luxury brands in general aren't moving with the times, a lot of luxury brands, whether that be Savile Row or Luis Vuitton, became world beaters because they were exceptionally innovative in the products they did one hundred years ago but it feels to me that many are resting on their laurels a bit now. The fear to embrace online properly, the fear of letting go of control of your brand... all of the things that the younger brands are doing. If you go to Pitti Uomo, there is a completely different sense of energy between the luxury hall and the young fashion hall. My feeling is if you just jam those two feelings together, that will be really cool. I am trying to mash up those two energies with Lodger, to bring that enthusiasm, relentless innovation, keep pushing and push it some more.

Each pair comes packaged with a shoe tree inside a bamboo fabric bag with a product shot on the label.

SS: It does seem that many luxury brands have been coasting on cruise control...Nathan Brown: And taking the piss out of customers. All of my friends are demanding customers, maybe because we work in the industry, but why would a customer let a "luxury brand" get away with charging you thousands of pounds for a bag simply because there is a short run of forty. Now there is no reason why there can only be forty. For the Kudu shoe we are releasing, we can only make twenty five pairs because there is only that much leather available. So many brands however, create illusionary limited numbers and it is so frustrating.

SS: Finally, harking back to the idea of Gentleman's Corner, we always ask our interviewees for recommendations, who would you like to big up today?
Nathan Brown: As a wine fan: Oregan Pinot Noir. It is on the same latitude as Burgundy France, same soil type, is it amazing... you just have to find it.

Hairdresser: Although long overdue, I always go down to Olivier at Gentleman's Tonic on Bruton Street because he takes very good care of me.
Tailors: If I'm on the Row I do a lot of stuff with Scabal because I think they just have the most beautiful cloths in the world. I got married in suit cut from Scabal cloth so I personally like it a lot. The problem I have is, being in such close proximity, if I name one I need to name quite a few but a cloth merchant I can just about get away with. I'm happy to make personal recommendations.
Shops and Labels: Albam, Smedley, E. Tautz, I'm sure we'll do some stuff with Carolyn Massey so congratulations to her on her place at New Gen Men. Those are a few of my favourites. I spend half my time in denim and the rest in suits so that is a good mix. I like giving personal recommendations to customers. For international travellers, typical Bond Street guys I always recommend that they should walk down Lambs Conduit Street and you can go to Oliver Spencer, Folk, Pokit, It is such a nice street and for someone who spends a lot of time in Mayfair it is an eye opening thing but for readers of your blog they know all about the street.

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Style Salvage Speaks to... Lodger (Part One)

We have previously hinted that we were thinking about launching a series of posts celebrating great British craftsmanship and the more we both thought about it, the more we wanted to do it. There are a number of inspiring brands showcasing great British craftsmanship but we'd like to kickstart the feature with an interview with Nathan Brown of Lodger Footwear.

Nathan Brown and his team at Lodger have an irrational passion for beautiful shoes and we think this should be applauded. The mix of continuous design, in combination with cutting edge technology and traditional craftsmanship makes Lodger a truly unique shoe company. After we posted about the July shoe of the month Nathan dropped us an email to thank us and invited us to the store for a chat over a glass of wine or two. We might just have had a little too much fun which is why we have had to split the interview in to two parts. In part one we discus his love affair with shoes, the catalysts for launching Lodger and his favourite shoes thus far. Come back tomorrow for the concluding part where we will talk about the balance between technology and traditional craftsmanship and Nathan will share his recommendations.

Style Salvage: You are undeniably a shoeist. Was there a particular pair you saw/owned which kicked off your love affair? How did this passion develop over the years?

Nathan Brown: It is quite simple really: two things. One: my father was an accountant so he certainly wasn't a fashion guru but he was old school. He bought quality shoes which he polished every week, as a man is judged by the state of his shoes. So I was taken out to the garage when I was about twelve and taught how to shine my shoes. But then I grew up in Beaverton, Oregan, which is the world headquarters for Nike and US headquarters for Adidas and I've worked for both of these brands. Growing in Beaverton it was a ten minute jog to either of these headquarters, we were right in the middle. I got in to shoes from clothing really. I used to make my own clothes because I couldn't fit in anything, so I'd make my own patterns.

