BEST OF BRITISH
Our series of features celebrating homegrown cycling companies continues with David Millar’s CHPT3.
As David Millar’s CHPT3 brand expands from its trademark tailored riding kit into bikes, saddles and made in Britain casual wear, we took to the streets of Soho for a lesson in style from the four-time Tour stage winner and his collaborator and tailor to the stars Timothy Everest
Little beats the sensation of freedom one gets from zipping through London on a Brompton: in Soho, in particular, it is impossible not to hear the strains of Tony Christie’s Avenues And Alleyways buzzing around your head as you dart through the backstreets. It is fitting that our latest Best of British feature brings us to these historic streets, steeped in fashion lore, as the men we are riding with are deeply involved with the brand that has been the UK’s most distinctive entry to the cycling world in quite some time: CHPT3.
Indeed, the very bikes we’re riding are prototypes of the brand’s imminent collaboration with London’s biggest bike builder: a stripped back, lightweight, bespoke Brompton in CHPT3’s distinctive colourway. It’s a project former yellow jersey David Millar is especially enthusiastic about.
“We started working with Brompton because I genuinely fell in love with the brand and the bike,” he affirms. “It’s life-changing! But it has also been good because everyone takes the mickey a bit out of Brompton riders and the way they dress, and I thought why? It’s actually pretty damn cool, so why can’t we use what we do at the upper end of things to bring our own look to it?
“I think it will surprise people that we’re at both ends of the spectrum; that you can apply the same brand idea to a Brompton as you do to a Factor [Millar’s other bike collaboration is a range-topping model with the team behind AG2R-La Mondiale’s pro bikes], or our kit.”
Origin story
And while CHPT3 stands on the cusp of significant expansion, it is the brand’s ranges of road cycling kit – created in collaboration with Castelli – that have been charged with making that all-important first impression. It makes sense, given Millar’s background, but the idea was to apply an attention to detail that had never been seen in cycling kit before, which is where our companion for the day, Timothy Everest MBE, comes into play.
“It was a case of coming out of 18 years as a professional cyclist,” explains Millar, who describes the pre- and post-ban stages of his pro career as chapters one and two, “being at the cutting edge of all these things, and seeing that normally when someone retires all that experience disappears and never gets applied to anything.
“Fortunately I had the relationship with Castelli, who were up for doing something different, and my relationship with Tim enabled us to head down this route. Castelli knew how to do all the tech stuff, and we weren’t prepared to compromise on having the best performing and most comfortable fabrics, but they didn’t know how to do the tailoring. So we went down to Tim’s atelier and discovered some of the similarities and the differences between the two fields – the complexities of cutting a bespoke suit blow the doors off of making a speed suit, which is one of the most technical sports garments in the world.”
Tim takes up the theme as we break for coffee at Bar Italia, explaining that while such detailing as the initial CHPT3 range’s signature button collar and reversible cuffs doesn’t come cheap, it’s worth it for the value it adds. “Boys in particular like finishing touches,” the man who has dressed David Beckham, Pierce Brosnan and Jarvis Cocker tells us, “like a certain lining on a suit, little things that give you pleasure and enjoyment. And the clothing market is tough, so you need things to have value, meaning and a reason to be there. I think people are going to buy less but buy better going forward, and CHPT3 definitely fits in with that trend.”
“Boys in particular like finishing touches, little things to bring pleasure. I think people are going to buy less but buy better going forward” Timothy Everest
Cost analysis
There’s no getting away from the fact that with a signature 1.21 jersey coming in at £220, you will be buying less of everything else if you choose to splash out on this stuff. But both Millar and Everest are adamant that it will be money well spent.
“The initial CHPT3 line was designed, at a core level, for me,” admits Millar, “and in a sense it’s like the couture line, it’s so top end and so specific: if it fits for you and works for you it really is the best kit you’ll ever get, but it is pretty specific, and I now know from working with Castelli and with Tim just how much it costs to make these things.
“The reason these things are expensive is because they cost that much to make, but I wanted this stuff to have that sense of tailored attention to the details, the buttons, because most of the stuff we wear is disposable. If you look at our jersey it’s so complex, with darting down the front to give a more tailored fit, the internal and external pockets, the small pocket on the front, the buttoned collar – I mean, it’s madness when you compare it to any other jersey. So when you compare the price, yes, it’s more expensive, but exponentially it’s not and the price is actually reasonable for the amount of work that’s gone into it. It’s a very complex piece.”
