ST Men's Style spring/summer 2012

Clive Owen’s smart mOve tinker, tailored ST men’S STyle Autumn Spring / Summer 2012 / Winter 2011

BR I ON I .CO M

TO B E O NE O F A KIND

contents

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Spring / Summer 2012

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15 front row Recently, fashion seems to have

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been driven by blogs promoting accessorised dandies, says Nick Sullivan. Thankfully, this season, the creativity of designers is reasserted

19 collaboration AnOther Magazine editorin-chief Jefferson Hack and Tod’s CEO Diego Della Valle have joined forces on a shoe collection that conforms to no code

20 fragrance Afer decades of clean, fresh scents that told a woman nothing but ‘I take showers’, Paco Rabanne’s Millionaire heralded an age of love ’em or hate ’em men’s fragrances

23 coveted ‘I love to go a-wandering, along the mountain track. And as I go, I love to wear my Vuiton on my back…’

24 artefact This season, Frida Giannini has reimagined the classic Gucci loafer for ‘sartorial intelligentsia’. Do you have a style PhD?

26 on the radar Jigsaw Menswear is back, with a new creative director and clothes for men who don’t like showing off their ‘mankles’

28 six of the best A tip of the hat to stylish panamas, trilbies and fedoras

31 one to watch It’s a brave man who takes a year out of fashion design when he’s the toast of New York. Michael Bastian did – and now he is celebrated around the world

33 accessories Sunglasses: aviator. Belts: colourful. The rules are simple this summer

36 technology Ærlig Musikgengivelse. No, you’re not missing a cult Danish TV show. It’s Bang & Olufsen’s original philosophy – now applied to its new portable range, B&O Play

Wool jacket, £1,380, Prada. Cotton shirt, £260, Dolce & Gabbana. 12ct-gold sunglasses, £670, Thom Browne Eyewear. Leather bracelet (worn as necklace), £120, Tod’s

Scott trindle

38 Gary Oldman The British actor describes

computers, the mechanical diving watch is still the choice both for back-up and bold statement

face it, surf’s up usually means temp’s down

52 Kim Jones At labels such as McQueen and Dunhill he’s earned plaudits, but it’s not gone to his head. Now the down-to-earth Kim Jones brings his practical aesthetic to Louis Vuiton

56 time travellers In the custom of gentleman

the style he has developed, not only on screen but in his life – from teenage mod to red-carpet bespoke black tie-wearer

42 watches Despite the rise of do-it-all dive

44 new wave Denim, jersey and wool: because,

explorers: tailoring that travels first class

65 stockists The ST Men’s Style directory

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66 hero Actor Tobias Menzies on his inspiration: the complete theatrical creator (and the best thing in Rev), Simon McBurney

12 contributors

On the cover Photographer: Boo George.

Gary Oldman wears a bespoke dinner suit, Paul Smith

BEN MORRIS is a British photographer based in New York. He has had three solo exhibitions in London and Paris, and his first (and, as yet, untitled) book, a six-year photographic study of life on various islands around the world, will be published this winter. He also contributes to magazines such as British Vogue, GQ, Tank and Monocle. Ben shot the ‘New Wave’ fashion story (page 44) over a two-day period in Brooklyn, Long Island and Montauk – the later being where he typically heads to surf when he wants time out of the studio.

GARY OLDMAN is an award-winning actor, writer and director whose iconic screen roles have been as diverse as can be, including Lee Harvey Oswald, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sid Vicious and Satan. Earlier this year, he was nominated for both a BAFTA and an Oscar for his understated portrayal of the sofly spoken government agent George Smiley in Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. His directorial debut, Nil by Mouth, is widely considered one of the greatest British films of all time. He shares his other great lifelong passion – a penchant for menswear – on page 38.

SIMON DE BURTON is a freelance journalist and author who writes about subjects ranging from fine-art auctions to motorcycles for a number of prestigious publications, including the Financial Times and Goodwood The Season. He lives on Dartmoor with his partner Helen, their children Cosmo and Daisy, a springer spaniel called Kip and far too many old cars and motorcycles. For our spring/ summer 2012 issue, the ST Men’s Style watch editor submerged himself in the world of diving timepieces.

JOSH SIMS is a freelance contributor to numerous magazines of the likes of Wallpaper* and i-D, as well as being the former style editor of Arena and executive editor of Arena Homme Plus. A published author, his books include Cult Streetwear and Icons of Men’s Style. For this issue, he travelled to France to interview Kim Jones, the new style director of Louis Vuiton’s menswear division. ‘It was all refreshingly ordinary,’ Josh admits, ‘which is one thing you don’t expect from Parisian fashion. A positive British influence, I’d like to think.’

EDITORIAL Editor Henry Farrar-Hockley Editor-in-chief Joanne Glasbey Executive editor Peter Howarth Chief copy editor Chris Madigan Senior copy editor Gill Wing Copy editors Sarah Evans, Cate Langmuir Editorial business coordinator Sarah Deeks DESIGN Senior art director Ciara Walshe Senior designer Helen Delany Picture editor Juliette Hedoin Creative director Ian Pendleton FASHION Fashion director Allan Kennedy CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Nick Sullivan (Style) Simon de Burton (Watches) Ahmed Zambarakji (Grooming) COMMERCIAL (UK) Executive director Dave King Publishing director Toby Moore 020 7931 3350 Director of fashion and luxury Carley Ayres 020 7931 3328 COMMERCIAL (ITALY) K.Media Srl Via Cavalieri Bonaventura, 1/3 20121 Milan, Italy +39 02 29 06 10 94; kmedianet.com SHOW MEDIA 020 3222 0101 Ground Floor, 1-2 Ravey Street, London EC2A 4QP info@showmedia.net www.showmedia.net Printed by Polestar (polestar-group.com) Colour reproduction by fmg (wearefmg.com)

SCOTT TRINDLE was introduced to photography by his publican grandmother,

and took his first ever snap using a Polaroid. He hasn’t looked back. Last year, he undertook a project called Untouched, for which he shot some of the world’s most famous models – including Natalia Vodianova, Raquel Zimmerman and Doutzen Kroes – without a scrap of make-up, styling or couture, to celebrate the London launch of Viva Models agency. For this issue, he photographed our ‘Time Travellers’ fashion feature, on page 56.

ST Men’s Style is designed and produced by SHOW MEDIA LTD for the Telegraph Media Group. All material © Show Media Ltd and Telegraph Media Group. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is strictly prohibited. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, no responsibility can be accepted for any errors or omissions.

The information contained in this publication is correct at the time of going to press.

tommyton/trunk archive

front row

It was always something of a struggle to get into a fashion show.

There’s the single door through which 500 people must squeeze in 15 minutes, the death-trap staircase, the damp unventilated space that’s either way too hot or way too cold but never just right, and the 6in-wide numbered bench space. I am more than ready for the usual ticket-checking goons, bolshy vous-are-not-on-my-list PRs, and snaking through and around all the hangers-on who have no real business being there. But now too there are the bloggers, or rather the blogger photographers, who, in the past three or four seasons have expanded from a polite population of one or two – including Scot Schuman of The Sartorialist – to an army of snappers with telephoto lenses worthy of the best paparazzi.

And it’s not just the snappers but their willing victims who get in my way. Were I 26, stick-thin and wearing an interesting hat, it would be game-on for me too. If I had no actual useful employment in the fashion business, my chances of being a snappee would increase exponentially. If I had a big bag and could stand in an asymmetric, pigeon-toed rictus for long enough without reigniting the sciatica, my visage might be more present online alongside them. Or not. It’s invariably my shoes that get all the atention. Maybe it’s beter that way.

Men’s fashion has, thanks to the ministrations of blogs, become all about the accessories. Whether you’re an aesthete, a classicist or a hipster, recently it has been all about throwing together interesting items (obscure dual-branded collaboration, anyone?) in a way that is, of course, anything but thrown together. If brightly coloured chinos were not enough to arrest the atention, pop on a fil-de-bouche pocket square, billowing cumulonimbus-like from the Neapolitan-style barca-shaped breast pocket of an unlined linen jacket in an in-betweeny shade of raspberry. Add two-tone bucks and a Rolex double red

STYLE WARS: RETuRn of ThE dESignER For too long, taste has been dictated by extroverts rather than experts.

But this spring, that’s set to change

Words NICK SULLIVAN

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16 front row

Below, clockwise from top left: Dior, Dries Van Noten, Ferragamo, Calvin Klein, all S/S 12

Until very recently, the fashion business has been gazing at itself as if in a mirror rather than driving our sense of taste

Sea-Dweller, and enough wrist ‘situation’ to turn your hands purple and, presto bingo, I am ready for my close-up, Mr Schuman.