SS: Did you have any formal training?

Nathan Brown: My Mom taught me. Not fashion but mainly for snowboarding. I'm 6ft9, 145 pounds. Back in the day, they just didn't make anything so I had to make my own clothes. So I got in to apparel initially, got in to shoe companies and then it grew.

SS: Did the size of your feet come in to play?
Nathan Brown: Sort of. It is really hard to get hold of good looking shoes in a size thirteen/thirteen and a half UK, size fifteen US. I am a product guy so I'm sure that it had something to do it and I love making things. It would have been a lot cheaper to buy a bunch of bespoke shoes than to start Lodger!

SS: Tell us about your background and how Lodger evolved...
Nathan Brown: I was running Adidas global tennis apparel business in Germany and my drinking buddies were the guys who launched Adidas Originals which went from nothing to about three billion Euros. It was launched by five guys and they've now become the Head of Advanced Design at Nike, Head of Lifestlye for Reebook in Tokyo, Head of Development for Reebok in Boston and one of them is turning around Le Coq Sportif. So, we would just sit around and get drunk on cheap red wine and talk about doing our own thing, "let's come at shoes from taking the design, innovation and technology from sneakers and apply it to classic shoe making and give that a kick up the ass, wouldn't that be fun?!". So we started talking about that in 2000 and I just kept building on it and going back to it, then I just decide to it as a hobby with one of my mates who happened to be working in London at London but he got a great job when Nike bought Reebok so off he went to Boston. So I decided that I was working in a job which I didn't care for much and so I thought "fuck it, I am going to take a punt and try and get some backers, if it didn't work at least I tried". Fortunately I got some great backers and I get to do this!

SS: The store is sandwiched between Bond Street and Savile Row on London's Clifford Street. Having grown in Beaverton, Oregan, what brought you to this great location in the style heart of London?

Nathan Brown: It took about a year to get this shop specifically. It used to be an art gallery run by a crazy Irish artist. The deal fell through three times but I was a like a dog with a bone, I really wanted this shop but it took over nine months of negotiation. I loved the space here but meanwhile I was looking at every other street in the area, I could be an estate agent. I looked at Mount Street which is a great street but it is mainly for women, not nearly enough passing trade. I just loved this neighbourhood but I love this shop, it is only six hundred square feet with a the two floors.

SS: The size of the store combined with the split levels, fits well with the two Lodger offerings...

Nathan Brown: We tried really hard to find a store with two levels or at least two clearly defined rooms where we could segment the ready to wear and then have an area where we could have a drink and relax because this experience is so important to our other offering.

SS: How do you balance the two experiences?

Nathan Brown: It is quite organic really. Usually the guys sitting down on the couch with wine or an espresso are the customers who keep coming back. That being said there is a certain kind of new customer who is up for sitting down and talking. So if people are up for it we could be sitting down here for a couple of hours with a new customer but it tends to happen over time when customers get a little more comfortable... but we want it to be a relationship with all our customers.

SS: You've been open now for nine months, how are the relationships building?

Nathan Brown: It has been great. My thoughts were on building relationships with guys and bringing them back. I did a quick analysis when we were six months old and 30% of our customers had already come back for a second pair of shoes or more. At that point we had one customer who had bought seven pairs of shoes! Now we have one customer who has got about a dozen pairs in nine months. Having such a high repeat hit rate is, I think a testament that people are liking what we do. It feels great that people are beginning to collect our shoes.

SS: Did your sneaker background inspire the shoe of the month, the desire to consistently release new models while the rest of the shoe industry moves with the seasons?

Nathan Brown: The whole shoe of the month thing was a calculated thing. Number one, I think seasons are artificial for shoes, black suede is not a six month thing but brogues should be around for ten years. So the shoe of the month addresses this, shoes are released for exactly the right month. Secondly, the biggest assets Nike and Adidas have are their back catalogues, the old school models they can release. It was a calculated idea that we wanted to generate a catalogue that we can mine in an intelligent way quickly. It is exhausting to do but it allows us to test new ideas before we put them out on our ready to wear collections and gives us a lot more information, we get immediate feedback. In nine months we have done around a dozen models which would take around six years if we did it the standard seasonal way.

