Supporting the home grown at London Fashion Week Men’s with Stephen Doig
London Fashion Week Men’s is upon us, the bi-annual showcase of the capital’s style talent, from Jermyn Street traditional tailoring to the sort of madcap, gender fluid catwalk high jinks that would have your average colonel breakfasting at Fortnums choking on his kippers.
All of which is precisely what makes London fashion so great, and in particular its output for men. And in a world where provenance is the new luxury, and knowing how and where your clothes are made has become more important than logos or labels, it’s fitting that London brands are supporting British manufacturing and flying the flag for British-made.
This was highlighted to grand effect a few months ago, when in his new role as presidential ambassador for the British Fashion Council, David Beckham visited the Private White V.C. factory in Salford. The brand, which takes the name of founder James Eden’s great-grandfather, specialises in solid, elegantly executed outerwear that is made in the region, after Private Jack White returned home from the First World War as a decorated war hero and after working in the textile industry, opened his own raincoat business. Eight years ago, Eden reopened the factory to honour that history and support the local industry, with “Made in Manchester” emblazoned on the labels.
One of the London Fashion Week Men’s highlights is set to be a showcase of the talent around that historical hub of menswear – St James’ – and also highlights the breadth of brands in London that focus on the skill of British handicraft.
Not for nothing does the original dandy Beau Brummell’s statue stand proudly on Jermyn St; the area has been the home of traditional shoemakers, shirt makers and accessories specialists since the 1800s, with the rakish chap-about-town kitting himself out at Turnbull & Asser before slipping across to his rooms at Albany on Piccadilly (which has a back entrance spitting him out on to Savile Row).
And it’s here that a host of labels will debut their spring offerings tomorrow, from traditional outfitter New & Lingwood’s opulently decorative silk dressing gowns, crafted by Vanners Silks in Suffolk, which has created silks on the site since 1740, to Sunspel, which has been making the finest cotton T-shirts in a factory near Nottingham since 1937 (I defy anyone not to notice the difference when slipping one on), and John Smedley, which has been creating the finest knit pieces in Derbyshire since the 1700s. Barbour are also part of London Fashion Week Men’s, and are showing pieces that are created at a 200-strong factory in South Shields.
It’s also heartening that relatively new brands are passionate about maintaining a British made stance. While Mr Beckham tours factories in new capacity, his day job as co-owner of reinvigorated sporting outfitter Kent & Curwen also boasts makers in London to create its distinctly British-inflected clothes, which reference public school rugby attire, Twenties cricket uniforms (it started out making Oxbridge boat race ties and cricket sweaters) and the British mod movement.
It’s a sentiment shared by British design talent Lou Dalton who, despite it being easier to manufacture abroad, has based her business here to celebrate the full might of British manufacturing; “our collections are made in the UK, we seek the best shirt manufacturer, the best trouser makers and the finest knitwear manufacturers. We create contemporary British product for an international, welltravelled man”.
Proof that even the most modern and dynamic of clothes can have a little bit of British craft and heritage woven into them.