Interview
JEREMY HACKETT Gustav Temple meets the man who founded the Hackett brand in the eighties and has since turned it into a global powerhouse of classic English style
Main photographs: Digby Fairfax
“One morning Manolo Blahnik walked into the shop, and he was always in a rush. He said, ‘that tweed three-piece suit in the window, can I try it on?’ So right there in the middle of the shop, he took off all his clothes and tried it on. ‘Yeah, great,’ he paid and off he went wearing the suit”
O
n an unseasonably warm October day, I was to meet the founder of Hackett at 14, Savile Row, where JP Hackett opened for business in 2019 in a grand four-storey building previously occupied by Hardy Amies. My sartorial deliberations before setting off for Savile Row produced a conundrum: what should one wear to meet the man most heavily associated with tweed, in Town? A spot of research had revealed that Mr. Hackett has a thing against black suits, except for formal wear. And what had I decided to wear to this interview? A black suit. Should I shatter all sartorial protocol and don brown in town to flatter my subject, or should I stick to my guns and wear what I felt was right?
This was the burning question that opened the interview. I read that you’re not a big fan of the black suit, and I debated whether to wear what I feel comfortable in – a black suit – concluding that you, as a man of style, would rather I didn’t dress in a way that was calculated to please. Oh, absolutely, one hundred per cent. If you’re comfortable in your clothes, you look as if you own them rather than simply putting them on. It would be the opposite for me: if I put on a black suit I would feel so self-conscious and uncomfortable. I wouldn’t be me. You have to dress for yourself.
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