SS: Out of the twelve have you got any personal favourites? I know it must be like choosing your favourite child...
Nathan Brown: You want me to pick favourites from my babies? Well, there a couple of pairs I just couldn't get; I can't justify having every model but kind of wish I could. I loved the Spectator but couldn't get a pair. They are beautiful shoes. I have a pair of the Oxford George boot but I just can't bring myself to christen them yet. Those are a couple of my favourites and I have to say that the white tennis shoes are spectacular, I've worn them so many times and they are still white and something else. None of those were our best sellers but they are my favourites, although the tennis shoe was our second biggest seller.

SS: Are there any which you just can't wait to release?

Nathan Brown: The thing with the shoe of the month is we can be very quick so we've not really thought beyond September but I'm excited by the Kudu work boot, made from the twenty five year old Kudu which is going to be spectacular, lined with purple Velvet- stunning.

SS: And of course you are working on the boat shoe...

Nathan Brown: Yeah. It will hopefully be released for February next year so we can drop it in early Spring and it is going to be gorgeous. We went back to the drawing board because I think it's good but we can completely blow it up, we can make is something else, so it is going to be a fun one to release. I can talk about all of them, it is so hard to narrow them down. Annejkh is the best show designer out there, she understands sneakers but she is obsessed with men's classic shoes so she understands the aesthetic. She is a sneaker head- I think a lot of us have not grown out of that and it affects how we address shoes, how we wear them and how we style them.

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'Bespoke' for the everyman (online)

My desire to own bespoke clothing and accessories is well documented on the blog. There seems to be a reinvention of 'bespoke' on the high street (really we all know that it is made to measure marketed as bespoke) for the greater market, making it cheaper and much more accessible in the process. One of the most well known "new bespoke" service is NikeiD, which as we know allows trainer fans to choose from more than 54 different shoe styles and an almost limitless catalogue of colours, materials and fittings to create their own ideal pair.

However, I have recently stumbled across the news that my Nan's favourite store has now entered the market. That's right, Marks & Spencer is offering a new bespoke (made-to-measure) shirt service for men from as little as £30...£30! As well as a choice of 30 fabrics, there are different cuffs, collars and pockets, plus a monogrammed option. I have had limited experience with the fit of M&S shirts up until now, although I have been impressed with the resurgence of the store and in particular the Autograph range.

I forgot to mention, you can do it all online. In four simple steps a user is able to design the perfect shirt made-to-measure just for them. You can customize as many or as few features as you wish. All you need to do is have your height, weight and collar size measurements to hand. M&S's biometric technology will do the rest, resulting in a perfect fit and are delivered within 21 days of placing the order (or so they claim - I am a little disturbed that they didn't take any more measurements, like chest, arm, waist...)

My choice is above. I went for a luxurious white poplin, with a round colour, monogrammed hem and of course a tailored fit. I will update you in 21 days once the shirt is delivered. I have no idea what to expect to be honest.

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Inside the Duke of Windsor's wardrobe

”I was in fact produced as a leader of fashion, with the clothiers as my showmen and the world as my audience.” The Duke of Windsor.

Following on quite nicely from my earlier post on Prince Charles are these wonderful images which offer a sneak peek inside the wardrobe of the most obvious regal style icon, the Duke of Windsor. Regular readers will know that I am somewhat obsessed with wardrobes ever since I undertook the mammoth task or organsing my sorry excuse for that particular piece of furniture. I recently stumbled across a great piece on the Duke Of Windsor written by JP over on Black Watch which uses images and quotes from a number of sources covering the Sotheby's auction of his wardrobe in 1998.

”Not since his forebear King George IV in the 1820’s had a monarch lavished so much care and expense on his own personal appearance,” Ms. Taylor, the Sotheby’s specialist who spent seven years preparing for this sale. ” He bought clothes of the finest quality and expected them to last a lifetime, which in fairness, many of them did.” The Duke used the same tailor, Scholte of Savile Row in London, to make his jackets from 1919 to 1959.

