SPEAKER_03 0:11

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Men's Rare Style Podcast, episode 31. I'm your host, Pete Brooker, and I've got an absolute belter of a show for you this week. I'll be speaking to creative director for New and Lingwood, Simon Maloney. He'll be talking to me about the inspiration behind the notorious peacock gowns as scene worn by Hugh Laurie and the Night Manager, what it's like working alongside Carl Lagerfeld, his near miss with the Mission Impossible franchise, and a lot more. That's coming up next.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

And then I guess the most um famous one for us in recent years has been um the night manager, uh, where Hugh Laurie wore one of our Peacock gowns.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

And and he wore that five weeks in a row. I mean, we couldn't have planned that better. And now it's become a staple.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

After Simon, I'll be talking to Beck Lodes, uh editor at large for Men's Wear Style. She'll be giving me the loaddown from Copenhagen Fashion Week and why men's shorty shorts are back in the limelight. God damn. All that to come, but first make sure you're subscribed to the Men's Wear Style Podcast on iTunes, follow us on the social at Menswear Style and check us out at www.menswearstyle.co.uk for all your latest fashion and lifestyle news. If you'd like to be featured on the show as a guest, we're hosting auditions at the end of the month. You'll need to apply online and write in no less than 10,000 words. Why, when you go abroad, do you choose the worst clothes in your wardrobe? I mean, it doesn't make any sense. Most of the pictures you'll be looking back on in life, later life, when you get to my age, and you start shopping around for the best priced nostril clippers or whatever, all the pictures that you keep will be of you on holiday. Why do you want to pack all that crap from your wardrobe and never never gets to see the light of day at any other time of year? Do you think that Stone Roses t-shirt deserved a holiday too? Anyway. I'm missing around. If you do want to get in touch, there's no audition, just send us an email with the title podcast at infomenswearstyle.co.uk. Okay. Let's get down to it. Introducing Simon Maloney, Creative Director from New and Lingwood. I'd like to introduce to the podcast now Simon Maloney, Creative Director of New and Lingwood. How are you doing today, Simon?

SPEAKER_01 2:35

I'm well, thank you very much. I'm working at home on the new Autumn Winter 19 collection, which seems very early, but it needs to be done.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Oh that sounds exciting. Well, it's great to have you on the podcast. Thanks again for taking the time out to speak to us. I wanted to ask you a little bit, if you can talk a little bit about the design process for the Spring Summer 18 collection. I know you're working on the AEW 19 collection now, but I noticed a lot of textured Czech jackets and trousers in the collection. Are New and Lingwood known for their flamboyancy?

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I guess it's that um almost um mythical eccentricity of the English that we've become um known for. It's that eccentric British style and confidence and exuberance um without being too crazy, but there's always an element of that in the collection, and I'm keen to try and make a point of difference. I mean, we can look after people from the quietest navy suit um right through to a three-piece tartan suit, but um I just don't want us to be try and be everything to everybody. I think we need to have a signature and an identity, and colour and texture and pattern has become that as a sort of evolution over the years, and a lot of that's been informed by our heritage uh from Eton College, where we started in 1865, and there's a long tradition of Eton colours. Um, we carry something like 140 colours of teams and societies and houses, um, socks and caps and blazers. Um, so that comes through in our interpretations of the menswork collection. So that's sort of a DNA that's come through over the years.

SPEAKER_03 4:20

Interesting. It's it's just great to have all of that tradition housed in London. And I I imagine do you have the ledger books that goes all the way back to you know the early 19th century?

