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New trends and styles for men's clothing and
accessories are often influenced and preceded by women's fashion. If floral's
are on the cards for spring 2009 then similarly you'll see watered down versions
in suits through to silk ties.
It might sound ridiculous, but, it has been
so for centuries.
Louis Patou a
Paris fashion designer
made silk ties from women's dress material, hence the advent of the designer
tie.
So the concept is nothing new. The fact is
women's fashion is specifically designed to attract man.
And so naturally including a smidgeon of
femininity into men's accessories, silk ties in particular, makes perfect sense.
The other thing is, you'd be surprised at the number of females that design
men's clothing.
It is our good fortune that they do,
otherwise we'd end up with nothing other than grey suits, striped ties and
tattered old wallets.
I've seen the spring summer 2009 silk tie
collection, they are drab and colourless, a series of stripes and geometric
patterns, no floral's at all, which, after seeing what women plan to wear is in
contrast to logic.
How much longer do we have to be confined to
conservative shades of grey?
Well, luckily there are changes afoot and if
you're prepared to look hard enough will be rewarded. There are designers out
there who accurately forecast future trends and they're the ones to watch as
they buck the critics view.
The women fashion designers I know of and or
associated with all share common traits, the way they incorporate colour and
pattern cannot be mimicked by man. And that's where the great appeal is, it's
the scent of a women in the designs they create.
Rather than follow mainstream, we've created
our own regime with a small cluster of male and female designers. People may
ask, what's so special about that? Well there's only one way to find
out.
By name, Cressida Bell, Victoria Richards
and Vivienne Westwood, Shane McCoubrey, Ian Flaherty, Lbb London and Simon
Carter.
By unique product brand, Falling Leaves silk
ties, Bar, Orb, and the cube Swarovski crystal cufflink by Ian
Flaherty.
And if it's Jewellery for men you're
searching for? The best is deigned by a woman.
Now here are a couple of historic anecdotes
from our data base.
1971: Maverick screen
actress Katherine Hepburn, whose long-term lover Spencer Tracey was a customer
of Huntsman, takes the extraordinary step of ordering bespoke denim jeans from
her late lover's Savile Row tailor. Hepburn's commission foreshadows bespoke
denim collections launched in 2006 by Timothy Everest and Evisu.
1973: Robert Redford
stars in the definitive film of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.
Fitzgerald was a dedicated customer of Jermyn Street
bespoke shirt maker Turnbull & Asser. The shirts that reduce The Great
Gatsby's socialite heroine Daisy (Mia Farrow) to tears with their beauty in the
film all bear the Turnbull & Asser bespoke label.
1974: Gieves Ltd
acquires Hawkes (and the precious freehold of No I Savile Row) and become Gieves
& Hawkes.Tommy Nutter seeks sanctuary at Kilgour, French & Stanbury
after his acrimonious exit from Nutters of Savile Row. Kilgour also incorporates
the famed hunt tailoring specialist Bernard Weatherill. Nutters of Savile Row
continues with Sexton, Roy Chittleborough and Joseph Morgan.Maurice Sedwell
hires Trinidad-born Andrew Ramroop who will go on to become Managing Director
and a Professor of tailoring at the London College of Fashion.
There will always be a niche to fill and our
aim is to do so and there's plenty of historic anecdotes in our
archives
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