The Duke’s wardrobe spans 60 years, because he never lost his trim figure (his waist went from 29 inches to 31 inches over a half century) and he certainly championed the art of wardrobe building. A 1960 inventory of the Duke of Windsor’s closet recorded fifteen evening suits, fifty five lounge suits and three formal suits (with two pairs of trousers for each), along with more than one hundred pairs of shoes including a superb collection of velvet slippers by Peal & Co.

Diana Vreeland, the former editor of Vogue, had strong views about the Duke. ''Did he have style?'' Vreeland once asked rhetorically. ''The Duke of Windsor had style in every buckle on his kilt, every check of his country suits.''

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E Tautz over another cup of tea

As you all know I met up with Patrick Grant last week and were talked through the E. Tautz collection. My time with the youngest guvnor on Savile Row did not stop there and I was fortunate enough to ask him a few more questions and it was an absolute pleasure to hear his thoughts on men's fashion. The last post was full of great quotes but my particular favourite was "we've got to the point where we'd rather have ten cheap things than one good thing" and the below picks up on this point. Here we talk about the effect of the recession on buying, the art of wardrobe building and the need for more tailors...

SS: What has the interest from buyers been like given the current economic climate?

PG: Japanese buyers have recently confirmed but there were only five buyers actually invited to the show itself. Budget cuts are an issue but the people who came really liked the collection and went away on the hunt for extra buying funds. We are still waiting on hearing back from a few but we will know in the next week or two, so we will see what happens.
SS: I am always jealous of the offerings available to Japanese consumers, they just have it too good!

SS: The art of wardrobe building is one we love but it certainly goes against the prevailing throwaway consumerism of today; what are your thoughts on this way of consuming?
PG: If you buy well you will still have it when it is sixty years old. I've got plenty of bits of clothing in my wardrobe, particularly knitwear and the odd jacket that I had bought from the likes of Gucci, Prada, Helmut Lang, Dolce & Gabbana to a certain extent and a few others and I've still got the best of those pieces and I still wear them. The only thing that doesn't really last are the trousers. If they had been made in the cloths that we use and in the way we make them they would still be fine. Machine hemmed trousers are always falling apart and it is amazing that no one knows how to sew anything anymore.

SS: That is so true, I've only recently started dabbling with replacing buttons on jackets but the effect and response to it has been so positive and it is so simple.
PG: We should put up a number of how to videos on the website instructing people how to get the most out of their clothes through simple tailoring, how to hem your trousers, how to sew a button on your shirt... We used to do it all the time at school, not particularly well but we did it. We used to shorten our trousers: I remember one of my roommate taking in peoples trousers in because we all wanted trousers that, basically you couldn't put your feet through. Few people are bothered to do that now. Now if a button falls off a shirt it is thrown away.

SS: Can you see this attitude changing in the foreseeable future?
PG: There is group called Slow Fashion at St Martins which I went to the first meeting of and it is so brave of them, I think, because it flies in the face of everyone who basically pays for their existence. The more care that is taken in the creation of your clothes, the more enjoyment you will get out of them and the longer you will get to enjoy that. I think, especially for men, there are fashionable men and stylish men and we are talking more to stylish men than fashion men but of course there is a little overlap. I think even fashionable men have a little space in their wardrobes for certain core pieces. Everyone wears black or grey slim trousers and if you have a really great pair that fit you beautifully, look good, kept their crease really nicely and were going to last twenty years, you might think that £800 isn't really that much... it might feel like a lot but think of the wear you will get out of them.

SS: It seems most people have forgotten about the whole cost per calculation.
PG: I mean I used to pay £1200 for an off the peg suit, this is going back a few years so I have no idea how much they are now but I used to wear them fifteen or twenty times and the trousers would be worn out in the crotch, I even had one and the tip of the lapel wore out.
SS: Ha, what were doing in that jacket?
PG: I have no idea but it was strange. I particularly have a problem with the crotch of trousers because I cycle and have big thighs. Of course we have lightweight cloths here that might not last but we would recommend a customer buy two pairs of trousers with their suit.