SPEAKER_01 4:31

We do have a lot of ledger books, yeah. Um definitely to the beginning of the 20th century, and probably a couple more, just stacks of these wonderfully thick, dusty, leather-bound books which have wonderful copper plate writing in them, and then carefully um pasted swatches of the customers' shirts that they've selected, the pattern references and the prices, and yeah, it's it's wonderful to look back. And the other thing it just reminds you that nothing really is new. Um, I think towards the end of the 19th century, with um having had the Industrial Revolution and uh the birth of new dye stuffs, people were quite experimental. Um, and a lot of the patterns they did are being repeated today. I mean, you know, they really weren't stayed at all. Once they had that colour in their hand, they knew how to use it. Um, and it's also beautiful because a lot of the original work was hand painted, they didn't have CADs, it was all hand drawn.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah, useful. How often do you manage to go through the archives and like dust off those leather books?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Probably not as much as I should. What I do do though is I do go to see archives of our mills and well, our silk mills and our um woolen mills in the UK because they're fascinating, absolutely fascinating, looking at um the different things that you were able to do because funnily enough, nowadays machines are so fast, some of the the more intricate weaves on tailoring you can't do now because the uh needles would break with the speed of the machines now. So, yeah, it's it's uh it is always good to look back and um never dismiss the past too much.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, those who forget their past are condemned to relive it, as uh Diana would say. Very, very true. But uh moving into AW18, Autumn Winter, what can we expect to see from New and Lingwood? I understand that you have uh an Anglo-American literature as inspiration for the previous collection. What sorts of inspiration have you channelled moving forward?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Uh I guess it's a little bit more um contemporary, but with a reference to the past, I guess. Um so it's been I was really, really inspired by the film Fant The Phantom Thread. Um not the most cheerful of films, but uh in terms of style and uh the way that Daniel uh uh I was gonna say Daniel Craig, Daniel Day Lewis um wore and put together some of his outfits, really left a lasting impression on me. And then, you know, in a more uh mundane way, the crown um because they have such huge budgets that they really can be true to the original style of those suits worn through from the um I guess early 1940s, 50s, um, and it's wonderful to see the detail. Somebody there in the costume department must be having a ball.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

Sorry, I sorry to interrupt. I was just gonna ask, do you get a lot of requests to provide costumes for films or TV shows?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, indirectly we do have stylists come in sometimes anonymously, but then they'll follow it up with a letter saying if they could, you know, use or have a number of repeat outfits for films. We did one a few years ago for um Benedict Cumberbatch for it was one of the X-Men's films, and we had to have eight of the same raincoat that he had to have. And then I guess the most um famous one for us in recent years has been um the Night Manager, uh, where Hugh Laurie wore one of our Peacock gowns. Oh wow and and he wore that five weeks in a row. I mean, we couldn't have planned that better. And now it's become a staple, it's sort of um synonymous with us. But yeah, we do get a few. We were asked to use if somebody wanted to use the store for one of the Mission Impossible films, they wanted to use our changing room as a um an MI5 type lift where you went in and drew the velvet curtain and then went downstairs. But actually, after a while it didn't transpire, you know, these film things drag on and on and on, and then yeah, something else happens. But yeah, we're we're often asked, just I think because of our the distinctive character of the clothing.

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Um, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:56

Well, that's exciting. I'm I can't wait to tell my mum that because she loved Night Manager. I mean, we both watched it, but that's that's gonna be great now. I can tell her.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

I remember the last programme I couldn't actually sit down, I had to stand up to watch it because I was so um anxious about the potential outcome.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

Yeah, no, it was gripping. Um I uh uh well I was gonna move on to the uh the actual gowns, but perhaps I'll just save that to last. In the meantime, how have New and Lingwood managed to market themselves outside of the UK? So I I know that you've recently opened one in the US, is that correct? In New York?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Yeah, we started with a pop-up on Madison Avenue um at the end of the year, December. We closed that uh a couple of months ago, and we've now moved to the permanent site on um Lexington Avenue in an area called Lennox Hill, uh, which is quite villagey. I guess in terms of equivalent, you'd have Westbourne Grove here, quite a wealthy neighbourhood and eclectic little boutiques. So we're on 71st and Lex, a couple of streets across from Ralph Lauren's uh flagship, um, and we open uh we've closed at the moment for a month to refurbish it, and we open properly first or second week of September.

SPEAKER_03 10:06

Interesting. And how does an operation like this work? Do you take anyone from your team here in London and then ship them to the US or do you establish new contacts there?

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Yeah, we did initially. We took Stephen from our London store in December, and he lived out there for well until only a few weeks ago, setting it all up. And we've just appointed uh a new guy who called Bruce Crystal, who was um a manager for many years at Paul Stewart. So he's coming to us with a wealth of experience to open the store, and he was in London last week having looked through the collections and getting to know the brand. So that should be good. Um, he has a very loyal clientele, and it's a similar type of uh product in terms of um richness and texture and colour.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

I bet this was actually it sounds like something that would be in the making for a long time before a decision or a trigger is pulled on something like this. How long does it take to even get something like this off the ground?

