JEREMY HACKETT

Interview

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”

n an unseasonably warm October day,

OI 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.

I don’t care about fashion. I’ll look at fashion, and if there’s something that I think works for me, then I’ll take it and reinterpret it for Hackett.

On the way here, I saw a youngish chap with a striking hairstyle in a very smart green suit and a polka-dot scarf, but the trousers came no lower than half way down his calves. I think we can blame Tom Brown for all that. Having said that, I hate trousers that fold over at the bottom. The break should be just right. On a pair of khaki chinos you can wear them a little bit shorter, with loafers and coloured socks.

“My father used to say, ‘I’m too poor to buy cheap shoes’, and that’s an axiom I’ve held to. The people that used to come to the shop and buy vintage shoes, often bespoke ones from George Cleverley, were real establishment aristocratic figures”

What about the Pitti Uomo look, with loafers and no socks and trousers like sausage skins? The whole thing about no socks is that half those guys are in the retail business and what do they sell? Socks! Most men haven’t got a well-turned ankle, shall we say.

I stopped wearing shorts in hot countries when I saw how terrible my legs looked in them. I do wear shorts when abroad, but never sandals. I’d wear espadrilles or a lightweight loafer, or even canvas plimsolls.

[At this point Mr. Hackett removes his jacket and I ask permission to do the same]

Right, we’re both in shirtsleeves now! Gosh, we’ll be taking our ties off next! Did you know AA Gill? He used to say that, just before leaving the house, you should change one thing about your outfit at the last minute. I did know AA Gill, but it wasn’t his quote. It comes from Diane Freedland, editor of American Vogue.

Have you ever taken the advice yourself? I have on occasion. I’m not very good at wearing pocket squares. I like them, but when I’ve got a tie on and put in the pocket square, I think I’m overdoing it a bit. But if I’m not wearing a tie, then I will put a pocket square in, because it makes it look as though you’ve paid attention to dressing rather than just throwing a jacket on.

Tell me about the Townhouse Tweed. Where did the colours come from? It’s our new signature tweed, and as you can see from looking about the building, the colours are all taken from the different colours on the walls of each room. So there’s the teal of that showroom, the pink from the cutting room, the yellow of this corridor. The green of the events room we felt was too bright, so we left that one out.

Let’s go back to the origins of Hackett. You must have come across Bill Hornets in the early days, when you were selling vintage menswear in Fulham? Bill used to have a shop on one of the corners near us in Fulham. We were on the corner of Harwood Road, off the New King’s Road.

You were selling second hand clothes in the eighties, weren’t you? I started the business in 1983 with Ashley Lloyd Jennings. Prior to the Fulham shop, we had a shop in Covent Garden selling shoes – Edward Green, Wildsmith loafers, and we were the first importers of Alden Shoes into the UK.

Who were your customers? A lot of City men came to us specifcally for those Wildsmith loafers.

Has there always been a select group of men who really care about getting the best quality clothing and dressing properly?

“I bought these in Portobello Market early one morning. I got them for three pounds, thinking that was a very good price for a nice pair of unworn riding boots. I got them home and looked inside, and written in ink it said HM The King”

Yes, though it’s getting rarer. You do have people who are just shoe nuts, especially in Japan. You can open a magazine in Japan and there’ll be a doublepage spread with about twenty different pairs of black Oxfords. To the average person in England, that’s just a black shoe. Oscar Wilde said, if you want to know a man’s true character, look down at his shoes. My father used to say, “I’m too poor to buy cheap shoes.” That’s an axiom I’ve held to. The people that used to come to the shop and buy vintage shoes, often bespoke ones from George Cleverly and the like, were real establishment aristocratic figures. I used to go down to Portobello Market at five am and there would be guys with big bags of shoes, sometimes all bespoke ones with trees.

Was there a point when the supplies of good quality vintage menswear began to run out? Oh yes, because we were selling so quickly and couldn’t keep up with it, so we decided to start making new stuff. I remember one day at the shop, I was wearing a beautiful Huntsman covert coat, and as I was opening the door to open up, the first man to walk in said, can I buy it? One morning Manolo Blahnik walked into the shop, and he was

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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.

I heard you have strong feelings about red trousers but that ironically you started the whole trend? We sold a lot of red corduroy and moleskin trousers, which when they’ve been washed a few times and faded a bit can look really good. What I don’t like is extremely well-pressed red trousers. I want them to look more lived-in and washed out, like Nantucket red.

“I’ve got a couple of pocket squares made in honour of the coronation of Edward VIII. I don’t like wearing them when they’re too contrived, which is the difference between the Italians and the English. An Englishman will just shove it in, almost as an afterthought, whereas an Italian will fiddle about and make sure it’s completely perfect”

You’ve expressed admiration in the past for David Hockney. What is it about his style that you like? It’s a general sense of adventure with his clothing. We sold him about ten pairs of corduroy slippers once. He really liked those. The New Romantics used to come into our Covent Garden store and buy those slippers, because we were right opposite the Roxy.

What else did they buy apart from slippers? Just slippers.

I notice that rather lovely pair of riding boots there on the mantelpiece. I bought these in Portobello Market early one morning. They were thrown in a bag outside a furniture van, wrapped in greaseproof paper. I got them for three pounds, thinking that was a very good price for a nice pair of unworn riding boots. I got them home and looked inside, and written in ink it said ‘HM The King’. So I took them to George Cleverley, who took one look at them and said, ‘Oh, Duke of Windsor’.