SS: You just would not get that service in most ready to wear stores.
PG: What's nice about the way we are coming at it is that the people involved in Tautz basically work at Nortons. We spend our lives dealing with the type of people we are hoping to sell Tautz to because they are the equivalent to our customers here who are unable to come here and have their suits made but we want to give them something of that quality. We cut it in a way we think feels like a good Savile Row suit, it has got shape in it and makes you look different, it's not a skinny, slim suit but a well cut suit and you very rarely see that. There aren't very many well cut suits kicking around this town and we want to give Tautz something of Savile Row about it. We eat, sleep and breathe great quality clothes and everything we do is done with integrity.

SS: Have you noticed a change in peoples attitude towards tailoring over time?
PG: Tailoring is an incredibly efficient way of buying clothes cost wise and you really get what you pay for. At Nortons the first suit we make, we don't actually make any money because we have to sew it, fit it, take it apart, re cut it, sew it, fit it, take it apart... you know, it is only when we've made one and have a pattern for you that we actually start to make some money. You are getting tremendous value for money if you go to a tailor and it just so happens that we are in the middle of a community of the best tailors in the world. Certainly what you get here is expensive tailoring but there tailors... actually, sadly there are almost no tailors left.

The country should be filled with tailors and everyone should be buying their suits from a tailor. I used to go to a little tailor in Liverpool and his suits were less than the Prada suits that I was taking in to be altered. My perception then was that Prada was very cool but the fact is he could have cut me and made a better suit for less money and I would have looked better if I wasn't such an idiot swayed by a label which I was at that time. 'The only name in your suit should be your own' is the old adage and that is a nice way of thinking about it. Most of my early suits came from a tailor in Edinburgh which doesn't exist anymore... in fact there is only one tailor in Edinburgh now. A city of half a million people, a capital city with a financial centre and only one tailor.

SS: I remember being tempted by a one page ad featured in GQ which called for more tailors.
PG: If you are good at it you can make a good living. The guys who work on this street certainly do but they are bloody good. It is a difficult street and you have to be really good to make a living here but if you are good, you can do very well. Most sewing tailors are self employed and we share with a number of firms. There are some great young tailors who work very hard, there are some old ones to who start at 6am and work right through to 9pm.

SS: It is such a shame that there are so few...
PG: The problem we have is the cost of training people. After years of lobbying by the Savile Row Bespoke Association they have given us £1,000 per apprentice per year but it costs us more like £20,000 so we can only afford one apprentice here at the moment but ideally we could train three people at a time. The biggest file I have in my drawer is full of applications for apprenticeships and we get about one a day. The thing is, we are flat out here and we desperately need more good tailors.

SS: Lastly, there has been a great deal spoken on luxury in the downturn and this must be on your mind as well...
PG: Many people have asked why we would start a new brand in the midst of this economic disaster and for me it doesn't really matter as to when we start but it feels as though people are interested in proper products, quality and integrity... everything we stand for. Whether or not the economic cycle is poor or good should not affect the decision to do this but there is also this belief that these are the type of thing people retreat to when you haven't got a surplus of cash to spend it should be spent on the items you know are worth it and will last. People will continue to want to dress well and wear nice things, which isn't always the same thing. We have seen this with Nortons which has a heavy British based client base and we actually had our best year in eight years last year, we saw a big jump on the year before despite a disastrous US economy and dour forecasts for the British economy. The start of this year has been really strong with this February being better than the last.

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E. Tautz over tea

The art of wardrobe building with E. Tautz.

Over the last couple of weeks we have been looking at luxury in the downturn and discussing the brands we love... there is now another name to add to our list of favourites. Given that many analysts are predicting doom and gloom for months to come, most people would be dissuaded from launching a luxury brand label on to the scene. Fortunately Patrick Grant is not one of these people. As the steering force behind the revival of the 187 year old Savile Row firm of tailors, Norton & Sons he has turned his attention to the resurrection of E. Tautz.