Fashion has clearly been democratised by the interwebs, taste being driven not by designers on catwalks but, literally, on the street. Which is all fine, dandy and egalitarian, though I wonder if we haven’t lost something in the process. While the fashion business has feverishly embraced blogging, Twiter, Pinterest and Instagram for all its free publicity potential, it has been gazing on itself as if in a mirror rather than driving our sense of taste.

There’s nothing too wrong with anything that prompts men to shop and make an effort, but there is such a thing as too much.

Such heights of public peacockery as we’ve seen on those street-style blogs were unthinkable a few years ago, when the most out-there styling you ever saw was on a catwalk, and it was something that rarely travelled beyond its narrow purlieu, except perhaps to leap over the first three rows of sensibly dressed bigwigs and alight on the population of Le Standing section, which can always be relied upon to overdo it. But enough is enough. We will no longer take the apotheosis of Le Standing lying down.

So it is refreshing to see fashion designers this spring and summer put renewed vigour into what they do best: designing. Their main angle of atack lies in simplifying men’s clothes, and showing less of them. As most major shifs go in men’s fashion, the change starts with the cloth.

Part and parcel of that dressed-up dressed-down look that came before was roughed-up and washed-out cloths with a look that was abrasive to the eye if not to the touch. For this spring, however, clothes are flater, duller even and – that word again – cleaner. There’s also less colour, and there are fewer extraneous additions, fewer accessories.

Even the suit appears to be playing its role. It is making a tentative comeback, not as an indication of a return, post-recession, to a 9-to-5 mentality, but the opposite. In swimming-pool blue or chlorophyll green with white butons, these are the sort of suits you can only wear when you are not at work. The last time such animals were on the loose was in the Eighties. Crocket and Tubbs, Richard Gere and Simon LeBon would recognise the idea, though they might wonder where the shoulder pads have gone. Suited or not, the romantic notion of escapism – from work, city life, from Twiter and the tyranny of the iPhone – is widespread this spring.

Massimiliano Giorneti, designer of Salvatore Ferragamo, has been quietly building the brand’s aesthetic in both men’s and women’s wear into the powerhouse of taste and luxury it should be. The day before his men’s show, he said of his less-is-more approach, ‘It seems a moment for a man to reflect, almost to do nothing as an antidote to trying in daily life to do everything. To me, the ultimate luxury is to go on vacation, sit in a garden, read a book. An actual book.’ His collection, fitingly, was composed of short linen jackets, trousers, a shirt.

Litle in the way of decoration or accessories. Not much else at all, in fact. But while he was clearly channelling city-fleeing artists or writers in some past Mediterranean era, the look was just as much a contemporary nod to simple sportswear.

Comfort is key here. Labels as diverse as Dries Van Noten, Dior, Louis Vuiton, Calvin Klein and Botega Veneta played with volumes, easing things up but adding a litle interest here and there with reimagined ethnic paterns - another element of that off-work aesthetic.

At Vuiton, Kim Jones used prints and weaves derived from the bright red Masai blankets of his youth in Kenya. For cultural reference, he drew on Peter Beard’s iconic book The End of the Game and his own childhood memories to concoct an escapist collection every bit as seductive as Giorneti’s Riviera moment at Ferragamo.

By focusing once more on simple clothing rather than the accessories that go with it, many of this season’s best collections put the power to influence taste back in the hands of their designers.

It’s up to us, in the democratic age, what we do with it. But it does suggest a return to the authority of the fashion designer, and leaves us with a great summer uniform of easy pieces. It also means we don’t even have to do the thinking any more.

Designers have that covered.

Nick Sullivan is fashion director of US Esquire

collaboration

sole search Jefferson Hack took inspiration from rebels old and new to create the No_Code collection for Tod’s, as he reveals here

It all started a couple of years ago, when I

The shoes became about a nonconformist

was regularly bumping into Diego Della

attitude for men and women – creatively

Valle, the CEO of Tod’s, at various events.

free, sexually free (that’s part of Lee Miller’s

He is a typical Italian and not shy about

mythology too) – not restricted to any

commenting on what a man is wearing –

formal codes, anti-uniform, day-to-night,

he was always incredibly flattering about

boy-to-girl. You can wear the shoes with

my personal style, but I never wore Tod’s.

a tuxedo or you can wear them with a pair

Then one day he asked me what kind of shoes I would wear, if Tod’s were to

of jeans, and both work.

Cool luxury is how Diego describes

make them. I said I would think about it

them. But I don’t speak like that – I would

and send him a couple of ideas. It was

say they make you feel ‘ready for action’.

as casual as that – just an agreement to

Stylistically what that means is that these

have a dialogue about shoes and style.

are shoes that are all about texture and

I was curious to see how his design team

colour – the palette was inspired by the

would interpret my ideas.

artist Josef Albers. The leathers are

So, every time I went to Milan over

treated in incredibly subtle ways – there’s

the next few months, we’d have a catch-

a great cracked white leather that has

up and slowly we began to understand

real character – and the suede is really

each other, and I would see prototypes

fine to the touch.

and help rework them. Diego got

These shoes are comfortable and

inspired and said he thought we really

incredibly light. I don’t know how they

could produce a capsule collection for

make such a light shoe – maybe it’s

men together. But I quickly realised that

because everything is handmade and

I wanted these shoes to be for both men

everything is understated, nothing is

and women. The truth is, I was noticing

obvious; it’s a kind of hidden secret. When

lots of girls wearing boys’ shoes and

you put them on they transform you

I thought they looked very sexy.

because of the quality. That’s really the

I was looking for a bridge between

thing that made me excited about

Tod’s and my world. I am inspired by

working with Tod’s: they make things that

creative free spirits, and that is something

are built to last and they have that

I wanted to capture. That and the archetype

incredible Italian touch.

of the rebel – but the rebel who is also a bit of a dreamer. The idea of the lost romantic caught in the 21st century where nothing is impossible anymore.

I wanted the girl wearing these shoes to be a bit of a tomboy: a strong woman who could take on any guy. I’ve always had a crush on Lee Miller – the model who became Man Ray’s assistant, influenced his art and became a bona fide member of that group of surrealists, then became an important war photographer, shooting from the frontlines for Vogue! What an amazing woman she must have been to have fitted all that into one lifetime.

And I loved her style – her long trousers and elegant slipper shoes, her minimalism.

Minimalism was really important to this collection – I didn’t want any decoration.

If these could be the type of shoes that a modern-day Lee Miller would wear, that would be perfect.

For my male inspiration, things were easier. I have plenty of friends whom I looked to, and I also had this idea of a modern-day James Dean character.

I pinned a shot of him on onto a mood Right, from top: Jefferson Hack (left) with Diego Della Valle; No_Code collection suede lace-ups, £275, Tod’s

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board and it made sense. There are guys out there that have that vibe today – like Boardwalk Empire’s Michael Pitt, who is an actor and musician. He has a sense of threat and danger about him that I like.

Jefferson Hack is a journalist and publisher and the co-founder of Dazed & Confused magazine.

He is editor-in-chief of AnOther Magazine and AnOther Man. He was talking to Peter Howarth

20 fragrance

polarised perfume

Scent is having a Marmite moment – after decades of mediocrity, there are fragrances to love or hate Words Ahmed Zambarakji Illustration Demetrios Psillos

Many might recall, perhaps with a twinge of agony, a time when a certain Bryan Adams power ballad sat atop the UK charts for what felt like most of the early Nineties. The top ten list of best-selling men’s fragrances was, for most of that decade and, indeed, a large part of the Noughties, equally as static and mind-numbing.

Year in and year out, the same names would effortlessly hold on to their coveted position in the charts while countless competitors came and went, unable to get a look in. Not only was this unchanging list testament to men’s inherent brand loyalty, but the vast majority of the fragrances featured proved quite how unadventurous guys were in the grooming department.

In stark contrast to the ever-changing women’s market, the men’s top ten was less about individuality and creativity and all about

masking one’s scent with something relatively innocuous. Even the originality of trend-seting innovations such as Issey Miyake’s L’Eau D’Issey or Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, both launched in 1994, had begun to fade with over-exposure.

Like radio-friendly hits that had become indistinguishable from one another, a large part of the commercial men’s market had come to consist of formulaic ‘fresh woods’ and mundane ‘marine’ scents that smelt as though they were concocted by numbers. They were made of sparkling top notes and masculine woody bases with the occasional tonka bean thrown in for good measure. Venerable institutions such as Chanel and Guerlain, whose reputations were built on risk and creativity, had begun to follow a foolproof formula.

The epitome of laziness came pre-packaged in the form of ‘sport’ fragrances, watered-down versions of best-sellers designed to cash in on the success of their predecessors. They are to the world of fragrance what Diet Coke is to ‘The Real Thing’. Few have anything to do with sporting activities – they don’t make you run faster, lif more or sweat less – and yet they’ve proved to be hugely successful in a saturated market.