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Uh a very long time, actually, right. Uh we've we've always had um a presence in America in terms of years ago we used to do trunk shows for bespoke shirts and things and shoes. Um so people have uh known us and people do still recognize the name, thankfully. But actually, to try and get bricks and mortar in Manhattan, which as you know is uh very it's a difficult um area to work in, it's very expensive, uh, and just finding the right type of space is heavily unionized, so you have to follow all of the regulations and everything has to be done by the book, and it's not the quickest, it's um quite uh bureaucratic. So yeah, it's we've got there, but it it wasn't easy, it took a very long time. I'd say it's probably nearly two years in the making.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

And sorry, Simon, remind me of the date when you expect to be opening the store again, please.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Well, I I'm always hesitant to say this because it depends on the builders, but I would say safely the 15th of September.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Great, excellent. Uh well regret, I bet I'll regret it. Well, uh, I'll be over there I think on the 19th, so I just wanted to pop by and see you see how you're getting on.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Oh, that would be great. Yeah. I'll let them know.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

Fantastic. Um meanwhile, uh let's talk a little bit about the bespoke service. So what can your average gentleman expect when he comes in for an appointment for a bespoke new and linguist suit?

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Uh we don't do bespoke suits, we do made-to-measure suits. I think it's a term that over the over the years uh bespoke has been a little bit devalued in that bespoke would be if we had tailors downstairs cutting patterns and chalking and running up and downstairs to service a customer, that would be a bespoke service. We do that for shirts and we do that um for gowns.

SPEAKER_04 12:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

But for suits it's made to measure. So it's based on our uh the blocks that we have. We have a number of blocks that people can try on, and then they make amendments accordingly. Now there's quite a lot of uh changes they can make in terms of pocket details and internals and uh the the figurations of their back if they have a different shaped back or if they've got one shoulder dropped, or there's a lot you can do that brings it very, very close to bespoke, but it's not true bespoke, but it's I think it's what the market is getting to know as bespoke, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

There wasn't there a law that was passed uh probably about 10 years ago that made that was called contemporary bespoke.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yes, it's probably that. Right. It's more that yeah. Um so yeah, we do, and it is an amazing service. I mean, the the permutations are unbelievable. I went uh with Bruce, the uh US manager last week to a training session on it with the people that do it for us, and it's phenomenal what you can do. So you do end up with a bespoke suit, and uh and in London Nicholas Fugler, who is our retail director, is has an amazing eye, and it's all about the proportion, it's all about you know getting it right the first time and um and understanding the customer because the most important thing about this service um is getting to know what the customer expects and what they're looking for, and actually the measuring and the fabric selection is a small part of that process. The longest bit is you know understanding the needs and what he how he's gonna wear it and what it's for, and if he wants to make an impact, if he wants to disappear, if he wants to be um, you know, if he wants to look like a scion of industry, or it's all about that side of things, and once you've got that, the rest of it's fairly easy. But um, you do have to understand precision uh uh proportion and you do have to understand how to how the cloth's gonna behave.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Simon, I often read a lot of articles in this area about how to communicate with tailors and conversely how tailors can put it in uh layman's terms, I suppose, for their customers. Uh what what should a uh a customer or a clientele be asking you if he wants to communicate? Look, how do I I I need a shirt, I need a good shirt. What what what's the process and the dialogue like?

SPEAKER_01 15:16

I think that uh it's it's such a subjective thing. I think people a a good fit a well-fitting shirt, I should say. Um some people think it should be close to the body, some people like a very, very roomy shirt, and they equate uh lots of fabric with expensive and good quality, but you know, for me it's about fit and about movement. So I like uh personally, I like narrower shoulders and higher cut arm holes because I know that's going to give me the freedom of movement. People always think a baggy shirt gives you more freedom, but actually it can restrain you a little bit. I think it's about understanding how you see that shirt. Do you want a neat collar? Do you want um a dramatic spread collar? I think you need to consider your face shape. It's very important when you think about your collar, what your face shape is. You know, there's no point having a cutaway collar if you've got a round face because it's gonna make it look even rounder. Um, so you should be looking to draw that down with a forward point. And similarly, if you've got a very long face, you don't want a forward pointing collar too much because it's only going to accentuate that. I think people need to consider um comfort um and uh how they're gonna wear it and how their faces really uh whether they uh the other thing is obviously whether they wear a tie or not. If they don't wear a tie, then it's really important that that collar structure stands properly. Um if it doesn't have a tie, too many shirts these days you see them on people were designed to have a tie worn round them, and once they're open-necked, they just sort of collapse, the collar stand collapses, and that looks just as bad. So, yeah, it's it is a dialogue. All of this bespoke um conversation and service is about a dialogue.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Yeah, and it's it's amazing just the amount of variables and like you say, the amount of permutations that go into something like this, yeah. And in the same time, there is something that must be in the philosophy of New and Lingwood to kind of break out of convention, you know, and and provide something different for customers as well. Do you find that's quite a hard line to traverse?

