SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Men's West Style Podcast. I'm your host, Pete Brooker. How are you doing? This week, this month even, we're gonna be taking a quick break from the influencer interviews that we've been doing, and we're gonna speak to someone who is deeply influential in the luxury retail sector, Dominic McCarthy. Dominic is the founding partner of AM Comms, an independent agency that represents clients from the worlds of consumer lifestyle and luxury, from startup brands to international blue chip corporations. We're gonna be talking about the woes of the high street, what brands are struggling, why they're struggling, and what they can do to turn it round. Here's a clip.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

MS is constantly struggling. Why? Because there's no point of difference. What if I if I said to you what does MS stand for in terms of clothing, you couldn't tell me. Probably granny knickers. Um David Gandhi Loungewear. Yeah, well, fair enough. David Gandhi Loungewear. That's you know, no one's gonna build a clothing empire in loungewear.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

That interview coming up shortly. I'll also be catching up with Beck Lodes, editor at large for Men's Run Style. She's going to give me the low down on London Fashion Week. You know, what did David Gandhi wear? What did David Gandhi say? Who did he say it to? What did they say back to David, and how did David react? And what did David Beckham say to David anyway, it goes on. You know, David Gandhi and David Beckham should have a charity grudge match. And Davidoff could sponsor it, you know. Because Davidoff, two David, fight David, Davidoff. Never mind. All that to come. I'm normally at this point gonna tell you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, blah blah blah, but the website is www.menswearstyle.co.uk and you'll find all the links to the social channels there. So if you can't be bothered to do that, then just type in menswear style to whatever platform you use, and we'll come up though. We don't have Snapchat because you know why bother? The the Kardashians kill Snapchat, right? Who was it, Kylie Jenner that just tweeted and said Snapchat is so over, so over, y'all, and boom, knocks over a billion dollars off the market value. I mean, can you just imagine having that kind of power? Wielding that kind of power, you just never stop threatening people with tweets, right? Do you know what I'll do? I'll just walk into every restaurant in Mayfair, walk straight up to the girl at the desk and say, You know who I am? Good. Now give me a table by the piano. Send over a bottle of Ballinger 75, or I'm gonna tell everyone that this restaurant is so over. Or something like that. Anyway, where was I? Yep, subscribe, subscribe on iTunes, leave a review if you're one of these people that likes to review. Personally, I'm a non-reviewer, but you know, hey, it might be your thing. I mean, everyone wants review these days, right? The minute you leave a restaurant, you get an email. Five steps from the door, how was the food? How was the service? Okay, can you leave us a review? We're just gonna be walking down the street one day. Someone's gonna stop you and say, hey, I passed you on the street back there. How was it for you? Did I give you enough space on the pavement? Can you leave me a review? So, review if you wanna. We'd appreciate it. And if you want to get in touch with us at the show, then you can email me here at infot menswearstyle.co.uk, okay? Let's take this away. It's a good job. Davidoff, Davidoff, two Davids fighting over an aftershave. David. Anyway. Here to Talk Shop is founding partner of AM Comms, Dominic McCarthy. Okay, I'd like to introduce to the podcast now Dominic McCarthy. Dominic is the founding partner of AM Comms. They have some business for marketing. They've been going with menswear, women's wear, the luxury market for over fifty years now. How are you doing today, Dominic?

SPEAKER_00 3:42

I'm great, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

I'm wonderful, I'm excellent. Um Dominic, I should say that I was just at the the catwalk down in St. James as I was turning you off air. Um, really good, excellent show, really well put together. You guys are obviously at the helm of that. Um the fourth year, I believe, you've been in the world. That's right, the fourth year, yeah. How did it go?

SPEAKER_00 4:01

It went well. I mean, it gets better every year. Um I think that the only kind of nervousness we ever have is around the weather. But I mean, German Street now is such an iconic street in terms of menswear and accessories that people love to come down, and every year we kind of add a little bit more to the kind of theatre of it all and the drama, the brands that we have to use are excellent. You know, you can't get better than what we have on German Street. So it's really been um it's always it's actually it's hard working preparing, but actually it's a really fun uh morning and day when it takes place, and you know, and uh London Fashion Week men's has just gone from strength to strength uh out of the BFC in Dillon. I just think it's you know, we love taking part.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

How how much time goes into putting something together like that? Because the catwalk is you know done and done in say 10-15 minutes, but I imagine that the build-up to that is is months, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:51