And then, in 2008, along came Paco Rabanne 1 Million, a full-fat sugar-and-spice scent contained in an ostentatiously ‘bling’ botle designed to resemble a gold ingot. The packaging alone represented everything that was wrong with today’s society and so it naturally sold by the crate-load, casually making its way onto the once-impenetrable best-sellers’ list. Suddenly we had a veritable game-changer on our hands – or, rather, splashed on our necks, as the case may be.

Not since Thierry Mugler’s A*Men (1996) – a veritable Willy Wonka of an eau de toilete – had something so sweet been marketed as a men’s fragrance. And so, staring at a department store shelf lined with the faux-gold flasks, it became clear that one man’s treasure was another man’s trash. And, while 1 Million might create something of a Marmite situation for the average Cool Water customer, we must thank Rabanne for shaking up a heretofore stagnant market.

1 Million has ushered in a slew of polarising scents, all of which follow a ‘gourmand’ theme. Its release was swifly followed by the likes of Givenchy Play Intense (2008) and Mugler’s A*Men Pure Malt (2009), both of which make the average guy smell as though he has rolled around naked in a giant vat of Dairy Milk. One of the most recent examples is Gaultier’s Kokorico (2011), a cocoa-bean concoction with the occasional whiff of patchouli.

For the first time in recent memory – or at least in my decade documenting the rise of the men’s grooming market – the current best-sellers are representative of a diverse customer base and are proof that our sense of masculinity really is in flux. Granted, the masses may have jumped from one extreme to the other (leaving all the really good stuff largely unnoticed) but any change is a positive change. Isn’t that right, Bryan?

Ahmed Zambarakji is the founder of grooming blog The Exfoliator (theexfoliator.com)

TOD’S BOUTIQUES: TEL. 020.74932237 - 020.72351321

Double-breasted jacket in cotton and silk seersucker.

Blouson shirt and trousers in cotton poplin.

For all enquiries contact Hermès on 020 7499 8856 Hermes.com

coveted 23

Words Henry Farrar-Hockley Photography Frank Hülsbömer

we’ve got your pack

It pays to remember

that the rucksack – the utilitarian, hands-free luggage that is as common a sight in college classrooms as it is on the shoulders of commuters, style savants, globe-trotters and gym-goers – started out as the staple of the keen outdoorsman. It provided a method of conveniently transporting substantial loads over awkward terrain. So it is pleasing to see that Kim Jones – menswear style director at Louis Vuitton – has afforded plenty of space for ferrying your worldly goods about the place in his roll-top statement canvas backpack for the brand’s spring/ summer 2012 collection. Accentuated by the signature Vuitton monogram, expandable straps and cowhide leather detailing, it is fully packed with style.

Backpack, £6,150, Louis Vuitton; louisvuitton.co.uk

Accessories editor Ciara Walshe Stylist Pop Kampol STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 65

24 artefact

Words Peter Howarth Photography Frank Hülsbömer

a bit of all right The Gucci loafer has long been considered a design classic – the men’s and women’s versions were exhibited at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1985 as examples of the bond between design and craftsmanship, and became part of the permanent collection there. It is also the only shoe in the collection of the city’s Museum of Modern Art. Created in 1953 on the death of founder Guccio Gucci, the loafer was updated in 1966 with the distinctive metallic horse-bit ornament, referencing the brand’s history as a maker of saddlery and equestrian equipment. Since then, it’s been a regular in the collection and, this year, Gucci’s creative director Frida Giannini has reimagined it as part of a wardrobe for a modern-day dandy. ‘This season, I wanted to create menswear for a sartorial intelligentsia,’ she says, ‘revisiting the spirit of Savile Row in the Sixties and Seventies – a gentlemen’s club populated by singers and rock stars, aristocrats and dandies who loved playing with tradition.

In this context, brightly coloured Gucci loafers are the perfect footwear.’ Leather moccasin with horse bit, £450; gucci.com

26 on the radar

back in the game After 12 long years, Jigsaw Menswear has been relaunched.

This time round the focus is on brilliant wardrobe fixes

Words David Waters

Frances Walker, Jigsaw Menswear’s new creative director, isn’t exactly coy about her new role as head of one of the most sorely missed men’s brands on the British high street.

‘When I told my husband I’d been brought in for the relaunch of Jigsaw Menswear last year, he said I’d just landed my dream job. I’ve thought about it, and he’s absolutely right.’

Walker – formerly head of menswear at Nicole Farhi – draws on a rich design knowledge and experience for a revival 12 years in the waiting. Jigsaw Menswear is a name that still inspires a salivating, Pavlovian response from style-savvy men in their thirties and forties. At its zenith, in the late Nineties, the brand was an approachable, affordable version of Helmut Lang’s minimalist shtick, while channelling the sportiness of CP Company. It could even dip into the eccentric design flourishes at Prada. It was high-concept fashion rendered accessible to all of us.

‘That time has gone now,’ explains Walker, shrugging her neatly tailored shoulders. ‘I think today’s Jigsaw man needs a wardrobe of clothes that work for him rather than one that slavishly follows the catwalk trends.’

Trends, indeed, are not overtly being followed in this, Walker’s first ever spring/summer collection; there are no doublebreasted suits or narrow-legged chinos demanding to be rolled up, for instance. Yet there’s a refinement, particularly in the choice of fabrics, that gives this line a reassuringly considered and high-end feel.

Shirts are manufactured at the chic Albini factory in Italy, for example, which gives the chambray and poplin a refined, pleasingly lived-in finish. Tailored jackets display fully butoning sleeves, while their collars flip back on the lapels with an eye-catching shot of contrasting felt. This

Below: Blazer, £235; jumper, £89; shirt, £75; trousers, £115; and suede shoes, £185, all Jigsaw Menswear.

Socks, £18, Corgi for Jigsaw Menswear

is a collection that seems to ask to be handled and examined before you begin to pull it on.

In this spirit, I shrug on an unlined single-breasted linen coat in a moody charcoal grey that feels more like a cardigan than an overcoat. Walker explains that it’s made from fabric by Solbiati, the producers of some of Italy’s finest linen, which gives it surprising hef and luxurious handle.

This is remarkable quality for a relatively low price. She can read my surprised look.

‘We’ve put so much work into this collection,’ she says. ‘I can’t wait to see men wearing it and integrating it into their wardrobes. It’s really exciting. And it’s all about fabric. If a garment doesn’t feel as good as it looks, then I’m never satisfied with it.’ To test her statement, I run my hand along a row of pink, grey and indigo relaxed-looking clothes made from chambrays, poplins and linens and, indeed, my fingers meet a sea of smooth, sheer and pleasingly tactile fabrics. This is menswear as sensual pleasure as well as covetable object.

This first season is pitched in that easy zone between a relaxed working wardrobe and that of a laid-back weekend. This is no beter illustrated than by the collection’s refined navy pea coat. Made from tough British Millerain waxed coton, it somehow asks to be worn with Jigsaw’s chunky-zipped beige canvas holdall, made in conjunction with Chapman of Cumbria. Pitch up with these on your back and you are equally well atired for a media conference in Berlin or a lost weekend at Babington House.

‘Where possible, we used British manufacturers,’ says Walker. ‘Not just through a desire to support our home-grown businesses, which is, of course, important to us, but because these are some of the best companies in the world at what they do.’

As if to further illustrate the brand’s DNA, she talks me through a mood board of men who’ve inspired her.

There’s a tousle-haired Johnny Depp rubbing up against an artfully dishevelled Lucian Freud as well as the be-hated and bohemian William Gilchrist, stylist to the Rolling Stones. ‘These are men with a unique style,’ she says. ‘And this is where menswear’s at right now – it’s not about wearing a look from head to toe, to show your allegiance to a brand or designer. Instead, it’s something much more relaxed and individual.’

I pull out from a nearby hanger a pair of straightlegged chinos in midweight coton. They’re neither skinny nor loose-cut, but designed somewhere exactly between these two poles. They’re a perfect metaphor then for relaunched Jigsaw Menswear itself: a selection of what you really want to wear, but without looking as if you’ve tried very hard at all.

Jigsaw Menswear is opening dedicated stores in Spitalfields Market, London E1, and Mayfair, London W1, and will also be available in 16 Jigsaw stores nationwide; jigsaw-online.com David Waters is associate style editor of Men’s Health

28 six of the best

Words Mansel Fletcher Photography Frank Hülsbömer

keep a cool head The demise of the hat is often traced to the freezing cold morning of Friday, 20 January 1961, on which US President John F Kennedy gave his inaugural address in Washington DC. The President disliked wearing hats and, although he wore the traditional topper for most of the day, he doffed it to make that iconic speech. The decline in hat-wearing – the result of the post-war era’s increasing informality, the growing ubiquity of central heating and the boom in car ownership – had been given Presidential blessing. However, half a century on, they have become fashionable again. They have been creeping back in to the mainstream ever since the days when Pete Doherty commanded respect; then men started wearing flat caps again; and, this spring, it’s time for a full revival of fedoras, panamas and the trilby. Given the current vogue for guys to wear dandyish accessories – pocket squares, tiepins, bracelets – the resurgence makes perfect sense. The look to aim for is Frank Sinatra and French actor Alain Delon in the Sixties. You should also emulate them on a vital point of etiquette: it may be 2012, but hats still shouldn’t be worn indoors.