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, um, we but then you know, if as I was saying, you look back at fabrics and you realise nothing's new, you look back at collar shapes that you used to have. I mean, there are some crazy things out there, massive collars that the likes of Bogart and Cary Grant used to wear, and those real um Roger Moore. Roger Moore, yeah, elegantly stylish men. So if you look to the past, you could still call it tradition, but it's just um they there was I don't know, there was this exuberance then, and uh and me and I don't think people were worried about their masculinity so much. And that's good because nowadays people are becoming less conscious of that, and they are being in um I guess they're experimenting more, they're becoming more of a peacock, really. Um and that's fantastic for the fashion industry. Um but yeah, I it's not difficult for us. We can quite easily do the most bold of colours, or you know, whatever a customer wants, actually. Um that's the beauty because we're small. Um if if you know, I know you're gonna come onto gowns in a minute, but if a customer wanted their own silk or they happen to want uh a jackard of the family portrait, God forbid, in a silk, we could do it. You know, they don't have to buy metres and metres and metres of fabric. We can do one-offs, um, and that's the beauty of uh being small and agile, I guess, as we are.

SPEAKER_03 18:58

Um perhaps we can talk about the gowns now because I'm I'm kacking to get onto it. So just please tell me back to where like the idea for the gowns come in, because you'd I haven't really seen it in any other place where the gowns are almost front and centre as the USP for the brand. And I know you've got a lot of other great stuff going on there, but this really is you know the show pony of the brand, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 19:18

So yeah, I uh when I came in seven years ago and they were there, they were present, and they were a small part of the business, but I like them because they were they did have that uh boldness about them and confidence, and I guess I've gravitated to it because you really can let your mind go, and and people just love the boldest of um designs and jackards, so it it was a happy accident, really. Gradually, as I put more and more in, people responded to them. I mean, you know, nobody really needs a two and a half thousand pound gown, but people want them, um, and there is something they're drawn to them, and I think there's also a safety about wearing it in your own home. So you might be the meekest, mildest of per people but a person, but actually you can be a king of your own castle, I guess, when you get home, and you can uh celebrate your success or just wear what you want to in your own domain. So I just um yeah, every season I try and do something different, try and find something that's a little bit more um surprising, um but whilst keeping our staples, so you know our silk polka dots will still be there, and our skull and crossbones that comes from 1865, um, and then the peacock has become a sudden core line for us if if there were such a thing. Everything is limited in number. Um, but I'm very lucky. Uh I have a maker in the UK who I went to see yesterday actually to do a video of how our gowns are made. And uh the craftsmanship is wonderful, you know, the way they can they hand quilt the velvet facings and the piping and the cording and the lining, it's just wonderful to watch. Just a small team and a little atelier. Um, and uh it yeah, it's true craftsmanship. So uh going back to your question, it I guess it became a strategy, but originally it was just something I enjoyed playing with. And and uh once you've put together a range of suits in navy and grey, um, and then you've worked on you've come on to your uh sports jackets, then I guess the next stage is where can we go next? And that's when it gets to you know, I can just really let myself go and yeah, do that.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

Simon, I should I guess I should have asked this at the start, but is your background in fashion design?

