Fittingly, I was on the Kings Road when it hit me. A few, cosseted vestiges of the street's former glory remain – Partridge’s grocers, for example, looks as though it hasn’t changed since it opened in 1972 – but really, the vibe has long withered away. Where the Kings Road once jangled with the insouciance of swinging London, it now plods with the bleak, unending Euro-House of not one, but two Joe & The Juices.
But wait, what groovy light breaks through yonder window, man? ‘Tis De Fursac, sandwiched a’tween an office block and an outpost of Bluemint, and though the shimmer of a glass and steel frontage evokes modern high street commerce, the mannequins within speak (quietly) of the past. They whisper of rich mahogany and leather-bound books. Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy - from Anchorman, the 2004 film that (alongside The Office) defined my peer group’s lexicon - is no longer just a fancy-dress archetype, or sex symbol, but a genuine style icon, too.
De Fursac’s new A/W’20/21 collection features the kind of suits, slacks, blazers etc. that the Channel 4 News Team would have purchased on that consolatory shopping spree they so gleefully embarked upon in the movie. (Just checking… everyone’s seen Anchorman, right? Maybe I should reference a film that was made more recently than 2004, but there simply haven’t been any good Seventies-based, tailoring-fuelled buddy comedies since then.) We’re talking windowpane-check jackets with lapels as big as oars, high-waisted slacks, joyously gaudy ties and boots so pointy they could skewer a watermelon.
16 years ago, when I was 15 and the only suit I owned was machine-washable, the clothes in Anchorman looked pretty good. I know/knew they were supposed to be ridiculous, but they were just hyperbolic versions of the things lots of men wore in the Seventies. I figured that if you were going to wear a suit all the time – like the teachers at my school, for example – then it might as well be different/funny/cool. Of course, it’s not as simple as that. You don’t want to be the only teenage boy at a West Country comprehensive in flares, white loafers and a powder-blue safari blazer. So despite a yearning for glamour, I toed the line of bead necklaces, Osiris shoes and Quiksilver tees.
Around five years ago - by this point I was an adult with a job concerning garms - wearing mad suits was cool. If you look back at Street Style shots from the London shows, you’ll be overcome by all the tie-bars, briefcases, two-tone brogues and twiddly moustaches.
From what I recall, it was largely down to Mad Men, which had suddenly mobilised a generation of men into whisky drinking, chain smoking silent types with penchants for three-button blazers and Brylcreem. That purple patch always felt fragile because it didn’t offer much room for self-expression. The general empowerment was wonderful, but all the rules the trend imposed meant it was more like cosplay than actual style.
Now, in what I think of as the second great tailoring event of my brief and insignificant life, suits are cool again. But this time it’s much sexier, and much more interesting. In truth, De Fursac is quite entry-level. The real leaders in this super sharp, Seventies-skewed steez are the likes of Husbands, P Johnson, Saman Amel and Maximilian Mogg. Whereas the Anchorman suits were ridiculous for the Seventies – a time when clothes were generally mad already – the interesting suits we see now are designed to be almost ridiculous, but fundamentally elegant, for an era when people have lost touch with ‘smart’ dress. It’s maximalist tailoring for a minimalist world.
Take Maximilian Mogg as an example. The small made-to-measure atelier in Berlin, which recently created a capsule collection for Mr Porter, offers a German approach to English tailoring. “It is a very Twenties-inspired, Seventies look” explains the founder in a video to accompany the Mr P collection. On his Instagram account, Mogg proudly sports gleefully Burgundian suits in checks and stripes which have long been the reserve of a tailoring elite, but are slowly edging their way into the mainstream. The high street isn’t going to suddenly go all Studio 54, but you can already see it here and there; the odd peak lapel, the proliferation of unstructured jackets, a rise in double-breasted blazers. Men are slowly being allowed to explore tailoring in a new way; not as a uniform, or trend, but as a mode of self-discovery and expression.
“MEN THAT LIKE GARMS: ASSEMBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLE”
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