We posted previously that the list of designers at LFW's extended menswear day gave reason to be optimistic about the state of menswear in this fair city, but I was intrigued most by E. Tautz . The label is rooted in history and history seamlessly runs through the whole collection. Patrick and his team were inspired by the photo archive of the Sandringham Estate, both in terms of its colours and landscape and there are more than a few sartorial nods to Edward VII.

As the presentation was over subscribed I was unable to see it on the day but Patrick Grant extended an invite for me to view the collection over a cup of tea at 16 Savile Row. It was a fittingly quintessentially English date because the collection could not be more English and it took place the evening of last Friday. Over tea, I was able to marvel at the quality on offer throughout this collection and was fortunate enough to have a piece by piece commentary to learn much more about this label than what has previously been made available. Over the course of this post I will attempt to offer the same journey I was fortunate enough to take supported by quotes from the man himself and a further post (in a more standard interview format) will follow shortly. I had close to two hours of material to transcribe - it was an absolute pleasure and privilege speaking to the youngest guvnor on Savile Row and I hope you enjoy it.

The knitted ties and relaxed bow tie make for very appealing every day looks.

The English Way of Clashing...

"There is this classic English way of clashing patterns. A quintessentially English way of mixing patterns together which seems to have disappeared. The only people it seems who are rejoicing in this are the likes of Ralph Lauren and Brooks Brothers. There is a terrific book written by the Duke of Windsor about clothes and style which includes many pictures of Edward VII who was his hero. There are some great images of him wearing Bengal striped shirts with big brown checked tweed and different handkerchiefs which came together to create a riot of texture with all these elements coming together."

The Shetland knitwear is a real talking point

Back to School...
"The aesthetic is much softer with a knitted tie rather than silk. It is almost dare I say it school boyish. Until recently I've not worn a V neck jumper under my suits since school and now I really like it. The Shetland knits are of course handknitted and the felt badges are sewn on by hand. Talking of which these were inspired by colleges using similar crests to differentiate themselves from another, so we have taken something old and forgotten and created a much talked about feature"

The perfect fit and softest leather in hand

Provenance is key...

"You could cycle around London and go to our shirt works in Hackney and go up to Walthamstow along the canal down Kingsland Road and stop off at the leather goods, along Clerkenwell Road to where the ties are made and cycle to here where we make the suits. It is amazing really, apart from the sweaters which are knitted in Shetland, everything else could be picked up by bicycle. I'm so pleased with this network of suppliers, everything that isn't currently made in Britain,will when we are more established. The British thing is certainly not a gimmick. We are competing with labels like Hermes and we are striving for the best. If a British supplier is not quite there yet we will work with them to get them there. The only materials that we buy from outside of the UK, are the shirt cottons which come from Italy and the leather for the bags which come from France - we don't do calves leather because we don't eat enough veal here, we need to change our diets before we get that sorted. I really enjoy that all of my suppliers are in the same time zone and speak the same language and it saves so much time and money."

These two looks sum up the main inspirations behind the collection, old colleges and the military.

Patrick Grant and his team create clothes that last. To illustrate the point, he pulled out an old E. Tautz jacket and its label had a 1910 date scribbled on it. The jacket was 101 years old and aside from a little wear and tear from the wearer's hunting exploits the jacket was in amazingly good condition. Grant himself, has three suits which were his Grandfather's, his evening tails, morning suit and one of his dinner suits which were all made in the 1930s (between 1933 and 1936).

Clothes should last...
"These days people will try things on twice and the garment starts to fall apart and he wants to change this, wanting to create garments which can be passed down from generation to generation, a piece of history. It is just a shame that so little of what is made today, particularly clothing, which will be worth tuppence in ten years time. We've got to the point where we would rather have ten cheap things than one good thing. There is something very charming about building a collection of clothes, every piece has a position in a wardrobe. As you build a wardrobe of clothes, starting in your 20s and continue doing so throughout your adult life and if you bought the good stuff then you will still have it at sixty years old, your wardrobe will almost tell the story of your life. One of our longest clients here died last year after being a customer since 1945 and had an extraordinary wardrobe. He wasn't an extravagant man but bought wisely and it certainly told a story. It is something of a lost art that a lot of people just don't consider anymore."