SPEAKER_01 21:50

No, no, not at all. I um I did a French degree um and uh I lived in Paris for a year as part of it, and then while I was there I had to write. A dissertation, but it couldn't be on anything to do with literature. So I was very lucky. I um I guess because you have no inhibitions, then I knocked on the door of 31 Rue Cambon. So I asked to meet Lagerfeld, and this lady who was the head of marketing at the time said, Let's go for lunch. We went for lunch. She asked what I wanted to write about, and then she brought me back into the famous building up that mirrored staircase. And she is no word of a lie, she stood in front of the door which said Mademoiselle Privé, which people now know but didn't then, knocked on the door, and then she ran off up the corridor and said, Good luck. And then the door opened, and this woman came out and she said, Why are you here? And I said, Um, I've come to see Carl Lagerfeld, and she said, Oh, you better come in then. And then I I sat there for three hours, and he eventually came out and said, What do you what why are you here? I said, I've come to do a dissertation. He said, Right, you come here every day that you want, you've you can sit here and watch me put together the collections. It was at the time of Inès de la Fraissange as a house model, and he had an assistant called Gilles Dufour, and then I worked with the girls who were choosing the buttons and the girls who were choosing the cloths, and then I'd sit there watching him sketch and he'd throw me the odd sketch. And then after that, uh after at the end of the year, I did an interview with him one-to-one, and he said, Would you like to work at Chanel? And I said, Yeah, I'd love to. I said, But I don't have any design background. He said, Well, let's see what happens. I sent him the dissertation, they gave me an interview in London, but they said they could only offer me marketing as a role. So they said, We think you want to work in fashion itself, and I said, Yeah. So I walked, I I left there, didn't take the job, walked up the street, Bond Street, walked up South Morton Street, and I walked past Brown's, and there was a sign in there that they were looking for staff, so I went in and said I wanted to be a trainee buyer. Uh, and I started the next week under Mrs. Burstein in uh 1985, and that was it really. So it was pretty accidental. So it started at Chanel in Paris, and then I my first job was buying for Browns for four years. Wow. I look back now and I think, how on how did I do that? What you know, knock on the door and say, I'd like to meet. But I guess he'd only started there in 83, 84 himself. He wasn't, you know, the big diva that he's been I shouldn't say that, please don't he wasn't, you know, he wasn't wearing the big long deep white collars and the stuff like that. He was just a very nice man and very, very helpful to me. And then at the same time, funnily enough, I was teaching English at school out there. This is another story, and one of the teachers said, Oh, I know um Christian Lacroix. Now he at the time wasn't known, he was the designer at Jean Patou. So she said, Well, why don't you go and meet him as well? So I went to meet him, we got on really well, he was a big help, and then he was he sent me Christmas cards for years afterwards, and yeah, I was it was just a lucky time, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

Fantastic. Do you still get to go back to Paris at all?

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Uh I haven't been back for I used to go back twice a year, but I haven't been back because I don't do Premier Vision now, I do Piti Womo, uh Pity Womo, Milano Unica instead. So um yeah, no, I must go back. I miss it. It's yeah, I loved my year there. I loved living there.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

Richard Richard Beadle, is that the way you say his name, Richard Beadle?

SPEAKER_01 25:17

Uh I think it's Richard Beadle.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Yeah, Richard Beadle. But the brand ambassador for for the Spring Summer 18. What was was he an obvious choice? Because it it looks like he's just a he's just a very good fit for the brand.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah, I i you know it it was just again, it was serendipity, it was wonderful. I'd always wanted to use him as a model, and I was at one of the um London Men's Collections shows and he was he came into the shop and he said, Oh, can I use your loo? So I said, Yeah, come this side, come up to the office. And while we were up there, I said, I'd love to um use you as a model. I said, But you're way out of our league. He said, No, no, no, no, I'd love to work with you. Yeah, so uh we came, you know, he said, I really, really want to work with the brand, I I want to make this work. So we did actually eventually start to work together a couple seasons ago, and he's phenomenal, he's so intelligent, and it's really interesting because it's amazing, you know, you say they're just a model, but some people really get it, and personality comes through. You don't have to tell them to smile or to stand like this or do this or do they just do it and it comes alive, and he's just brilliant, but it's so intelligent. I mean, I don't know if you knew he trained as a solicitor, he was a solicitor fully qualified.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

I was sitting outside a pub uh in Stepney, I think, and or somewhere out near his office, and somebody came past and said, Have you ever thought about modelling? And the next week he's on the runway in New York, and that was it. And uh but just a bright guy, so I've had him write for us as well, and he's just got an amazing innate style. He really he just gets it. Um so it it is a really, really good fit. I think he's um again stylish, modern, um, but he has that sort of Romanoff look about him, yeah. Uh which is uh a link to the past.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