We start in well, we start planning in December. Um budgets start getting worked out, then you have to work with the council. There's 33 brands on the catwalk this year. Um Grace Gilfurt has styled it for us. Um we work with the standard to promote it, then there's all the online influences. I mean, there's a there's hundreds of moving parts, and and uh yeah, we start in January with January and then we work with a fantastic production company called Inca, who you know we kind of just have to pass it over to, and they take care of it. We actually we're so confident in them, we just like pass it on and regular updates and then turn off on the day. But it's it's uh it's like planning D-Day sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Okay. Well, it it was a great show. Um just in on the topic of Germain Street. I mean, we have quite a large audience over in America who might not be overly familiar with Germain Street compared to your household name of Savile Row. How would you compare the two if you had never been to either?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Okay, well, uh, if you take Piccadilly as the equator, we are south of that. So German Street really is the menswear street for shirts, ties, accessories, shoes, hats. Whereas Savile Row is, you know, the home of tailoring. Savile Row really is a little bit more um let's say by only and conservative. Still there's some tremendous brands on Savile Row, and and they do have a rich ail uh tailoring history. But we're kind of like you buy your suit at Savile Row, but what do you accessorize with? Well, you come to German Street to accessorise with shirts, ties, accessories, socks, cufflinks, hats, outerwear, and that's really the difference of the two. Um, you know, they're both in May well, they're in Mayfair up in Savile Row, and we're just we're south of Piccadilly and St. James's. You know, so if Americans were needing a kind of a reference point, um Fortnum Mason, the Stafford, the Ritz, um the hotels that they're familiar with are literally on the on the doorstep of German Street.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

And you have under your wing some of the best shirt makers and tailors basically going on either stretch of the road, right? So you have uh Richard Anderson, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, we have Richard Anderson and Chester Barry on Savile Road, which are just joyful brands to work for and really great people. And then down on um on German Street, we have John Smedley and Newon Lingwood, um, and then there's other brands that we you know we we collaborate with on the Catwalk show. We've got people like um Tumble and Assa, Sunspell, Emmett. Um, we've got some great brands down there. So it's a real rich, rich mix, really.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Yeah, and it and also um I mean I'm a huge James Bond nut for anyone that listens to this podcast will know. And you've got a that place is almost like the epicenter for fashion when it comes to James Bond. You had John Smedley involved in the franchise, Turnbull and Assa obviously were right there from the very beginning, um, providing the shirts. Um NPL, you mentioned there, so it's it's a great hub, not only just for people that love fashion, but for the icons of cinema history, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Well, I think I think you know, when you look at Ian Fleming, uh he inhabited that world of St. James, and that's why, for instance, the Vespa Martini, uh, that you know, and and the whole shaking not stir thing came from Duke's Hotel, which is in St. James. It's that's where Fleming uh came up with the the Martini shtick that Bond has. Vespa was, I think, one of the first girlfriends in Doctor No, and that's therefore the Martinis called Vespa. And I mean, even if you look in in real in real life, uh Philby McLean and Burgess, the the Russian spies, you know, the Cambridge three, all got their clothes made in Saval Row and German Street. And even when um McLean and Burgess were in uh Moscow, they still regularly had their shirts and ties sent from German Street to Moscow, even when they're in exile. So, you know, it uh fiction really um mirrors the experiences of people like Fleming and you know the Cambridge spies. They all inhabited that world because uh if you think about it, the men's clubs, White, Carlton Club, the Reform Club, Boodles were all in St. James's. So they were eating, drinking, entertaining their girlfriends and their wives and their boyfriends in in St. James's. So it's that's why I think it plays such a rich part in all of that kind of literature.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yeah. And getting back to the high street, uh, how are these these very traditional old-fashioned houses coping with like the modern demands of online e-commerce stores? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 9:15