E. Tautz is a label which champions the notion of dressing properly and of men taking pride in what they wear. It adheres to the age old belief that how you dress reflects your respect for the event and for your host. Unfortunately, this sartorial mentality has been lost over the years but Patrick Grant is certainly helping us all remember. Edward VIII said it best. 'Be always well and suitably dressed for every conceivable occasion.

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Not afraid of a little change: Norton & Sons

Ever since we first looked at luxury in the downturn my mind has been racing with thoughts about the brands I love and how they might evolve during this difficult time. My love and admiration for the goings on along Savile Row are well documented and I dream of the day when, rather than longingly peer in to this magical world I arrive on this street for my first fitting. There is a saving plan in place so this should not be too far away. Change is not ordinarily a word that applies to this area of London but for one established tailoring name it certainly does apply.

As the steering force behind Norton & Sons, a 187 year old firm of tailors, Patrick Grant certainly believes that there is a certain order of things and a certain way to do things properly but this does exclude change. Norton & Sons recently appointed Moving Brands to create a new visual identity across all media to fit in with the new brand positioning and vision of new Director Patrick Grant and the results are beautiful.

Norton & Sons appealing to the Englishman at Large

Patric Grant himself describes it all far better than I ever could, so I'll leave you with his words...

“Having assessed the competition and created a customer journey for Norton’s, the creation of new stationery and retail material – including letterhead, compliment slip, business card, stickers, wrapping paper, passport book, customer order forms, garment labels, carrier and suit bags and more – was just the first step in an ongoing process that has included the recent tailoring of the Norton’s shop frontage to suit their new brand positioning. As well as appealing to a dynamic, younger market – ‘the Englishman at large’ – in creating the identity system Moving Brands also considered how the brand might apply itself to a broadened spectrum of applications and products and accessories (such as leather goods).”

BBC Documentary on Norton & Sons from Moving Brands on Vimeo.

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Luxury in the downturn

As the tills stop ringing what will happen to luxury brands? Image sourced here.

Our attention in recent weeks has been firmly focused on the various fashion weeks and trade shows around the world but now it is time to take a breather from that side of the fashion industry and get back down to business. We love a good conversation about men's style and fashion so what better way to kick start the week than with a topical and multi-faceted one. The chaps over on Get Kempt recently ignited the fires of a good old fashioned chat on how luxury brands should respond to the economic downturn which is affecting us all in some way or another. Choosy Beggar started things off by calling for a return to 30s-style simplicity and durability. Get Kempt recall a time before disposable fashion when a man's wardrobe was like a house - he bought pieces of clothing and he maintained them so they would last, shirts were mended and ultimately their character was enhanced. There are merits to both of these points but over the course of this post we will explore our standpoint on the issue and we would love to hear yours. We have broken down our views into three digestible paragraphs: price, the role of luxury in trends against lasting quality and wardrobe staples with a difference.

Price
Given the current world economic climate luxury brands are in danger of becoming largely irrelevant and they need to address a number of issues as soon as possible. As markets start to stutter and in some cases grind to a halt (Japan and Russian markets which recently booming are now in decline) luxury brands need to reach out to a new consumer. The real problem facing these brands is justifying the prices charged. For us the days of a name being enough are numbered and rightfully so. We applaud and are wooed by history but the label still needs to deliver. With increased competition everywhere you look it is inevitable that at least one brand will crumble and becomes nothing more than a style footnote. To survive, brands need to address their prices in light of the competitive and difficult market but, more importantly for us, they need to return to representing something truly special; provenance of and a story surrounding the product as well as great craftsmanship need to come to the fore. In short we are turn into complete suckas when we hear that our shoes are being crafted by the finest materials by a family of shoe makers who have handed their secret from generation to generation.