Mansel Fletcher is features editor of Mr Porter (mrporter.com)

Clockwise, from top right: Straw trilby, £25, Firetrap. Stripe band trilby, £269, Borsalino at Harrods. Straw hat, £370, Lanvin. Straw fedora, £60, Polo Ralph Lauren at Harrods. Straw and fabric trilby, £125, Paul Smith.

Chambray and chalk woven panama hat, £129, Emporio Armani STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 65 Accessories editor Ciara Walshe Stylist Pop Kampol

one to watch

31

Words Nick Sullivan Photography Christopher Sturman

bastian of hope Want to know the future of American fashion?

Michael Bastian has the answer

There are few rules in the business of men’s fashion but in the slog to get a collection together at all, one rule should be paramount: you don’t step away from your market. Yet a year ago, designer Michael Bastian, the darling of New York menswear, did just that. For an entire season.

The risky move was due to prices. His customers, the media and US retailers had quickly come to love Bastian’s wearable, intelligent, sexy take on male Americana, but there was one major sticking point. Some of his clothes were crazy-expensive. ‘We had to have that break,’ he says.

‘Price was our biggest issue. Before, we had a set of Italian factories that were tiny and did a lot of hand work. The things we’re best at – the classic American pieces - people found a disconnect with because they’d see an outwardly simple pair of chinos, then the price and keep going.’

A year on, Bastian already has two collections and a CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year award under his belt.

His spring/summer range is in stores now. And although his business is not the solid machine it could yet be, the 46-year-old designer is now on far firmer ground.

‘We’re still in the designer world,’ he says, ‘and still working with luxury factories. But we have much more

control of the margins, which means we can drop our prices by as much as 20 per cent.’ All of which means that Bastian can focus on what he likes: thinking hard about and making absurdly wearable, deeply American clothes for men.

Bastian’s rise – he launched his collection in 2006 - paralleled a global nostalgia for vintage Americana. Yet his interest was less in vintage than in the deeper meaning of American style. ‘The whole American heritage movement was totally slobbered over by the blogosphere. It got used up really fast. Now, to me, anything that feels too vintage, fake-old or too referential to something great that LL Bean once did is just dead already.’

Bastian’s advantage is that his clothes are not entirely American, despite his formative years at New York’s Bergdorf Goodman store. There is a European sensibility to his menswear, gleaned from his extensive tours of duty in Italy. And when he decided to launch his own line, it was with Italian luxury manufacturer Brunello Cucinelli.

‘If I were to generalise, I’d say American guys wear their suits a size too big. When you go to Italy, you see how a suit should really fit. When you go to Savile Row, you see how a trouser leg should break. It sinks in.’ Yet Bastian’s collections are always about American ideas first.

The first look of the catwalk show that debuted his spring 2012 collection featured a James Dean lookalike in a red Harrington jacket, white T-shirt, jeans and Wayfarers.

However, this first outfit stood only as an exclamation mark to get one’s atention before a show that was American, yet anything but retro. According to Bastian: ‘It would have been very easy to just slap James Dean’s picture on things, but we didn’t want that. We wanted to take this idea of a young, talented actor and ask what he would have worn if he were 24 today. I wanted to find out, without being too literal, what his closet might look like now.’

Post-recession, strong currents are carrying men’s fashion in adventurous new directions, something that excites the designer. Much is being driven by the internet, from online stores such as Mr Porter (which carries Bastian) to the bloggers. ‘All those menswear bloggers are taking style so seriously,’ he continues. ‘A generation of guys who’ve never been forced to wear a suit is suddenly finding itself really wanting to try a double-breasted jacket.’

And still Bastian is thinking where American style is going next. ‘I think it’s got to get cleaner, more modern, taking things away instead of adding things. When Perry Ellis was alive, his ads would all be about the perfect chinos or that perfect blue Oxford shirt, and there was a jacket, but there wasn’t even a belt. It was so powerful because here were three perfect things and they weren’t weird and modernist, they were just modern, in that they were so clean. You notice a buton or the finishing on a cuff more when there’s nothing to distract you. You have to dig deeper and be even more obsessive about everything.’ michaelbastiannyc.com

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accessories 33

From left, top to bottom: £109, Lacoste. £119, Carrera by Safilo. £230, Yves Saint Laurent. £204, Dolce & Gabbana. £129, Tommy Hilfiger

by Safilo. £156, Versace. £249, Dior Homme Accessories editor Ciara Walshe Stylist Pop Kampol STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 65

real fly guys Sunshine may have been elusive of late, but its concerted return signals several things: rosé wine, a reconsideration of tailored shorts and the imminent need for a new pair of shades. Our tip for the latter? The aviator. Developed by sunglasses specialist Ray-Ban in 1936 exclusively for military airmen, its teardrop shape was designed to cover as much of the eye as possible, eliminating bright light at every angle so the pilot could get on with more important matters. More than 70 years after its arrival, the style is still hugely popular. Less hipster than a Wayfarer, the aviator is the granddaddy of sunglasses and a look designers are returning to this season. It has the added advantage of suiting most face shapes. When it comes to how you wear aviators, take your cue, not from Tom Cruise in Top Gun, however tempting a sartorial proposal the jumpsuit might be, but rather from style icon

Words Jodie Harrison

du jour Ryan Gosling in Drive, with a neat pair of jeans, a bomber jacket (get it?) and a simple white T-shirt.

Jodie Harrison is editor of Mr Porter (mrporter.com)

Photography Frank Hülsbömer

34 accessories

Photography Frank Hülsbömer Words Marcus Jaye

it’s a cinch Before the explosion in men’s accessories, the belt used to represent a simple choice between black and brown. Nowadays, it comes in a hue, material and size to suit even the most selective of sartorialists, with this season’s focus on bright palettes in any finish – just as long as it’s not leather. Canvas, grosgrain, even rubber are all featured, in bold, primary colours intended to add a striking highlight to your summer wardrobe. Not just a means of stopping gravity from doing its worst, the belt dresses up shorts and light summer trousers and, much like your shoes, says a lot about your taste. There are a few caveats, though: never let the strain show – it will make you look considerably bigger than you are, and is uncomfortable to wear. Always buy the correct size for your waist – the dangly penis extension is not a good look. If it does prove longer than you need, tuck the excess into the waistband. Similarly, avoid major buckles, logos or metalwork and let the belt ‘sing’ in a clean line. Most of all, have fun with it and don’t be afraid to confidently contrast – a strong colour needs another strong colour to balance it, and bold trousers look great with an equally eye-catching belt.

Marcus Jaye is creative director of online men’s style magazine The Chic Geek (thechicgeek.co.uk)

From top: Fabric and leather ‘Greca’ belt, £120, Tod’s. Canvas and straw belt, £318, Etro. Canvas ‘Equinoxe’ belt, £450, Hermès.

Fabric belt, price on application, Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci.

Leather and canvas belt, £149, Emporio Armani.

Accessories editor Ciara Walshe Stylist Pop Kampol STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 65

36 technology

Words Henry Farrar-Hockley Photography Beate Sonnenberg

bang up to date

Perhaps it’s because of its founders’ exacting ethos of ‘Ærlig musikgengivelse’

(literally ‘honest musical reproduction’), or that the Danish marque has long been synonymous with the highest design standards. Either way, Bang & Olufsen has only ever really catered to the deepest of pockets.

Now, however, the cult audiovisual label is introducing a sub-brand, B&O Play, which will manufacture portable devices capable of the same blend of technical and aesthetic panache, but at a more accessible price point. Its first offering, the Beolit 12, is a rechargeable AirPlay sound system with three powerful speakers concealed behind its wraparound aluminium grille. Designed by Cecilie Manz (whose iconic ‘Caravaggio’ lamps stole the limelight in the latest series of BBC Four thriller The Killing), it is accentuated by a removable, Hermès-like leather carry handle. The rubberised tray-top, meanwhile, is intended as a resting place for your iPhone, from where it can wirelessly stream four hours of beautifully balanced sound – or twice that, if you resort to an old-fashioned cable. Plenty of Bang for your buck, then. Beolit 12, £599, B&O Play; beoplay.com

Henry Farrar-Hockley is editor of ST Men’s Style and ST Technology

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D R E S S I N G T H E PA R T Gary Oldman represents a traditional British sangfroid in his portrayal of George Smiley. In his own life, he has woven his way through the London looks of the past 40 years, from suedehead teen to bespoke-suited 50-something. Here, he traces the development of his style

INTERVIEW PETER HOWARTH PhoTogRaPhy BOO GEORGE

40

Gary Oldman’s career is a significant achievement, even by Hollywood standards: over the past three decades he has taken on iconic characters – fictional, real and somewhere in-between – such as Sid Vicious, Count Dracula, Ludwig van Beethoven and Lee Harvey Oswald, bringing each to the screen with obsessive attention to detail.

