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WORDS

COLIN MCDOWELL

Acclaimed author and writer Colin McDowell

The Way
Ahead
with
Tailoring

makes his case for reconciling beloved
Savile Row traditions with the sartorial
demands of the future

Whereas the glories of women's dress were

by the gun dog to be hastened out of sight

It may sound opinionated, but menswear

conceived and refined in the ballrooms and

before the game keeper appears; the snares,

needs a degree of specialisation — even exclu-

private chambers of Versailles, Hampton

the ferrets, the cruelty (and the kindness be-

sively — that clothes for teenagers and boys

Court and the many grand palaces and

hind it) that make up the life of the country.

do not. And it once had them for all. The

stately homes of Europe and the British

I recall the smell of the strong pipe tobacco

Fifty Shilling Tailors; Montague Burton and

Isles, men's dress evolved in the fight against

smoked at the end of a day of hard physi-

many other labels enabled ordinary working

the rain, wind and cold of the countryside.

cal graft by the farmers and labourers in the

men — whether from the office desk or the

That is why the wool, fustian, corduroy

'snug' of the local pub in the days before

factory floor — to have a suit of some quality

and tweed of the countryside are, even today,

gastro-pubs and all the pseudo-food they

made to their measurements. To begin with, it

the basis of so much masculine dress. When

serve today to people from towns who are

would be made of very good cloth, sometimes

I think of the fabrics of menswear I am

looking for a link to their past that fast cars

rather hairy and frequently very heavy — and

moved by the associations carried by the

and Barbados tans do not bring.

always British. I went up to university in the

swatches in any tailoring establishing. As I

All these things are the hinterland

middle of the last century with a pair of cav-

feel them I think of the lashing rain of the

of men's fashion — by which I mean fash-

alry twill trousers of material so thick that it

Pennines; the biting winds of the Cairn-

ion based on the strengths of fabrics with

not only defied all wind, rain, sleet and snow,

gorms; the sudden thick mists rolling across

a clear, authentic link to those of the

but they could also stand against the wall

Dartmoor; the deep snow in March that

past, even those no longer fashionable or

overnight as their weight broke coat-hangers

changes the visual geography of the land

necessary. All aspects of life respond to

and caused backs of chairs to sag. And they

just as the lambing season gets underway.

advances in knowledge and techniques and

were virtually indestructible.

I remember the sweet-sour smell of the

menswear is no exception. We need our

But back to the high-street chains of

cart horse's sweat as it plods its way home;

combat jackets, linen shorts and even our

gentleman's outfitters: by the middle of the

the blue, purple and green flash of the newly

acrylic sweaters but, for me, they are add-

nineteenth century, the suit had become an

poached trout as it is popped into a bag out

ons (even adjuncts) to the real business of

essential garment for town or country wear

of sight of ghillies; the pheasant dropped

tailoring for men.

for 'professional' men in the great cities and

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