Disposable v lasting quality
Will this downturn see the decline of disposable, purely trend led and seasonal fashion? Probably not and would we really want to wave good bye completely...but there will be changes. It might be somewhat masochistic, but there are parts of me which feels that the recession we’re going through at the moment is exciting and dare I say it required on some level. There are a significant number of luxury brands which are failing to create anything, well luxury or covetable. For luxury to work the products needs to shimmer, shine and last, frequently brands fail to deliver on all three. There is clearly a counter argument though, which is easily shown by the importance of sites like hypebeast...the speed of consumerism is such that customers demand new products. Many men have become entrenched by this need to buy the latest, shiniest anything. This said, financial conditions seem to show that more people want less at the moment. The difficulty facing luxury brands at the moment is successfully tapping in this mindset of buying less, but buying quality.

We recently talked about the seemingly forgotten art of wardrobe building:

The art of wardrobe building is not fast or haphazard; instead it is developed and nurtured over time. A mans wardrobe may rather eloquently tell the story of his life less ordinary.

These inspiring words from E. Tautz forced us to purge, cleanse, organise and fix Steve's own wardrobe whilst devising a blueprint for the perfect collection of clothes. At this stage of our lives, luxury brands are a little out of our reach but we are (in theory at least) the future consumers of luxury so a selection of these brands should surely find a place in our masterpiece.

Wardrobe staples with a difference
Many luxury brands create highly covetable wardrobe and accessory staples. Yes, there will always be a place for basics but brands need to realise that basics should not necessarily equate to dull. We are strong advocates of classics with a twist. We can see little point buying yet another white shirt (aside from replacing another), but a white shirt of quality fabric with interesting detail means it feels like you're treating yourself while investing in something that will last. A Suitable Wardrobe has been one of our favorite reads since we entered the blogging game and he predicts that as 'hard times bring a turn to conservatism' people are less inclined to take risk and this extends to their sartorial choices. This attitude has certainly been noticed on the runways which have become a touch more formal in their vision for AW09. We still think that the market needs staples with a difference.

When we think of luxury brands our thoughts are instantly filled with fine leather shoes but there is definitely a sense that the industry has lost its way. We all love shoes and there is a certain romance that is attributed to hand crafted specimens but luxury brands have seemingly forgotten the romance and gone straight for our bra strap. Mr. Hare's debut shoe collection (interview can be read here) has hammered home the point to us that brands need to put elegance and craft back into an industry which in many instances has sacrificed quality craftsmanship for gimmicks. It is these distinctly old fashioned values and approach which should be applauded by all and adopted by the men's fashion industry on a whole. Over the course of the next week we will pick out some of our favourite luxury brands as well as the ones which frustrate us to try and create an idea of what makes a luxury brand great.

We could go on and on about this subject but we want to pass the ranting baton across to you whilst we catch our breath. Where do you see luxury brands in the months/years ahead? What would you like to see them doing? Please drop us a comment, an email or even better, write your own post on the subject (giving us the link after it is done). There is so much to say and we are sure you've got your own perspective on it all so please do share it.

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Tailoring as an art form

It was bitterly cold in London yesterday and the (sorry excuse) for snow began to fall we decided to seek comfort in Claire de Rouen Books and I'm glad we did! As well as being able to flick through all the fashion and photography books that I wish I could have on my coffee table (if I even had a coffee table that is) I came across the artwork of Hormazd Narielwalla within EXIT Gallery's "A Fairytale About Fashion" exhibition. Narielwalla's Dead Man’s Patterns is a design story, beneath the trappings of menswear into the book, the man, the pattern. It quite beautifully exposes the secret every tailor has with his clients, the pattern and the journey to the finished suit. I've always seen tailoring as an art form but the below illustrations take this a step further.

The world of tailoring has always been somewhat secretive. Measurements are kept close and patterns preserved long after a client’s death. In Dead Man’s Patterns Narielwalla unwraps some of the mysteries of the trade. Hidden beneath bespoke menswear, there is a secret… Everyone sees the suit, yet few are privy to that private dialogue which assesses, measures, and catalogues the subtle details which make up one single man.

These wonderful images and reading the inspiration behind them only intensify my own desire to enter the wonderful world of bespoke...to begin my own secret...

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