TopMan Design Archives - CLOTHES MAKE THE MAN

anthonymcgrath405 / 15/01/2015

London Collections:Men – Highlights – Autumn/Winter 2015

We start this season’s round up of all matters of a Sartorial nature in London and what better place to get the ball rolling than at an honest to goodness PUB QUIZ !!! OK with a rather stylish twist to it, in that it’s compare was Hacienda DJing Legend Mr Elliot Eastwick and it was organised by the Savile Row Tailoring trailblazers that are Cad & The Dandy, only in London.

TOPMAN DESIGN

Bright and breezy, otherwise known as flipping freezing, start to the day, but a warm reception was waiting at the TOPMAN Design show which was piled high with Northern Soul references, like being at a Wigan Pier Weekender. There was nods to The Bay City Rollers, Mark Boland right the way through to James Hunt and any show that finishes with Crazy Horses by The Osmonds is a winner in my books.

I was spoilt for choice on the first day of LC:M with a number of fave brands showing their wares but high points had to be David Keyte’s Universal Works, offering us a conceptual performance, which can go either way for me. But it didn’t disappoint, working on the principle upon which the brand is founded, the idea of Passing on, not in an deathly kinda way but how clothing can be passed on from being old to young and in doing so can be reinvented and reinvigorated.

One of my overall highlights of the entire schedule has to be the Barbour Presentation, which showcased the second season of their wonderful collaboration with the Japan company White Mountaineering, best summed

Barbour

up by the unique, Thank God, Mr Richard Gray, of The Sunday Times STYLE;

“I guess this collab is Tokyo cool meets Prince Charles or something like that. I spoke to Aiwaze San the designer of White Mountaineering, who told me the wax you see, which makes a Barbour jacket waterproof, was the Gortex of its day. And, in fact, it works as well as any new scientific development. Including Gortex. I look forward to the day the Royal Family wear White Mountaineering.“

Hackett

Then what a way to finish off the first day then to head over to one of London’s hidden architectural gems, No 2 Temple Place for a spot of dinner and to look at some exquisite attire by none other than Hackett, entitled, ‘Sheep, Shape and London Fashion’, this capsule collection paid homage to the prestigious longstanding textile mills of Britain. The 12 looks were an amalgamation of different checks and patterns in the finest British wools.

The second day started off with a great breathe of fresh air in the shape of the LC:M Exhibition, this never fails to impress me and I always fall head of heals for at least one brand this season my head couldn’t help being turned by the wonderful Gloverall and then the cashmere delights of ESK, this just has to be British craftsmanship at its best. And from one great example to another with Mr Nigel Calbourn who is never swayed by the short lived trends of Fashions but driven by inspirational stories of real people in history and vintage military, outdoor and work wear pieces.

Over then to Fraser Moss and YMC and once again I search the counsel of the ever wise Ms Sarah Gilfillan, contributor of this wonderful publication and founder of Sartorialab.co.uk ;

“I’ve always loved their simple understated look, and I particularly liked the clever layering and outerwear. The mixture of taloring with sportswear inspired pieces like the drawstring trousers takes me right back to the 90’s when they first started .I find their collections are minimal enough in design to appeal to the everyday man but they always have a subtle point of difference so they’re never boring. I have no doubt I’ll be buying many of these items with my clients next season and I can’t wait!”

Hardy Amies

Moving on to a brand which, to quote Messers Daft Punk and Williams, “Like a Phoenix from the ashes” WOW I can quite simply sum the Hardy Amies collection as, Beautiful clothes, where you find yourself wanting piece after piece.

Christopher Raeburn

Much like Mr Christopher Raeburn, who like Nigel Cabourn draws greatly on the great outdoors and nature in all its beauty for their inspiration and once again he does fail to impress. This season utilising Royal Navy rafts as his material of choice.

Belstaff

Now stay with me here, but I had my reservations when I headed towards an underground car park, not a million miles away from The House of Commons. Surely I must have taken a wrong turn, it wouldn’t have been the first time and this can hardly be classed as a glamorous setting for a stylish presentation for a brand like Belstaff ? Well, as I see Fashion Royalty like Ms Suzy Menkes, Mr Edward Enniful and Ms Caroline Rush spilling out of it, I can’t be wrong. Belstaff, took its inspiration from the ‘Ton-Up Boys’ of the 1950s. Heavily into their rock‘n’roll and motorcycles, these ‘greasers’ would rendezvous at cafés and attempt to ‘do a ton’ (exceed speeds of 100mph) on their custom-made bikes, both fearless and reckless in their stylish pursuit.