These Yeah, I mean I know exactly what you mean. I think certainly my clients um have embraced the online offering. They realize that by having a great website, they can they can, and as long as they've got logistics, they can sell products anywhere around the world, and there is an appetite now for that around the world. Um, obviously it's a little bit different on Savaroe where you have to make to measure and you have to come in for fittings. But if you're doing shirts, ties, accessories, socks, shoes, you know, that can be you can deliver those anywhere in the world if you if you know your sizes. So I think they're seeing actually that the internet and online shopping is a is another string to their bow. Um, it gives them global reach, it gives them sales. But at the end of the day, any heritage brand and any brand that really wants to succeed, be it a high fashion brand, a booze brand, a car brand, um you need a brand home, and you need a place where the affluent consumer can come look, feel, touch, smell, taste your product. And that is where you know the shops like New England on German Street or origin Anderson or Savaroe, um, that's where the brand comes to life. And the clever brand has a mix of both. Uh, the dumb brand has too many shops, uh, too many leases, and not enough uh online presence. But there's still very much high demand for uh brand homes and bricks and mortar.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Uh I know we're not really comparing apples with apples here, but you do have some really big heritage brands like say Mark and Spencer's, I mean, even Newlook to a certain extent. These these places have been around for a while as well, yet they're under real real threat. So, how what have they got wrong, and what would you say, what department stores have got the model right?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Right. Well, I think there's there's two sides to that. Um, there's a product, first of all, what they sell. So let's talk about that. The brands that have struggled hasn't gone to the wall. Boston Reed, um let's look at House of Fraser having in a state of flux, you know, having to shut up 50% of their stores. MS is in constantly struggling. Why? Because there's no point of difference. What if I if I said to you what does MS stand for in terms of clothing, you couldn't tell me. Probably granny knickers. Um David Gandhi loungewear. Yeah, well, fair enough. David Gandhi Loungewear, that's you know, no one's gonna build a clothing empire on loungewear. Um but what but seriously, what is their point of difference? And that is the problem I think with um if you look at retailers today, you better have a point of difference because the market is so uh oversupplied, it's so competitive, everybody's screaming for attention. You've got to have a point of difference. Um so it's a product mix. That's the first thing. The second thing is when you start looking at some of the the bigger retail chains, you know, they are lumbered with historic leases. Um and you know, I think when Austin Reed went down, you could have actually turned that into a property company, shut all the retail, all the menswear, and just actually sublet all the premises, you probably made more money because they weren't selling selling shirts and ties. Um and we worked for them for a period of time, and you know, they were very slow to to to spot that. So I think um this kind of rationalization of the high street, this um having a lease and having a department store is a tremendous overhead. Staff leases, services, you know, uh rates, whereas online you don't have that. So I think you've got to get the balance right. If you know House Afraiser are shutting 30 stores, they should have been shutting 30 of those stores 25 years ago. I worked in it for 15 years as in a consultant. They should have been downsizing gradually over 25 years, and they should have been doing it under three different managements, but actually now the Chinese have come in and the Chinese are bitten on the bullet and they see that they're making tougher, more rational decisions than some of the previous owners. I mean, under Bauka, they just kind of kept the patient breathing, they didn't do any radical surgery, they didn't try to change anything, they just literally kept it alive, just and well, and then the chickens have come home to roost, and unfortunately, you're seeing 4,000 uh concessions and uh 2,000 of internal staff all being made redundant. That's a lot of people, and that's that's sad. But the the owners of the business did not embrace digital quickly enough, they didn't um embrace the fact that they'd got too many stores and not enough cash. I mean, Neta Porte came to the market in 2000. House of Fraser, the largest department store chain in the UK, came online seven years later.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

How? Why is it what what's happening here? I mean, you'd think that there'd be some really big players at the top of this that would be pulling the strings and they'd be in charge of making all the good decisions.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Well, I think you know, technology, technology is moving so quickly. I you know, I sit in meetings um with clients and I've got experts in technology in my business who are younger than me, more technologically minded. I mean, I'm still pretty tech savvy, but you know, it's moving.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

You're talking about Xander here, aren't you? I haven't believed.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

I know all about it. Um but but but it's moving at such a pace that you know, and and sometimes a lot I think a lot of the people that were running uh the the UK retail scene in the 90s and the early 2000s, 2000s were basically uh executives who'd come up the ladder at the Burton Group and were not tech savvy. They still believed in old school on old school retail, and you know what? It didn't work out, and it isn't working out. You know, those those companies are now struggling. Um too many leases, too many brand, you know, who needs 60 department stores in the UK? Really? Do you really need 60 department stores? Probably not, and those and those department stores have not been making money for a while. Um, so I I actually applaud what the Chinese have done. The new owners have come in, they've looked at it, they're seeing that it can't be saved in that current form when they're making radical changes, and that's exactly the sort of thinking you need.

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Is it because they're quite dispassionate about it or they can come in because they're not knee-deep in the emotion of the traditional?