More recently, his interpretation of le Carré’s famous spymaster, George Smiley, in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy earned him BAFTA and Academy Award nominations earlier this year, and he is due to return in July as Commissioner Jim Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises – the grand finale to Christopher Nolan’s billion-dollar-grossing Batman trilogy.

But when we caught up with him in Paris the morning after the French premiere of Tinker, Tailor, we were keen to quiz him on his other lifelong obsession: men’s style. Thankfully, he obliged.

I grew up in Deptford in south London, and at that time I used to wear toppers, loon pants and tonic suits from shops like Take 6 and Topman. I was a bit of a soul boy, but I had a very eclectic taste in music – I was into James Brown and Bowie; and I was the only kid in the neighbourhood who would also be listening to Chopin. That mix of styles is something I’ve also pursued in my dress.

Back then, though, it was the Seventies and I suppose I was a sort of suedehead – I wasn’t really a skinhead, but it was still a bit of a uniform. You had the Crombie coat with the pocket handkerchief with the stud. I owned a couple of those, I walked into school assembly once and I had a white ‘Benny’ on – a Ben Sherman shirt, buton-down with a pleat in the back and a litle hanger loop above it. I didn’t have a jacket on and the headmaster, before I even landed, said, ‘Oldman, wait outside my office.’

The accessories were important – loafers and brogues, and the socks: they were white and red. I remember saving up for things. I used to get up really early and do the round with the milkman; and I had a paper round. I remember gazing into shop windows at a pair of brogues or Dr Martens on the other side of the glass, like that ring in Lord of the Rings! And I’d think, ‘Three more weeks…’

Though I liked Bowie, I was never into the glam thing – it was all a bit much. I was never a punk either, though I got to play Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. Looking back, I suppose the role I had in Meantime – Coxy the skinhead – was closer to my personal style. That bomber jacket he wears was my own, out of the cupboard, and those knee-high Dr Martens were Tim Roth’s. He loaned them to me because we were looking for a pair that was worn.

As a drama student I got into Thirties and Forties suits. There was this place in Holborn called something like Blax, where this guy had these second-hand suits and boxes of these vintage shirts that were still in their polythene wrappers.

When I first went there, you wore a shirt and tie with a pin through the collar under the tie,

‘Tomas Alfredson, the director of Tinker, Tailor was clear about the importance of clothes to the film’

with an old, smart single- or double-breasted suit.

The trousers hung beautifully as they had a turn-up that was weighted with a litle piece of leather. Then, of course, you had to get the shoes: shiny brogues and Oxfords. It was another uniform, I suppose, but I remember being the only one who dressed like that.

The trouble is that when you’re an actor you’re wearing your hair long, short, blue – whatever it requires. Afer a while, it became too much of an effort for me: if you’re going to dress in a late Thirties suit, you’re going to have to do your hair to match.

Then the guy started making new suits based on those old paterns. I stuck with him for a long time – until I discovered Paul Smith.

I remember coming across Paul’s shop in Covent Garden. It must have been 23 years ago.

It was one of those things; I literally walked in off

all star; capital pictures; eyevine; gary oldman

the street. I remember looking in the window and thinking, Who’s this? I bought a shirt. It had a litle bit of whimsy about it – a pocket with a strip of contrasting fabric on the top. A week later, there were shoes in the window; a week afer that, suits. Back then, the store was a litle bare, but it had such a vibe.

I liked what Paul was up to because it wasn’t the retro thing that I’d been doing, but it still had that classic feeling – with a bit of a twist. It felt like bespoke tailoring. But it wasn’t poncey. In those days, even if I’d had the money, I’d never have dreamed of going to a tailor in Savile Row. But the alternative was always Armani – a great designer, but the shoulders were out here on me. Or another designer would have trousers that were too tight and you’d feel like a clown. There’s a certain body type, skin type, hair type that could pull that Eighties designer look off, but not me. Not then, not now.

At Paul Smith there were clothes that I really wanted to wear and felt comfortable in. He’s been my staple diet over the years. Some days, it’s ridiculous. I’ll be in socks, shoes, glasses – I’m a walking advertisement for the man. But I also like mixing it up a bit – my wife got me this gorgeous Paul Smith moleskin jacket recently, which is my new favourite, and I ofen pair it with Levi’s.

I suppose I’ve always liked dressing up.

It’s funny: I’m a lifelong musician, but because I principally play the piano it’s been a solitary thing.

It’s only now that I’ve started to play with some other people and have fun with it. I recently did a fundraiser for my kid’s school with a bunch of guys and we played a Beatles set – 14 numbers! It was great, an excuse to pull on some flares – the first time I’d worn them since the Seventies.

As a kid, I used to dress up all the time.

I watched Batman on the TV and then searched out my mother’s wide Sixties patent leather belt. I took it, stuck cigarete packets on it, painted it yellow and turned it into a utility belt.

Of course, these days, I make a living by pretending to be someone else. And that’s the fun of it – you’re using your imagination and dressing up like a kid playing. And costume is so important for an actor. It absolutely helps to get into character; it’s the closest thing to you, it touches you. Some actors like to go into make-up and then put their clothes on, but I like to dress first; that’s my routine.

For George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, it was always in this order: shirt, tie, trousers, socks and shoes; and then I would pull on the sleeveless sweater and jacket. I’d go to make-up and hair, and the last thing was the glasses. I’d feel like I was assembling George that way.

Tomas Alfredson, the director of that film, was very clear about the importance of the clothes to the look of it. He used to say that he wanted the whole movie to have the smell of damp tweed. You won’t hear many directors talk like that. It became like a manifesto for us. And I understood it perfectly because of my lifelong love of clothes.

Given this, I do sometimes think it’s ironic that I’ve ended up living in LA. It’s one of the few

Previous pages: Gary Oldman wears Paul Smith bespoke dinner suit, from £2,500, and Paul Smith London dress shirt, from £195. Bow tie and pocket square, both Paul Smith, made bespoke for Oldman.

Opposite, from top: with Tinker, Tailor producer Douglas Urbanski; David Dencik, Colin Firth and Toby Jones on

set; and John Hurt with John le Carré, photographed by Gary Oldman.

Below: Oldman on the Prada autumn/ winter 2012 catwalk Grooming: Peter Smith Photographer’s assistant: Brian Doherty Digital operator: Sean Geraghty Retouching: Kasia Kret at Studio Invisible

towns where, as you step out of your apartment, you feel instantly ashamed of the lack of sartorial effort people go to. There’s a uniform over there of chinos and T-shirts and sneakers.

I walk into Paul Smith’s Melrose Avenue store – it looks like a huge pink shoebox – and there’s a lovely girl working there called Amy, whose London accent makes me feel back at home, and sometimes I’ll ask her, am I the only one who comes in here?

I know the shop is successful, it’s still going strong, but I rarely run into people who are wearing anything like what’s on sale there, because they’re all in the Hollywood uniform.

That’s what I enjoy about coming back to Europe, to London in particular: you see people in tailoring with all their individual tastes, and not in long shorts with their bums hanging out. Mercifully,

even my young sons – who are American-born – are starting to get it. There was a time they’d come home in that gangsta look, and I’d say, ‘Over my dead body!’

But, this Christmas, one wanted a pair of Paul Smith boots – he’s 14 – and, because he’d had a good report and been a good lad, he got them. There’s only one downside: they’re starting to steal my clothes.

I finally met Paul in LA many, many years afer I bought that first shirt in Covent Garden.

I explained that I’d go into his shop for a pair of socks and come out with two suits and three pairs of shoes. We’ve become mates and I like to fly the flag by wearing his stuff on the red carpet. Apart from a few things by a young tailor I know in London called Oscar Udeshi – he made me a lovely double-breasted tux for the last Venice Film festival – I’ve worn Paul exclusively for premieres.

Though recently I did walk another carpet in Prada! That was a new experience. And what a carpet it was – an enormous red thing with geometric designs under modern chandeliers. It was for the autumn/winter 2012 men’s show and Miuccia Prada asked me and some other actors – Tim Roth, Willem Dafoe and Adrien Brody – to come over and model for her. I’d never done anything like it before and had to be in Europe anyway, so I thought, why not?

It turned out to be quite an experience.

They put me in an Edwardian-style frock coat that fited beautifully, and a white shirt and a doublebreasted waistcoat. Apart from Tim Roth’s ribbing – he kept saying, ‘Can I have a glass of champagne?’ because I looked a bit like a waiter – I felt prety smart and imperial, which was the whole idea.