He has, he's got this very classic look to him. I whenever I see him, I always for some reason think to the actor Vincent Fasel. Uh he's a French actor, but he he kinda has that very freance uh beaten up look to him.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

That's okay. Yeah, he's yeah, very in he the intimidating actor, isn't he? Yeah, an angular face. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, you're right, you're right. But he's so lovely, he pops in, he wrote to me this week and said, Oh, let's meet for coffee, um, and he's he's gonna actually in the uh come in next week just for a chat. He just brings his lovely little dog in, Vinny, just for a chat and a catch-up. Um he's so personable and such a nice, genuinely nice guy, which you know is rare in that those sort of spheres where people start to believe their own legend and can become a bit distant. He he's kept it real, as they say.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

Indeed. Yeah, well, and also it looks like um now take this with the spirit that's intended, Richard, if you're listening to this, that every picture has some kind of airbrushed cigarette. The way the way he holds his hands in the pictures, uh, because I know he smokes, and I just imagine him with a cigarette in his hand at all times, and I just feel like for certain pictures, he probably would have been holding a cigarette, but because they're now on the website, they have to be airbrushed out. Allah Paul McCartney, Abby Roach cover, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah, he does every everything is so sort of elegant, isn't it? Yeah, he really he just puts everything even when he comes in on you know very relaxed, there's always an elegance and style about him.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

If uh well your website, um Simon is newandlingwood.com, and that's where all the collections are lived, and that's where Richard's blogs uh are also housed, so you can go there and have a look at his recommendations for the summer collections. Um Simon, can I just finish with a word on bricks and mortar? Sure. And basically the future, and just get your take on what's happening on the high street at the minute. You know, what are your projections? Are you worried at all of the state of the high street?

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Yeah, I do I I I get frustrated because I think you know it's the same. I'm sure lots of people are telling you the same thing. Landlords are being unrealistic about rents, and the rent increases are phenomenal, you know. 60% five years ago, another 60% recently. You can't pass that on to your customer, it's just not possible. And uh they they're ripping the character out of some of the streets. Um I understand that on Savile Row there are six leases that are up for offer because the businesses can't make it work, and they're gonna take away the whole meaning of places like Savile Row. Um, they're trying, you know, in a way, they're sort of doing it in some respect to German Street, um, because they're just going for higher and higher rents, and it's only the multiples that can do that. I mean, look at Burlington Arcade, a number of the number of the units in there are all Chanel brands, um, because they're the ones that can pay top dollar. Um, so all of the ones that years ago, Lords and Pickett's and uh the lit Irish Linen Tea Town shop and Peels have all been priced out of the market. And um I think that's a shame, and I think it also shows, especially if you look at the particularly the Chanel perfume shop, but then uh I guess the way to counter that is to make sure that when people do come to the store, they experience the best in service and you know something more um than the internet can offer one-to-one service, you know, drinks, um a little bit of theatre, events, so that you keep that keep them engaged.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Is there anything that you've employed uh in UN Linguid with this philosophy of experiential shopping?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

In in definitely in um in New York, uh, you know, the cocktail cabinets ever open, and we're in the new shop. We've got a little uh courtyard garden. We're gonna have um cigars there for people uh if they want to smoke them. And in London, we do in certain periods we'll do some cocktails for customers towards Christmas and in summer, London collections, uh doing talks for London Craft Week to tell people a little bit more about how things are made and put together. Yeah, giving them a bit of an insight into the brand. So I guess that's the only way to turn the tide on. You know, uh online is hugely important to us and it's a massive growth area for our business, but I think our store, you can't quite replicate the uniqueness of that um old curiosity shop that we have uh online. We do we try to do it, but you have to visit the the you know the flagship to see that and experience it. Um and I think for a lot of people if only landlords would start to listen um to people and work with them, then um I think it would be better for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Simon Maloney there. Thank you, Simon, and now over to Beck Loads, editor at large for menswear style. How are you doing today, Bex?

SPEAKER_05 32:13

I'm good, thanks, Pete. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 32:14

I am Vunderbar. I'm Vunderbar. I've actually just got back from Berlin, so I was out there for the weekend.

