REDEFINING THE FIT

Luxury Is Different For Everyone

Within the buzz of quiet luxury, it can be said that surrounding yourself with tailored goods extends beyond garments and into other areas of our lives. Grooming, fragrances and tech can be low-key luxurious because luxury is a subjective pursuit.

“Everyone’s luxury is different. What one man spends on sports equipment, another might spend on a good shirt and a fragrance,” says Neville Armitage, founder of Armitage Outfitters in Durban. “WIth us, you’re not just buying a suit because the whole experience is important to us.”

In the vein of this holistic luxury lifestyle, Armitage Outfitters looks to the refined and discerned clientele, a keystone of the quiet-luxury archetype. These clients seek items with a documented heritage and the finest pieces for the most honest price, for quiet luxury is a mindset more than a trend.

For its male clients, Armitage serves those who are either in a pinch and need an all-in-one space for tailoring and grooming, or those who take the time to get to know what they are buying, says Neville, who spent his early days as a menswear and furniture buyer. Today, he brings his knowledge of the best fabrics to clients after travelling to Hong Kong, Singapore and London where he sampled them and visited some of the world’s most beautiful stores.

“Ahead of a business trip, there’s often not enough time for grooming, to have multiple pairs of shoes cleaned, plus tailoring and dry cleaning. We take care of all that and even custom make our suit bags,” says Neville.

Neville himself caters for his more mature clients, while his team also works on making the experience of matric dance preparation more exciting. “For a matric dance this year, a mother wanted a velvet jacket for her son. But there wasn’t any velvet in the [local] market. I could have sourced a polyester velvet, but you can see it’s not real, so we imported a piece, which took weeks to make,” says Neville. For these younger clients, this is more than a jacket for their matric dance, but a sort of coming-of-age moment, he says. By the time we finish the tailoring process and the client is dressed up after having their barber treatment, the team adds a touch of fragrance and they are ready to conquer the world.

Of course, trends sway tailors’ offerings, especially when it comes to the fabric, notes Neville. Looking ahead, there’s definitely going to be a boom in natural fabrics such as linen in neutral tones and safari suits in white and chocolate. “If it’s not linen, some of the customers opt for suits in a toffee-caramel colour,” says Neville.

African Bespoke

While wearing tailored clothing grows as a trend, the art of tailoring doesn’t have to become increasingly complicated. It can simply be the ease of trusting an expert in their field to customise your piece. As a third-generation tailor, Raphaël Mukendi brings an African vitality to his tailoring brand, RAPHAËL M.

PREVIOUS PAGE:

Theo Ngobeni (Mr Slimfit), Raphaël Mukendi (RAPHAËL M.) and Luke Radloff (Uni Form)

OPPOSITE: Neville Armitage (Armitage Outfitters) yourluxury.africa

“I come from a family of tailors. My father and grandfather were both tailors, and that’s where my passion came from,” says Raphaël, who relocated to South Africa from the DRC. “Tailoring was something my family just did for fun. My father’s second job was as a tailor, but I wanted to take it to the next level and bring that passion out into the world.”

Raphaël would watch what his father did in his own business and paid his dues as a tailor in residence before he started RAPHAËL M. in 2010. For his clients, whether a celebrity or sartorial enthusiast, Raphaël wants their personalities to shine through, and he cuts through the noise of the tailoring world by customising European suits and adding African elements through prints and buttons.

During consultations with his clients, Raphaël works to understand how his suits can highlight their personalities and needs. “When you buy a suit from a store, it’s already somewhat customised so there isn’t much more you can do with it. We provide an opportunity for our clients to say ‘this is the kind of suit I want, how I want it to fit me, and these are the differences I want to see,’” says Raphaël.

Raphaël aims to give his clients the opportunity to customise their suits beyond the process of simply having one made by bringing an African voice into a garment that is typically Eurocentric.

His clients also include many well-dressed celebrities who are looking for suits with unique designs and touches. Both international and local celebrity clients like DJ Zinhle and actress Amanda du-Pont have tapped Raphaël, as well as Congolese singer Tresor Riziki, for whom he created a loose-fitting denim set.

“We look at using bright colours and different silhouettes and designs. But the most basic advice we can give clients is in the materials they choose, then we work more according to what they do in that suit,” explains Raphaël.

The Emotional Connection To Clothes

Regardless of certain trends, people have an emotional connection to clothes, whether we know it or not. For Luke Radloff, the founder of luxury brand Uni Form, emotional tailoring is at the fore. But Uni Form’s garments exude a quietluxury vibe: they are understated, made to be loved and worn, and focus on quality rather than trends.

Although Luke steers away from bespoke designs, he wants to offer his clients a unique experience, and together with his tailor, work his designs for their needs. The magic lies in the actual designs, and anyone who visits his showroom also gets a tailored sensory experience.

“I call myself a garment-based designer since we really focus on the garment instead of trends or to make your body look a certain way,” says Luke.

Uni Form’s pieces are modular, transseasonal and foundational items like pleated trousers, tailored T-shirts, blouses and outerwear. While these kinds of elevated basics fit into the ubiquity of the quiet luxury buzzword, they are a key to Luke’s use of design to express himself. “I want to encourage people to really wear their clothes – whether they consider them special or expensive pieces – every day. The thing is clothes can wear out and become thread bare,” says Luke.

After working for South African designer and DJ Black Coffee for two years, Luke worked for Italian luxury designer Marni under its founder Consuelo Castiglioni. It is here that his respect for garment quality and finish, paired with confidence in his own ability to design wearable pieces, converged.

Even his consultations with clients lean on emotion. The one-on-one conversation determines their needs and what would suit their lifestyle or personal taste. “There are a lot of art and design pieces that emanate the lifestyle my clients aspire to. When they come in, it’s a very sensory experience,” says Luke.

“I’m not saying the everyday Uni Form pieces will last for centuries, as that’s not realistic,” he adds. “But there are a few special pieces that you wouldn’t wear every day. Those are the pieces that you will hand down to someone when you do eventually part ways with it.” ■

TIME REALLY IS A THING in Geneva. Especially when you happen to find yourself in the Swiss city on that day of the year – when the clocks change to summer time.

In the European quest to eke every little daylight moment out of their summer, the authorities push the clocks back by an hour in the middle of a night early in spring (when it’s still pretty chilly outside, if you ask me, but there are mists of pink on the blossom trees and the mountains are only half white). Anyway, explain all of that to a South African journalist who realises late at night before her flight home that the clocks are being switched back –while she’s asleep. Does that mean that the time of your 7.30am flight changes too? Did the South African travel agent who booked your flight weeks ago, factor in this quirky clock thing? And, finally, if you’re going to bed at 11pm but the clocks only change at 2am, what time do you actually set your wake-up alarm on your cell phone?