That outfit was immaculately dressy – the kind of thing you might wear to a premiere.

And then, last night, it was the French premiere of Tinker, Tailor and for the occasion I went to Paul’s store here in Paris and got a beautiful dark blue suit. It’s important to look good for a premiere.

And you do feel a litle self-conscious. Last night, for instance, there was a very modest red carpet, but you get there and you stand in front of this bank of photographers and they’re all really nice and say hello. But then it’s like somebody fires a starting pistol and they’re all shouting, ‘Gary, Gary, GARY, GARY! OVER HERE, OVER HERE!’ For the BAFTAs [which were to take place the following weekend], I’m having a suit made by Paul. This is a new thing for me, but it’s for Tinker, Tailor, and Paul has an association with the film – he designed posters for it and a limited edition of the book, and was someone Tomas talked to about geting the British mood right. So it all feels right – a kind of ‘Best of British’ thing.

I know some people don’t wear bow ties to these events, but I do. I feel a bit naked without a tie, to be honest. And I have considered bringing back the white dinner jacket. But, for now, I’m having a classic tuxedo made. To make it a bit more Paul Smith – and as it’s my first bespoke tux and I can ask for what I want – I’ve requested a tiny piece of whimsy myself. It will have one cuff buton with a Union Jack patern.

42

sink or swim Despite the ubiquity of the underwater wrist-worn computer, a diving watch is still an essential piece of kit for any self-respecting sea dog – or style-conscious landlubber

Logically speaking, the mechanical diving watch should have been consigned to Davy Jones’ locker years ago. Since the late Eighties, professional and sport divers have been able to buy inexpensive, wrist-worn digital computers with liquid-crystal read-outs that show them all the information they need at a glance, from the length of immersion time to the quantity of air lef in their tanks.

Yet there are more ‘traditional’ underwater watches on the market today than at any time since Rolex launched the Submariner, which is generally regarded as the original professional dive model. It was unveiled at the 1954 Basel watch fair, eight years afer legendary diver Jacques Cousteau and engineer Émile Gagnan introduced the first Aqualung.

Although electronic dive computers are more accurate, more sophisticated and more affordable than ever, the mechanical dive watch remains a hugely popular accessory, both among hobby and professional divers and with those who simply favour their seriously rugged looks.

‘In the history of diving, a method of keeping track of time has always been vital, so a dive watch became an essential piece of equipment – but, in the late Eighties, diving computers that also provided useful calculations and negated the need for dive tables and depth gauges became popular,’ says specialist dive writer Simon Rogerson. ‘Most serious divers nowadays use computers yet wear traditional dive watches not only as a useful back-up, but because they serve as a badge of identity among the diving community. Plus, of course, they’re tough and can take the knocks and scrapes of everyday life.’

Classic ‘professional’ dive watches include the aforementioned Rolex Submariner; its tougher cousin, the Sea-Dweller Deepsea, tested to 3,900m (rolex.com); the Blancpain Fify Fathoms (blancpain.com) and IWC’s

In the diving community, traditional dive watches serve as a badge of identity

Opposite, from top: Seamaster Planet Ocean, £5,100, Omega.

Tambour Diving II Automatic, £17,000, Louis Vuitton. Oyster Perpetual Deepsea, £7,070, Rolex. Aquaracer 500m Chronograph, £2,595, TAG Heuer.

Fifty Fathoms, £11,060, Blancpain STOCkISTS DeTAIlS On PAge 65 Styling Ciara Walshe

Deep Two (iwc.com). One of the most recent brands to field a serious contender is Hublot. Its Oceanographic 4000 (£16,100; hublot.com) is guaranteed waterproof to a lung-crushing 4,000m – 200m deeper than the final resting place of the Titanic – and its specification is so high, prototypes had to be tested in a specially made pressure tank.

Its synthetic sapphire crystal measures a remarkable 6.5mm thick and the dial contained within the 48mm case has ultra-bright Super-LumiNova markings with a scale on which the five-minute intervals are highlighted. A caged flange crown for seting the dive time is positioned at two o’clock for ease of use, and the winding and date-seting crown at four o’clock.

But what actually constitutes a diver’s timepiece?

There are some quite specific criteria that separate a proper dive watch from the mere pretenders and there is even an ISO standard (number 6425) that determines whether or not a particular model genuinely cuts the mustard. It must be water-resistant to at least 100m, have a screw-down case back and winding crown, and an extra-thick sapphire crystal designed to withstand the pressure at depth.

Dials should have a dark background and highly luminous numerals and there should be a rotating bezel for recording dive times – unidirectional to avoid the possibility of it being knocked out of place. And a really serious dive watch will also be fited with a helium escape valve to make it safe to use in a diving bell during decompression stops.

Simon de Burton writes about watches for The Telegraph and Vanity Fair

AShFOrD 100 CerAmIC SInk WITh DrAIner, £400, JOhn leWIS (JOhnleWIS.COm)

Words SIMON DE BURTON PhotograPhy BEATE SONNENBERG

new wave we may dream of the endless summer, but reality bites in the form of chill atlantic winds as the sun goes down. so, at surf spots from montauk to minehead, wrap yourself up in denims and chinos, jumpers and windcheaters photography BEN MORRIS fashion editor ALLAN KENNEDY

Hang ten Previous page, left: Cotton trench coat, £1,495, and leather and raffia desert loafers, £450, both Burberry Prorsum.

Wool jumper, £1,080, Gucci. Chambray shirt, £40, and denim jeans, £45, both J Crew. Hat, stylist’s own. Surfboard, £389, JC Hawaii

Previous page, right: Cotton jacket, £460, 3.1 Phillip Lim. Cotton shirt, £119, Billy Reid Heirloom.

Jeans, £85, Dockers

Point break

This page, above: Wool jumper, £325, Polo Ralph Lauren.

Ikat windbreaker (worn under jumper), £295, Missoni. Cotton shorts, £60, Y-3 Opposite: Denim jacket, £240, Diesel.

Cotton trousers, £80, Woolrich

Walk tall Linen hoodie, £519, Emporio Armani.

Ikat windbreaker, £295, Missoni.

Cotton trousers, £273, 3.1 Phillip Lim. Surfboard, £389, JC Hawaii

Rip tide The Thin Man Opposite: Wool jumpsuit, linen/silk £3,675, polo shirt, Dolce £880, & Brioni. Trousers Gabbana.

Jersey tank belt, with top, £112, £550, Yves Saint Richard Chai Laurent.

Shoes, £325, O’Keeffe White Heat This page: white silk shirt, £199, Paul Smith.

White trousers, £180, D&G. Shoes, as before. Ankle band, model’s own

Jersey shore Opposite: Woodenbeaded wool jumper, £1,295 Burberry Prorsum.

Cotton shirt, £119, Billy Reid Heirloom.

Cotton trousers, £273, 3.1 Phillip Lim. Hat, stylist’s own Sand’s end This page: Wool jumper, £470, Canali.

Jersey tank top, £112, Richard Chai.

Surfboard, £389, JC Hawaii Grooming Christine Cherbonnier for Dior Homme Hair Russell Manley at Tommy Guns, NYC Casting Larissa Gunn at Art + Commerce Model Jesse at Ford

52

Keeping up with the Jones Crowned Menswear designer of the Year three tiMes, he’s worked for a range of labels froM alexander MCQueen to alfred dunhill and, now, louis Vuitton. but kiM Jones is MotiVated More bY the respeCt of his peers than the pretensions of his industrY words JOSH SIMS portrait RALPH MECKE

It’s not the glossy, Parisian-chic scenario one might expect from Louis Vuiton, arguably the most luxe of luxury brands. Arriving at the photo studio to have his portrait taken, Kim Jones, its newish head of menswear, is wearing jeans, faded sweatshirt and a heavy metal necklace of sufficient thickness to keep a rabid Rotweiler at bay. And he is eating chicken McNuggets. ‘We had a big party last night,’ he says by way of explanation.

He is still suffering its aferglow.

The naturalness of the scene is, however, entirely apt. The pretension that Jones could have accrued like a patina by the end of this, his first decade in the fashion industry, might well be expected, especially given his run of successes: his eponymous label; work for the diverse bunch that is Mulberry, Umbro, Uniqlo and Alexander McQueen; the creative directorship of Alfred Dunhill, where he also seemed at odds with all that stiff British formality; and now the hard-to-top position at Louis Vuiton. And that is not to forget the three British Fashion Council Menswear Designer of the Year gongs he has collected along the way, for his own label, for Dunhill and, last November, for Vuiton. Apparently, the trophies have become more lightweight and plasticky over the years.