SPEAKER_04 32:20

I love Berlin, it's great, Bake.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

It is, it's just a wonderful, huge, beautiful construction site.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

True, very true, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:28

You can't go round a corner without finding a road dug up or a building about to be torn down.

SPEAKER_05 32:34

Yeah, absolutely. But some interesting architecture to go behind it, so it's quite nice.

SPEAKER_03 32:39

How was France though?

SPEAKER_05 32:40

France was lovely, thank you. Yeah, you can't really go too wrong down in the south of France, just lovely weather, and yeah, very nice, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 32:49

Excellent, great. And what's been going on in the meantime, whilst we've been away swanning up in the European capitals, what's what's happening back in fashion?

SPEAKER_05 32:58

I think we've we've just come to the end of um Copenhagen Fashion Week, actually. Um that is it's very interesting, actually. There's I mean, there's so many amazing Scandinavian brands now that who are doing so well, and um it's but it's become really popular. Actually, it's I don't know, I think this year for some reason it looked one of the most popular um seasons to head to actually. Um and there were a lot of very trendy people there, of course. Um a lot of people heading over to Copenhagen for it, and um it was mostly women's wear, but actually some really nice men's brands as well to look out for.

SPEAKER_03 33:37

Did you pick any out from the men's brands?

SPEAKER_05 33:39

There were there was um one called Holt I'm probably gonna say this wrong. Um one called Holtzvila, which um they look really interesting. Um, they actually started out as like a scarf brand with like scarves from Langs, wool, and silk and things. Um they're a Norwegian brand and um just some really cool designs, really nice. Um there was also another one, one which is quite I I didn't know anything about it, but apparently it's very popular within um the press, the Danish press, and they're called I don't know how to say this, it's MUF10. So I don't know if it's musk 10 or MuF10. Um they're kind of a streetwear brand, and they've got some sort of statement sweatshirts and coats and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

So well picked out. Yeah, these names are real tongue twisters, aren't they?

SPEAKER_05 34:29

Yeah, there's some other ones I have no idea how to say. Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

I've got Han, that's easy enough, but then you throw in like Kojabanahavan or something, whatever that is, Han Kujabanahavan. They are they're really wacky, some of these guys. There's uh a dude walking around wearing two pairs of denim. Oh, it looks like it. Yeah, yeah, check it out. Han Kojabanahavan. And it's it's like you put a pair of jeans on and you thought, well, I've got this pair, but I need you know, I need something else. What do I do? And then you just put another pair of jeans over it. And that's the look. That's the look. Martin Asbajown. Martin Asbidjown, I quite like some of his stuff.

SPEAKER_04 35:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

Got some like mustard coloured trousers and these powder blue jackets, oversized jackets and these trousers, I really want some of these trousers, because they look cordroy, which is my favourite favourite fabric.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

Oh, love it.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

And they've got these like cowboy tassel strips that are running down the side of these trousers. Yeah, yeah. I'd look an absolute knob in them, but I mean they look they look at the nuts on these guys. Yeah, so that's all done and done now, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 35:34

So yeah, all done. Yeah, finished the other day. I think it was from the 7th to the 9th of August, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Yeah, okay, so until next year. I hope you get the invite next year, that'd be nice.

SPEAKER_05 35:42

Yeah, it'd be cool actually. I'd love to go. It looked very looked like the place to be, so uh yeah, very nice.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

And what's happening back on English soil?

SPEAKER_05 35:51

English soil, well, there's been a lot of talk about short shorts at the moment. I don't know if you've been seeing it sort of on social media and things like that. Um it's uh it's an interesting trend. I think you've got to be slightly brave to go for it. Um, but it actually sort of kicked off again last night. There was a few tweets, um, joking tweets from Elon Musk um talking to one of his investors and saying he would send him some short shorts in the post, which he did. Um but it's actually a trend that started a while ago, I think. Um I I can't remember seeing them myself, I think it was a bit maybe a bit young, but apparently it was quite a trend sort of about 25 years ago. Um but it's really coming back, and I think it's sort of come from sort of sportswear, the short shorts in the gym, and it's now spilling out onto the streets, and Prada were a big fan and put them on their spring summer catwalk. So um yeah, what do you think about them?