Casely-Hayford

Moving into the straits now we had a blinder of a show from Father and Son duo Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford. Set to a sound track of Bjork and Bowie a tribe of Stylish Outsiders did the honours for u. Mixing Oranges and Pinks seamlessly with Blacks and Navy to create a riveting colour palette.

E.Tautz

Opening to a surmon by his Holiness Pope John Paul II isn’t the most obvious start to an E.Tautz show but give Patrick Grant his dues it certainly got the audience’s attention in what Grant called his most personal collection so far, for the Savile Row house. Every coat and piece of outerwear he sent out was one you lushes and craved for already, no brights or pastels for Grant this season only monochrome in his highly wearable colour spectrum.

Tom Ford

Now here’s the battle of the big boys of LC:M, the Texan and the Yorkshire lad, up first we have Tom Ford who showed us a much more causal side to him, which I have to say I’d really not expected to see which included jeans and trainers, I lie to you not ! Then we have Christopher Bailey in the Burberry Check corner, offering us Classical Bohemian in ponchos, florals and paisley, fresh off a hazy trip back in time to India.

Well, there you have it for another season next stop Milan, ding, ding !

anthonymcgrath405 / 09/01/2014

London Collections:Men Show Review Autumn/Winter 2014 Pt I

London has well and truly established itself as a destination on the menswear calendar as a Fashion & Style capital. So as that international Fashion circus of journalists, retail buyers, celebs and, well yours truly, all conjugate in major cities in the name of observing the trends and future wares of some of the biggest & most talented fashion brands in the world, Clothes-Make-the-Man brings you all the best reviews, titbits & opinions over the coming weeks. Enough of this, first up on the London Schedule is the exhibition as I, rather out of character, arrived early. So I took myself off to have a look around, which in the past have proven to be a greater source of inspiration than many of the show, this season was no exception. With the likes of a Common People, Lyle & Scott and Universal works all offering GREAT Collections for Autumn including collaborations with Jonathan Saunders and the aforementioned Universal Works for Lyle & Scott, all managing, very well, I hasten to add, to produce very creative collection all the while managing to be highly commercial.

An example if Jonathan Saunders for Lyle & Scott

Onto the shows for me, my lad and first up is TOPMAN. You never quite know what to expect from TOPMAN Design and this season was no exception, the show can be summed up in three words Mature, Desirable but above all Wearable. With a very muted colour palette of Black, Navy, pale blue and flashes of Russian Red. If those guys over at TOPMAN HQ are planning on targeting an older the customer, they won’t have a problem enticing him. Plus with the dulcet tones of John Copper Clarke and the downpour of rain in the finale, it brought me right back home to my Northern roots.

TOPMAN Design

Next on my hit list is Gieves & Hawkes and the subject of yesterday’s textual Conversation, Mr Jason Basmajian, who just so happens to be the house’s new Creative Director, making waves in all the right places. Jason, informed us his profile that he was going to offer us an, “Elegant,textural, tailored, rich, Savile Row revisited, British twist”. Which quite simply summed up the collection.

Gieves & Hawkes

Now, talk about ends of the spectrum and what is becoming a real USP for LC:M is how it manages to go from the tradition and finesse of Savile Row to young designers offering the height of creative inspiration. One in question being the wonderful Richard Nicoll, who from season to season just seems to be getting stronger and stronger when it comes to his Menswear. Only four seasons in and Nicoll’s presented to us, what can only be described as a riot of Colour. If I had to fit it into a tweet, I’d say, A modern interpretation of the urban man’s wardrobe.

Richard Nicolls

Last, but by no means least of today’s round up, is Christopher Raeburn, who was one of a number of Designers who picked up on the Polar Explorer vibe in their collection, it was a seriously cool show which Mr Raeburn laid on. You were left thinking, did he know something about the weather for next season that we didn’t which was rather apt as we read about our freezing American cousins who were experiencing record low temperatures.

