British menswear style has long been seen as a yardstick for international men's fashions. The received wisdom is that tailoring started in England, creating many of the shapes that have become standard for western jackets, trousers and coats.
This was driven home to me a few years ago when I was discussing style with an Italian tailor. I expressed admiration for Italian menswear, its soft construction and shapes. 'I wish', I said, ' that I could dress like an Italian'. His reply surprised me, 'Oh', He said, 'But we Italians just want to dress like Englishmen!'
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| A selection of British menswear styles |
When we think of English, or perhaps I should use the term British, style we think of tweeds, fine Northampton-made shoes, club ties, Tattersall or formal Jermyn Street shirts. The rules of dress and how it should be worn were linked to the military and British class systems. Tailoring sees lined and structured jackets, with shaped and padded chests and shoulders - formal rather than comfortable, shaped rather than following the natural line of the body.
Traditionally, dark clothes, blue, black or grey, were worn in town and in formal situations. Tweeds would be reserved for the country. 'No brown in town' is an example of the many complex rules that existed and which still hang over menswear to some extent. Until very recently a man working in the City of London would receive a ribbing from his colleagues if he wore a formal shirt with a breast pocket. It's still unusual to see many breaches of the 'no brown in town' tradition.
British casual wear is less easy to define, Harrington jackets and duffle coats perhaps. British-woven cotton formed the work clothes that have inspired contemporary workwear styles. The denim that has formed the basis for modern casual menswear has its roots in the US, although it was adopted in the UK from the 1950s. Having said that, I have found academic views that suggest that denim was being manufactured in Lancashire from early in the Industrial Revolution as Lancashire became the centre of the cotton weaving world.
On the whole, casual clothes didn't exist in an age when any clothing was a luxury and such styles were restricted to the more affluent, comprising country style tweeds - the sportswear of the gentleman of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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| In Town: Norman Parkinson's fifties image of men on Savile Row |
With influences from the US and more recently Italy (in the form of less structured, softer tailoring), British men's style has evolved a more international flavour. But of course globalisation works both ways. Ralph Lauren's tweedy, preppy styles are distinctly British and Lauren has always acknowledged the influence of English style on his designs and, as mentioned, Italian tailoring has its basis in English shapes, albeit made lighter in construction and cloths.
It's perhaps a shame that there is no British menswear brand like Ralph Lauren; one that pushes the roots of English style, adapting it to a younger and more casual market and presents it in such attractive ways as RL has done for over 50 years.
Drake's, New & Lingwood, Turnbull & Asser and Hackett market styles that have many of the characteristics of British style. Some of these sell menswear watered down by the move to Italian unstructured styles with shorter jackets and slimmer cut trousers designed to attract a younger high street market. Others, such as Drake's, have recognised how fashionable young around the world (see Japan for example) have adopted more traditional British styles such as tweeds, brogues and high-waisted, looser cut trousers.
One brand that truly retains the heritage and shapes of English styles and tailoring is Cordings of Piccadilly who have been around for some 190 years. They have stuck with the country and military origins of British menswear in the construction of their tailoring and in the British cloths which they use, flannels from Fox, tweeds from Scotland and Yorkshire and corduroy from Brisbane Moss. Perhaps seen as a little too heritage by some, their clothes can be worn in a very contemporary way and, as such, show how British style can be adapted for all tastes.
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| In the country and sports - Edward Prince of Wales playing golf |
The time is ripe for a redefinition and rediscovery of English style, suitably adapted for a modern market and shorn of the class-ridden and often pointless rules that surrounded it. British men's style has become the most creative in the world, fuelled by extraordinarily inventive fashion designers and by the wonderfully multicultural nature of British society, but we seem reluctant to acknowledge that.
Ralph Lauren borrowed British style and adapted it for a more relaxed US market. There is scope for a British brand to take back the styles which form the basis for western menswear, adapt them using the creativity so evident in this country and market them as proudly British.
British heritage brands such as Barbour and Burberry have become international brands and have been adopted around the world by young and old so their significance isn't so important here at home where generic sportswear, skinny jeans and cheap high street fashion predominate. The return of a truly identifiable British style would be welcome.
Please let me know your thoughts - email me or message through Instagram.
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