It is Jones’ overseer, Marc Jacobs, artistic director at Louis Vuiton since 1997, who is geting all the glory, however: on now at Paris’s Les Arts Décoratifs is a hefy exhibition detailing the respective contributions to the fashion world of the brand and the man, comparing 19th-century industrialisation – when Vuiton’s artisanship both flourished and was challenged – with the period of globalisation through which Jacobs has worked.

One can’t imagine Jones being bothered by this at all – he notes how much he respects his boss, but then we all say that in public. In fact, he is a pretension-free package. When he says that, if he didn’t work in fashion, he would have to do something else entirely – ‘conservation, maybe, working with animals’, the sentiment seems sincere and a long way from anything Jacobs might be imagined proposing. He’s certainly enthusiastic – bowled over by his new employer’s heritage and hef, what he calls ‘the wow of it’. And he’s sympathetic, conscious of the role luxury goods should have in an austerity society: ‘Our job is to provide people who work really hard with things they can invest in, then enjoy and appreciate.

And if that’s a leather jacket that costs £5,000, it needs to last a lifetime.’ But, above all, he is business-minded.

‘Nowadays, fashion is all about big brands and that means, as a designer, you have to be adaptable.

I have a broad perspective on menswear because I’ve done so many different things,’ he says. ‘I design for a huge demographic that could be buying the same product – from super-rich kids of 16 to traditional 80-year-olds.

Of course, you can style it up to give that sense of power that some brands have – and Louis Vuiton is a power brand in that respect. But it’s just as much about detail and craf. It’s quite boysy and can get a bit nerdy, but the idea of something working properly is important.

These are very real clothes.’

Indeed, Jones’ first on-the-shelves collection for the house, for this spring/summer, meets just that brief – one, incidentally, that he always writes for himself, having been given carte blanche by his bosses. There are the usual luxury excesses, of course: silk ties shot through with 24ct gold, café-racer jackets in alligator skin, the iconic Vuiton monogram on scarves and bags. But there is also elegant, louche suiting, comfortable pyjama pants, desert boots and safari-style clothes, as well as technical pieces given a luxury spin and preppy classics given a technical one. Silks, for example, are triple-bonded to be breathable, while pockets are edged with performance tape. Jones can’t resist picking up an all-singing, all-dancing black jacket he has selected for himself and demonstrating the cuffs’ new fastening mechanism.

‘I’m lucky that I can choose some great pieces each season,’ he notes with evident pleasure.

The collection has both the kind of grown-up wearability and the commercial punch the times dictate – even for those with money still to spare, even for brands as big as Louis Vuiton’s parent LVMH. And it suggests too that Jones is likely to be welcome to hold on to what he calls his ‘dream job’ for as long as he likes. Afer all, LVMH grand fromage Bernard Arnault must have some reason for his recent suggestion that he was ‘fairly confident’ of growth for the company this year, while western economies go into meltdown.

Might he see Jones and his sketchpad as a cornerstone of that prediction? Louis Vuiton menswear is, remember, a baby within the brand portfolio. Its first dedicated men’s ready-to-wear line was established only in 2000, the next couple of years adding the inevitably logo-heavy pieces and the first outerwear, each season adding a missing part of the jigsaw. Marc Jacobs, then as now, oversaw the artistic direction of the brand, but, by 2006, Jones’ predecessor, Paul Helbers, one-time senior designer for Martin Margiela, had been taken on as head of the men’s ready-to-wear studio. It was a statement of Louis Vuiton’s intention to ramp up the seriousness with which it took a market that was in frenzied growth mode. And now Jones’ timely sensibility for luxe utility can build on that.

‘I like the kind of clothes that won’t crease too much if you pack them in a suitcase and take them on a plane,’ Jones explains, undercuting fashion’s love of gimmickry with an unexpectedly everyday consideration. ‘I enjoy thinking about how products can make a stressful life less stressful. How can a customer get the most out of a jacket? Because a jacket at this price has to pay its way. And the technical capability, the fabric development of a company such as Louis Vuiton is where the progress will come from. I may be a fashion designer, but, here, you can’t help but think more like a product designer.’

While the whole idea of luxury has been tarnished by over-use and discoloured by association with excesses that now, more than ever, feel like poor taste – and a leather-jacketed and gold-trimmed teddy bear designed

‘Our job is to provide people who work really hard with things they can invest in and enjoy’

55

Opposite: The Louis Vuitton Pudsey bear for Children in Need, in Stephen Sprouse print, calfskin and shearling, with gold nose, studs and zips

This page: Louis Vuitton, spring/ summer 2012

Illustration Helen Delany

by Jones that sold for £35,600 last year might fit into this category had it not been for Children in Need – technology was as much Louis Vuiton the man’s original remit as was officially catering to the needs of Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the wife of Napoleon III. Vuiton’s design for a flat-topped trunk, which he launched in 1858, allowed them to be stacked, and the use of unusual materials such as Trianon canvas made them strong but also lightweight and airtight. The branding came only 18 years later, as a step to combat the widespread ripping-off of his design.

The idea of travel has remained central to the Louis Vuiton name and remains its guiding ethos. It plays strongly in Jones’ collection for the coming autumn/winter too, inspired as it is by Japonisme, the 19th-century blending of Japanese and French cultures that came about as a result of new trade agreements and was fuelled by the fascination for all things Oriental. Indeed, Louis Vuiton’s famed monogram was originally influenced by stylised Japanese graphics. The result is a west meets east fusion of camel coats and kimono shirts, baseball jackets and floaty, Bruce Lee-style trousers and touches of that characteristically Japanese talent for subverting the classic while respecting it: a derby shoe by Jones is crossed with a steel-toe-capped boot and rendered in astrakhan, for example.

He certainly gets on planes a lot, too, though one can hardly imagine him being too bothered about creasing his sweatshirt (though dropping the barbecue dipping sauce down it could be a cause for consternation).

He visits Africa every year – he spent a chunk of his childhood there, as well as in Japan and Ecuador, his father’s work in hydrology meaning the family moved around a lot – and makes an effort to travel to as many new places he can, especially now he has a generous five-week summer vacation à la française.

‘It’s like being back at school,’ he jokes. ‘And, like the shockingly rude taxi drivers here, just so French – it’s complete switch-off. You don’t even get an email.’

That said, for Jones, one eye is always on work. ‘I went to Mongolia last year,’ he says. ‘And there’s even a Louis Vuiton store there. That’s prety crazy. Travel makes you realise how many different types of customer there are and how differently they all shop.’

Jones himself is not much of a shopper – like many designers, he claims that ‘when you’re looking at clothes all day, you get to the point where you really don’t want to think about what you’re wearing yourself’. When he does buy, he takes the rather unimaginative, male approach of buying in multiples. Presumably he has lots of sweatshirts, as well as what he calls his ‘usual uniform of shirts with jeans or chinos’. In other words, he’s not very fashion-y, and one wonders whether it is precisely this outsider’s perspective that has allowed him to find such a fiting vision for each of his employers. He agrees.

‘I don’t go to the fashion parties. I have a cosy apartment here and do a lot of cooking, and, tonight, I’m staying in and watching a DVD. I’ve never wanted my name on anything, so a position like this one suits me down to the ground. I’d rather just have respect from people in the industry.’

Josh Sims writes for Esquire, Wallpaper* and The Rake

time travellers Equip yourself for an expedition into a brave new world with the lightweight tailoring of the gentleman explorer. And, as the designs are so bold, sunglasses are not so much optional as obligatory PhotograPhy SCOTT TRINDLE FaShIoN EDItor JOHN MCCARTY

Opposite: Cotton suit, £3,793, Lanvin. Cotton shirt, £560, and silk scarf, £87, both Tom Ford. Silk pocket square, £150, Louis Vuitton.

12ct-gold sunglasses, £670, Thom Browne Eyewear. Crystal-studded leather document holder, £1,110, Prada Above: Cotton-canvas ‘Caban’ jacket, £1,615, and trousers, £855, both Yves Saint Laurent. Cotton-knit cardigan, £560, and T-shirt (just seen), £210, both Missoni. Silk scarf, £250, Dries Van Noten Sunglasses, £265, Trussardi

Above: Linen safari jacket, £600, Canali. Cotton suit, £1,050, Zegna. Cotton shirt (just seen), £275, Burberry Prorsum. Vintage sunglasses, £225, General Eyewear Opposite: Wool jacket, £1,380, Prada. Cotton shirt, £260, Dolce & Gabbana. 12ct-gold sunglasses, £670, Thom Browne Eyewear. Leather bracelet (worn as necklace), £120, Tod’s

Above: Crystal-studded nylon bomber jacket, £560, and silk scarf, £115, both Prada. Seersucker suit, £960, Canali. Cotton shirt, £375, Lanvin. Cotton shirt (worn underneath), £298, Brunello Cucinelli. Sunglasses, £265, Trussardi Opposite: Wool and silk jacket, £1,890; wool trousers, £715; cotton dress shirt, £495; and silk pocket square, £150; all Louis Vuitton.