This year has seen the launch of a second range of kit [see the Superbikes supplement], inspired by Millar’s desire to complete his final Paris-Roubaix in 2014 having never finished the race before. In keeping with the line’s philosophy that “sometimes finishing can be as important as winning” the kit is designed to broaden the appeal of the CHPT3 brand.
“That couture line was just the starting point, and we’ve learned some lessons from it,” explains the former British champion. “The One More Lap line is slightly more democratic, if you like, and covers the whole board. But I stand by the fact that the kit we designed is, while very specific and maybe not for everybody, the best. If it does fit you it really is amazing.
“And that’s often the way: you buy something because it fits you, not because it’s the thing to have.
“That’s also the main reason we went with waist sizes and chest sizes rather than small, medium and large, because it’s getting to a point where a 44in chest would be an XXXL or something, and that’s stupid: you’re making people think, f@*k, I’m wearing an XXXL, I’m not that fat am I?
“But it’s not that you’re fat, it’s just a sizing label. I think it’s great that you can have 32in waist shorts with a 40in chest jersey. It just makes more sense.”
“It does,” interjects Everest, “and we always tell our clients not to buy on size but to buy what fits. If you’re going to buy Balenciaga you’re going to
“If you look at our jersey it’s so complex, with darting down the front and the buttoned collar. It’ s madness when you compare it to any other cycling jersey” David Millar
have to go up several sizes because they’re very tiny fits, where if you go to M&S even I can wear a 36in chest!”
Branch lines
Along with the Bromptons we’ve been riding, another exciting development in the CHPT3 pipeline is the jackets that Millar and Everest are wearing, both prototypes of a casual jacket that will be made in England and launched this year in collaboration with no one: this is pure CHPT3 and just the beginning of a made in Britain range.
Everest is a real advocate of UK manufacture, and there is an increasing level of recognition that while it adds an extra dimension to the finished product it does come at a premium.
“I think people do realise that,” agrees the tailor, “and I think it’s been interesting over several years to educate people about clothing in general that, yes, this could be done for less elsewhere but it’s not going to be the same or have the same philosophy behind it as something made in the UK.
“When we started with Timothy Everest bespoke we had to convince people who were used to designer brands, rather than Saville Row, to shop with us. When we show people around the house and they get to see everything that goes on, even if the price tag is too high for them, they can appreciate that it is value for money. Once you understand that it takes 42 hours to sew a jacket – not to cut it, not to finish it, not to press it – that there are 13 people involved in a three-piece suit, it’s not going to cost 500 quid.
“But people are smart enough and they can decide whether it’s something for them. Plus, good things last.”
The idea for the jacket was born from David’s post-pro career love affair with the Brompton. “When I rode the Brompton World Championships I didn’t want to wear a suit jacket,” he explains, “so I said to Tim let’s have a look at what we can do. It’s not a commuting jacket, it’s a jacket you could wear on a road bike but also not on a bike at all. We wanted it to be something you could wear even if you’ve never ridden a bike before. If you look at the classic Harrington jacket, which is essentially this design, it’s been made since the 1930s and has always been technical. We just wanted to give our twist to that, such as the lining.”
Everest continues: “David pinged over a picture of Mike Hawthorn [1950s motor racing superstar] who wore a bow tie – a gentleman racer who got dressed for racing – and I looked at the jacket he was wearing and it was very practical and very simple. One of the things we then talked about was ‘apres-cycling’ and instead of looking at lots of pockets and things it was, ‘what could you pop on to head out here to Bar Italia that’s waterproof, practical and still looks cool’. That was our starting point.”
More than a name
In a world where brand recognition is an increasingly valuable commodity, it’s clear that Millar has worked very hard to maintain a consistent identity across the growing line of products that fall into the CHPT3 family.
“We have,” he affirms, “and it’s really the only way you can link a brand like Factor to a brand like Brompton: they almost bookend the cycling industry, but when you put them together they can make sense. You can only do that by having a certain look: Brooks makes the custom saddles, we have our colourway, and once you put the finished version of this jacket up against the Castelli lines there will be themes that tie them together.”
“There are clues all the way through,” adds Everest. “The idea is that cycling is the hub of what you’re interested in, but life is more than just cycling. It’s about wearing something that simply looks cool, but then another cyclist can see it and know it’s CHPT3, thanks to a few subtle nods.”
“We wanted a jacket you could wear even if you’ve never ridden a bike before: our twist on the classic Harrington, with details such as the lining” David Millar