Christopher Raeburn

anthonymcgrath405 / 10/01/2013

London Collections:MEN Autumn/Winter2013 part I

Following on from the stella success of London Collections:Men‘s launch back in June last year, eveything went quite, in a ohhh God how can we top that kinda way. Well Gawd bless the BFC and it has to be said GQ’s Dylan Jones they’ve only gone and done it ! London Collections:MEN (sorry just cant get use to that name) has bounced back for Autumn/Winter 2013 bigger, better, faster, stronger with a schudule that includes such names as Hackett, Richard James and Rake, keeping the side up for the formal side of Great British Tailoring and Lou Dalton, Richard Nicholl and Christopher Shannon, no surprises there, yeah OK, OK. But, the BFC etc have been on a charm overdrive offensive and have been working their little socks off as they have enticed,drum roll please, Alexander McQueen, Bally and no other then get ready for it Mr Tom Ford to showcase their menwear wares !!!!

$Lou Dalton A\W 2013$

Lou Dalton A\W 2013

So to kick the proceedings off it fell on the first lady of British mens style, MsLou Dalton, to show the lads how it should be done. She graced us with a much more grown up collection for Dalton, as always, her suiting is impeccably cut, my personal favourites were the tweed numbers. Lou seems to be evolving into a confident and contemporary designer, but more importantly isn’t losing her sense of fun and humour, which Fashion so often lacks at times. Olympian and Strictly come Dancing contestant Victoria Pendleton sat front row flanked by the beautiful Catherine Hayward of British Esquire and fresh from spending his royalty cheque thanks to John Lewis, was 80’s pop icon, Frankie goes to Hollywood front man Holly Johnson.

From this great start I pulled on my hiking boots and headed over to for the launch of luxury brand, Bally, they were conducting their first capsule collection to cememorate the Sixtieth anniversary of the scaling of Mount Everest. Present at this soiree was a mixed bag of celebs which included TV presenter Rick Edwards, Merlin actor Alexander Vlahos, Libertines front man Karl Borat, Swimmer Marc Forster and fonejacker comedine Kayvan Novak , all out to celebrate both this feet of mankind’s conquering of nature’s elements and an unsurprisingly luxourious range by Bally.

$John Smedley A\W 2013$

John Smedley A\W 2013

Then onto a great colourful presentation laid on by the Forefather of fine gauge knits John Smedley, who have been proudly producing their wonderful knitwear in the UK since 1784 and did you know we have to be grateful to Mr Smedley for the invention on the Long Johns thermal underwear, you learn something new….

From here it was a well earned pit stop at the Bloggers suite care of The St Martins Lane Hotel. The perfect and most luxe way to file copy, check ones email and refill, before out into the breach again. Onwards & upwards !

$TopMan Design A\W 2013$

TopMan Design A\W 2013

Next up was TopMan Design and what a difference a season makes, no reference to surfers or surfing for this collection, as we saw with their last offering. No it was full on luxury explorer and his sherpa companion travelling and making their way through some urban comtemporary landscape. The first section of the show was very East 17’s “Stay another day”, but in a good way, honest. Then came a full on colour explosion on the senses in Reds and Oranges and if we are to believe Gordon Richardson and his TopMan design team, the Parka IS the coat for next Winter and they offered us options in all shapes, sizes and lengths.

$Mr Start A\W 2013$

Mr Start A\W 2013

Mr Start was next on my schedule, the uber stylish boutique of East London, where Nick Grimshaw sat next to Designer Henry Holland both with matching haircuts. The fabulous Mr Hare came along and of course a show isn’t quite complete without the two book ends of LC:M Model David Gandy and Man about Town Mr Tenie Tempah. Start offered us a beautifully sophisticated Man of Mystery, drawing on such iconic figures as George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy and Mid Sean Connery in his Bond years, almost a modern day vintage super spy. The collection felt rather Miu miu Menswear with its 60’s silhouette.

I can’t finish day 1 of LC:M without mentioning the Hackett show, which had a setting which was equal to how beautiful the collection was, The Crypt of St Paul’s Catherdal no less ! The range was masterfully styled by William Gilchrist and once again illustrated how a true gentleman should dress for every occasion.

Catch up with us tomorrow for the second part of LC:M

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