Python-skin shoes, £830, Yves Saint Laurent. Silk scarf, £225, Dries Van Noten. Vintage sunglasses, £225, General Eyewear

Above: Cotton-knit sweater (over shoulders), £575, Bottega Veneta. Cotton jacket, £240, and trousers, £90, both Topman. Cotton T-shirt, £210, Jil Sander. Nylon backpack (just seen), £390, Prada. Vintage glasses, £225, General Eyewear. Silk scarf, £87, Tom Ford Opposite: Crocodile and lambskin biker jacket, price on application, Hermès. Cotton-piqué jacket, £735, Dries Van Noten. Silk cardigan, £1,160; cotton shirt, £455; and linen trousers, £640, all Bottega Veneta. Vintage sunglasses, £225, General Eyewear

Grooming Marc Ramos, using Kiehl’s Photographer’s assistants James Roberts and Mark Simpson Stylist’s assistant Harry Lloyd Models John Cherkas at M and P Models, Anders Hayward at Bananas Models, and Fabian Nordstrom STOCKISTS DETAILS ON PAGE 65

stockists 65

BEN MORRIS

A Armani armani.com B Billy Reid mrporter.com Blancpain 0845 273 2500; blancpain.com Borsalino at Harrods 020 7730 1234; harrods.com Bottega Veneta 020 7629 5598; bottegaveneta.com Brioni 020 7491 7700; brioni.com Browns 020 7514 0000; brownsfashion.com Brunello Cucinelli 020 7730 5207; brunellocucinelli.com Burberry Prorsum 020 7968 0582; burberry.com C Calvin Klein Collection 0845 604 1888; calvinklein.com Canali 020 7290 3500; canali.it Carrera by Safilo 01423 520303 Cartier 020 3147 4850; cartier.co.uk Clarks 0844 477 7744; clarks.com D Diesel 020 7520 7799; diesel.com Dior Homme 01423 520303; dior.com Dockers 020 7003 4548; dockers.com Dolce & Gabbana 020 7659 9000; dolcegabbana.com Dolce & Gabbana sunglasses at Sunglass Hut 0844 264 0860; sunglasshut.co.uk Dover Street Market 020 7518 0680; doverstreetmarket.com Dries Van Noten at Selfridges 0800 123400; selfridges.com E Emporio Armani 020 7491 8080; emporioarmani.com Etro at Harrods 020 7730 1234; harrods.com F Firetrap 020 8753 0212; firetrap.com G General Eyewear 020 7428 0123; arckiv.net

Gieves & Hawkes 020 7434 2001; gievesandhawkes.com Giorgio Armani 020 7235 6232; giorgioarmani.com Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci at Selfridges 0800 123400; selfridges.com Gucci 020 7629 2716; gucci.com H Harrods 020 7730 1234; harrods.com Harvey Nichols 020 7235 5000; harveynichols.com Hermès 020 7499 8856; hermes.com J JC Hawaii jchawaii.com J Crew mrporter.com Jigsaw Menswear 020 8392 5603; jigsaw-online.com Jil Sander at Selfridges 0800 123400; selfridges.com John Lewis 0845 604 9049; johnlewis.com L Lacoste 0800 722020; lacoste.com Lanvin 020 7434 7049; lanvin.com Louis Vuitton 020 7399 4050; louisvuitton.com M Marc Jacobs 020 7399 1690; marcjacobs.com Missoni 020 7352 2400; missoni.com O Omega 0845 272 3100; omegawatches.com P Paul Smith 0800 023 4008; paulsmith.co.uk Polo Ralph Lauren 020 7535 4600; ralphlauren.com Prada 020 7647 5000; prada.com 3.1 Phillip Lim 020 7235 5000; 31philliplim.com R Richard Chai at Harvey Nichols 020 7235 5000; harveynichols.com Rolex 020 7024 7300; rolex.com S Selfridges 0800 123 400; selfridges.com T TAG Heuer 0800 037 9658; tagheuer.com Thom Browne Eyewear at Dover Street Market 020 7518 0680; doverstreetmarket.com Tod’s 020 7493 2237; tods.com

44

Wool cardigan, £1,400, Gucci. Denim shirt, £150, Diesel Industry.

Digital-print T-shirt, £135, Emporio Armani. Silk shorts, £435, D&G

Tom Ford at Selfridges 0800 123400; selfridges.com Tommy Hilfiger by Safilo 01423 520303 Topman 0844 984 0265; topman.com V Versace 020 7259 5700; versace.com Versace sunglasses at Sunglass Hut 0844 264 0860; sunglasshut.com W Woolrich 0161 831 7870; woolrich.it Y Y-3 y-3.com Yves Saint Laurent 020 7439 1800; ysl.com Z Zegna 020 7518 2700; zegna.com Zenith 01204 424051; zenith-watches.com

66 hero

Clockwise from far left: Simon McBurney; as Archdeacon Robert in the BBC comedy series Rev; as Aaron

in the film Friends with Money; on stage as Clov with Mark Rylance (Hamm) in the play Endgame

but it’s not necessarily smooth or easy.

That’s certainly how I felt when I came to work with Simon. He’s very demanding and challenging as a director, and this was only my second theatre job. There’s something so hungry about him, like a dog with a bone, and that’s not always comfortable to work with. I think the whole company is quite formed by the Lecoq training, which is quite austere.

There, they would have a presentation at the end of the week where each student

Actor Tobias Menzies maintains his mentor Simon McBurney has an approach to visual theatre that’s without equal

or needing to put a hat on it like we do.

Lecoq himself and perform, and he’d say

to see Street Of Crocodiles – a Théâtre

In the end, I couldn’t raise the money to

either ‘Oui’ or ‘Non’. There was an element

de Complicité show at the National.

go the Lecoq school. After a couple of

of that honesty about Simon. He’d just

It was my seminal theatre experience –

years, though, I went to RADA and fell in

say, ‘It’s not working’. And I think, with a

I can even remember where I was sitting.

love with acting for the sake of it. I got to

creative endeavour, unless you face up to

The opening image was of a man walking

work with Complicité in 2000, on the

the brutal truth like that, it’s hard to get

down a back wall so that, for a second,

show Light. By then, I’d admired Simon for

somewhere really interesting. He isn’t

you didn’t quite know what you were

a long time and wanted to live up to him,

harsh or unforgiving, but his drive comes

looking at. I wasn’t into acting at school,

to please him, and that kind of baggage

from that tradition.

but it totally excited me about what

can be quite unhelpful when you’re trying

Of course, he’s an actor as well,

theatre could do.

to be creative. To this day, however, some

taking parts in films such as Tinker, Tailor,

of the most exciting moments I’ve had

Soldier, Spy and TV comedy like Rev. It’s

It got me interested not so much in acting

in a rehearsal room came while I was

almost for his own amusement, I think,

as in theatre-making, which is what

working with him. What’s most exciting,

but you can see it in his work as a director.

Complicité did. It was the pre-eminent

I think, is that he really dares to fail, to go

There’s so much love and affection for

company at a time when visual theatre

to places he doesn’t know if he can come

performance; it’s all about an ensemble

was exploding. When I finished my A Levels,

out of, and I think only that way can you

of people telling a story. I admire him as

I got a place at L’École Internationale de

make surprising work.

a performer, but it’s as a theatre-maker

That memory has never left me.

Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, the mime

Certainly, in Light, there was a real

that he’s an inspiration. His work has

school Simon McBurney and the other

element of chaos about the whole thing.

always been a touchstone for me.

founders of Complicité all went to, where

We had eight weeks of rehearsals, during

When I’ve seen his shows over the years,

an element of the course is clowning.

which we were still devising the show,

I’ve often found it’s a way to get back

and there are no guarantees with that sort

in touch with why I wanted to become

interesting about Simon is that his work

of thing. Before the first performance of

a performer and why I’m interested in

is quite un-English: it’s not polite or

their previous show, Mnemonic, Simon had

theatre, because, in that medium, his

tidy; instead, it’s visceral and essential.

to go on stage and tell the audience they

work is truly extraordinary.

It’s unapologetically intellectual as well

hadn’t worked out an ending yet.

Tobias Menzies is currently on stage in

One of the many things that’s

– he takes on big themes. As a culture,

The relationship with your heroes

The Recruiting Officer at the Donmar

the British are anti-intellectual, but go

is never uncomplicated. It can make you

Warehouse (donmarwarehouse.com).

to France and you can be highbrow

question yourself in a positive, helpful

He will also star in the third series of

without having to make excuses for it

way, as in ‘Am I living up to that ideal?’,

BBC Four’s Geting On this autumn

CAMERA PRESS; EVA VERMAnDEL/COnTOuR PHOTOS; REx FEATuRES

would have to stand up in front of Jacques It was 1992, I was 18 and my mum took me