They look so tight and constricting. What size are they, about a seven? Yes they are. People were much smaller back then. Because it says HM The King, they were never delivered, because he abdicated after only a year. Cleverley told me that they ended up in the market because they were probably at the home of a bootmaker, who couldn’t deliver them to Edward because he was no longer king. Then the bootmaker would have died and the boots were

lost among all the chattels taken away by the house clearance people.

I’ve also got a couple of pocket squares made in honour of the coronation of Edward VIII. Sometimes I wear them. I don’t like to arrange them carefully, I just shove them in. I don’t like them when they’re too contrived, which is the difference between the Italians and the English. An Englishman will just shove it in, almost as an afterthought, whereas an Italian will fiddle about and make sure it’s completely perfect. I’m going to a black tie event tomorrow and I’ll probably wear a black and white polka dot pocket square.

“I read the guide book for what you have to take when going to the tropics by boat. Apparently you’re not allowed to wear a white tuxedo until you get past portside. I love the idea of someone getting it wrong and the monocles dropping in horror”

What do you think about these celebrities who go to black tie events wearing a black shirt and no tie, deliberately messing with the rules? It isn’t for me. Formal dress isn’t fancy dress. It’s a funny thing; it’s a moment when people should look their best. Like morning dress at a wedding, you’re going to be photographed a lot and should look your best. I was at Ascot a few months ago, and it was appalling how badly some people were dressed. Wearing brown shoes, for a start.

Good god! This brings me back to my earlier point about not wearing tweed to come and meet you on Savile Row. I’d have had to wear brown shoes in town. I think if people try and impose the brown in town rule today, that’s just being pretentious.

Though I do like some of that old fashioned stricture, like not wearing brown until after

6pm beyond the Chiswick Roundabout. Yes, I do like that! I read the guide book for what you have to take when going to the tropics by boat. Apparently you’re not allowed to wear a white tuxedo until you get past portside. I love the idea of someone getting it wrong and the monocles dropping in horror.

“The Townhouse Tweed uses colours from all the rooms here. We felt that the green of the events room was too bright, so we left that one out”

What sort of background do you come from? My father was in the textile business and he sold furniture and soft furnishings. He was working class, both my parents were. I was adopted when I was six. In the last twenty years I’ve found my birth parents, though my father had died. He was a surgeon in the US airforce and my mother was a nurse. They met in one of the US bases near Oxford. So I’m actually half American. Which is why I think I’m drawn to the whole Waspish look. My father was into motor racing, he drove an E-Type Jaguar. My mother had great taste and had all her clothes made. She moved to Australia and that’s where I met up with the whole family ten years ago.

It explains my interest in motor racing and vintage cars. Someone sent me a book about motor racing which had a photograph in it of my father in the E-Type Jaguar he had for racing. He had numerous cars.

Do you have any vintage cars of your own? I’ve got a Mini. I’ve got nowhere to put a vintage car and deal with all the maintenance.

Hornets

Men’s Vintage Classic British & Designer

CLOTHING SHOES ACCESSORIES HATS

Three shops in the heart of Kensington near the Palace

Each of the Hackett tweeds fashioned into teddy bears

Charlie Watts had a huge collection of vintage cars but he didn’t have a driving licence. Charlie used to come to our shops, and we used to make suits for him in Sloane Street, but I never met him. I kept going into the shop and they’d say, you’ve just missed Charlie Watts. When people ask me about stylish people, I always namecheck David Hockney and Charlie Watts.

What about any younger types? Maybe I don’t go to the right places, but I struggle to think of anyone stylish. Ryan Gosling looks great in a dinner jacket but I don’t know how he dresses normally. Eddie Redmayne looks pretty good.

I noticed on the way here that both branches of Abercrombie & Fitch have closed. Did you hear about our protest agains the shop opening in 2012? I did. They were selling kids’ clothes in the one “My grandmother used to manage the leather goods department at the Army & Navy store in Victoria, and she used to get Winston Churchill coming in to get stuff repaired but never to buy anything. Typical old money!”

on Savile Row and I always thought they should have called it ‘Abercrombie & Titch’. I recall when I first went to New York in 1976 and the original Abercrombie & Fitch was about to close. I remember walking down this long corridor and they had beautiful stuff there but it was starting to look tired. The equivalent in England at the time

would have been the Army & Navy Stores. My grandmother used to manage the leather goods department at the one in Victoria, and she used to get Winston Churchill coming in to get stuff repaired but never to buy anything. Typical old money! Good quality leather goods are something I’ve always valued.

I’ve never understood why perfectly well dressed chaps walk around with some horrible rucksack. As often as possible I don’t carry a bag at all. Though now you see footballers carrying these clutch bags from the seventies that have come back into fashion. I notice there is now a café on Savile Row. Is the Row headed in the same direction as Bond Street? Well, the café is owned by the guys who own Cad & The Dandy, and there’s a new valeting place. I think that adds to the atmosphere of the Row. Those big global brands only want to be on Bond Street, they don’t want to come here. Most of the buildings are leased by the Pollen Estate, and they very specifically didn’t want us to appear to be a chain. Which is why this shop is called JP Hackett instead of just Hackett, so it’s the only shop with that name. I’m here a lot and meet a lot of the customers, so it feels more personal. n