SPEAKER_03 36:47

Well, look, I come from a different place when it comes to shorts because I'm only five seven at a push. So, like a pair of short shorts on me is actually a good length short. So I I don't I don't really get the concept of short shorts, at least I can't experience it.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

But it also does seem like the guys that have the worst legs, no muscles, no calves, these are the guys that want to wear the short shorts.

SPEAKER_05 37:15

Yeah, pretty much. I don't I think if you have quite there's nothing against it, but if you have quite sort of chunky, sort of muscly legs, they might not be the look you want to go for. I think it's maybe for the more slender leg, but um yeah, I think uh if you want to do it, go for it. But um they some of them look very short.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

What do you think, Bex? It's more important your opinion's more important, you're the woman.

SPEAKER_05 37:39

Well, I think I think short shorts suit a certain look. I think they can look good. Um I I personally don't wear very short shorts myself.

SPEAKER_03 37:51

Um but yeah, I mean But on a dude, I mean you'd be judging a dude if he walked towards you with shorty shorts.

SPEAKER_05 37:58

Yeah, I d I think maybe maybe not too short. I think there's a limit, isn't there? There's definitely a limit.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

Yeah. Um I think I think as soon as you start to reveal what Alan Partridge would call the boys out of the barracks, I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_05 38:15

There is that slight issue, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Yeah. And also you should be shaving your legs, I guess, if you're showing that much leg.

SPEAKER_05 38:23

That is also another good point. How far do you go?

SPEAKER_03 38:27

Yeah. Interesting. So who are doing this? Prada, Katama, Fendi are all doing it in Feng Chen Wang. Okay. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. I tell you a nice appropriate length short, seamlessly going into the interview I did with Adam Brown, the 007 printed shorts that we spoke about a couple of uh episodes ago. Now that is a nice, decent length short. That's a man's short.

SPEAKER_05 38:49

That's true. That's a good length, actually.

SPEAKER_03 38:51

Yeah, and it it's supposed to be a good length as well, because they were tailored around a trouser. So so I've learned since the interview it's it's a 17-piece pattern that is typical. 17 to 20 pieces normally go into a men's trouser. And so what they've done with the short is just basically just lock off the leg of the trouser.

SPEAKER_04 39:10

What am I going for?

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Anyway, I'll uh I'll uh squeeze in a clip here of the interview. So, I mean, what people might not realise about your shorts, as um, is that they are based on a 17-piece pattern swim short. So basically they are they are trousers but without the leg into a short, effectively. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

So they're not both they're not based on a swim short, what they're based on is the traditional pattern of a man's pair of trousers. So if you're normally a man's trouser will have about 17, around 17 cases in the pattern. Yeah, 17 to 20 cases in a pattern. And then it sort of allows you to have a sort of shape waistband, you can uh you can have panels of the um different panels, you can use different boxes for shorts. There'll be a front panel, back panel, uh there'll be no zip fly, you'll just have um the double two layer two uh waistbands, all that sort of thing. So this would be there's a different there'll be like 20 pieces in the shorts. So the shorts are based on the traditional pattern of a man's pair of trousers, which has normally about 17 to 18 pieces in it.

SPEAKER_03 40:19

Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, yeah, no, it makes yeah, it makes total sense. Adam Brown from Oliver Brown there talking to me on the From Taylors with Love podcast. You can download that on iTunes, just type in From Taylors with Love. It's all about the style of James Bond. But what do you think of that, Bex?

SPEAKER_05 40:47

I love those shorts, they're great, really nice.

SPEAKER_03 40:50

And he also mentions that they're bringing out a new hero collection in spring summer nineteen. So more James Bond clothing to come from Oliver Brown. Oh, cool. Oh yeah, it's really cool. I'm acting like it's not cool, but it's I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_05 41:04

Yeah, cool, I like it.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Cool. Well, Bex, uh I I do believe that might be about it. I think it probably is. Yeah, short and sweet this week. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, in the meantime, Bex, where can people find you?

SPEAKER_05 41:18

Um, I am on Instagram, BeckLodes. Um, so yeah, come and have a look at my photos or anything. I've got the links to menswear style articles on there as well, so come and have a look.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Absolutely. Thank you, Beckloads. Thank you, Simon Maloney from New and Lingwood. Thank you, the listener, for making it through to the end here. And we'll be back next month. And until then, remember it's only fashion people, and you're never fully dressed without a smile.