SPEAKER_00 15:22

I think there's probably a certain degree of detachment. I think there's probably also a certain degree of savviness that they, you know, if you look at Chinese retail, and I of which I know a little bit, you know, clearly they're much more tech-led. You know, 90% of Chinese millennials do not read print, they read online. You look at people how they shop, they use their handheld devices, they don't use cash. Those are two very sim simple examples of how technology has changed the way A, you communicate with the c the customer, and and B how the customer spends money. So, you know, they have to embrace that, you have to be ahead of it. And and and I don't think you know, the previous owners of Hasphrase, we keep talking about them, you know, bat the bow with the that were funded by you know Lands Bank E and the Iceland, they just didn't they weren't tech savvy, they weren't on the cutting edge. Because if they were this wouldn't have happened.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

I mean, uh is it also a case of the old adage of like the bigger the the ship, the harder it is to stop and turn around? Whereas if you're a bit more dynamic, you have um you know, say like a smaller ship to navigate these waters, then you can be a bit more quick on your feet and it and it's a little bit easier to survive.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

But also, if you've got a clever captain, that captain can avoid the icebergs, you know, um, and you've got to have a vision, you've got to have an idea of where you want to go. Look at Burberry. I mean, they turn that around. I mean, I'm talking about you know, Rosemary Bravo days when it was uh a dusty old British retailer taken out, dusted down, remodeled, and then that's gone. Uh you know, if you think about where Burberry was and where it is now, you know, it's enormous, it's a global brand, and it's had several um kind of stages of its evolution, it reinvents itself. Gucci does the same. You know, those brands never sit still. They're constantly challenged, constantly look at them themselves. And I think maybe that lack of vision, that lack of understanding under the previous owners of House of Rose is probably what did for them.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Was she the the lady that decided to put the check on the inside of the Burberry jackets?

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Yeah, I mean she was the one that literally grabbed it by the the scruff of the jacket and shook it and re- relaunched it, you know, and did a fantastic job, but you've got to have a vision. You and and the product has to have a point of of difference. And I think if you don't have that point of difference, you know, why would you shop there? Do you shop in in in places do you buy stuff that has no point of difference?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

No, no, I always ask for stuff for free. Well, that's true. I'm a really bad example, but um I I do get the the point of when people go out these days, they want the experience rather than the you know it's a time efficiency thing, right? People just don't have the time to go out and get one thing um because that swallows up three hours of their day. They would they would get it online, or if they can tie it in with a coffee or a meeting, etc. etc.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

So well, I think yeah, there's there's there's some of that, but I think also you know people have moved away from big brands. So if it you know, if you think about Ralph Lauren, for instance, I I call it like the poly the the polo pony index, you know. In the 80s that that um polo pony on the on the on the shirt was very small. Then suddenly in the late 90s it was bloody enormous, it was half the size of your arm, and now it's gone back again. And what's the point I'm trying to make? Well, the age of the brand and brand recognition is I think is waning, but people don't listen uh necessarily want to wear a brand on their left uh chest above their heart anymore. They're looking for individual things, they identify themselves through experiences, so you're seeing far more uh interest in bespoke, in unique, in in selective rather than you know the big bold brand statement, look at me, I'm wearing this brand or that brand. It's more about the individual and it's about experience.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Do you have I'm gonna put you on the spot here, Dominic. Do you have a brand logo that you really like or identify with and go, oh, that's a bit of me?

SPEAKER_00 19:17

No.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

What about whiskey?

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Uh do you know what? I um no, not really. Not really on the other. Other than my wife's brand, Gay Corey, available online. Um, I think I think uh I think that the that the savvy consumer today curates their own look and what they like. So there'll be a group of brands that you know you can go to um to get what you want. And and they could be small businesses, they can be large businesses, but you know what you like and you know what you want. And I think understanding, you know, how to curate a look and how to curate your lifestyle almost. I mean it's it's you know it's a choice. And you know, it's like going on a holiday. Do you want to go to Magaloof with a hundred people or do you want to go to a small, quiet place where you can sit by the beach, put your feet up, and nothing bother you? It's a choice, and I think more people are looking to go to that cool, small, quiet space rather than going to Magaloof.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yeah, no, I agree. I'd I'd I've never been to Magaloof, but it's um neither I but I just can't no, hell no, it's not.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

Um Domini, I was gonna ask you to get a call from the Spanish Tourist Board now.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Oh yeah, yeah, that's uh that's my free cruise to Magaloof out the window. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um I was gonna ask you basically to to put a finer point on it. The everything's becoming like an emotion and an experience. Like if you go to Lululemon, for example, I was there the other day on Regent Street, you go up to the menswear section, it's half menswear, it's half yoga floors. You know, you don't just go there and, like I say, just buy a pair of joggers, you go there and you have a wellness lesson. Uh same with um say Gresham Blake down in Shoreditch now, they've removed half of their stuff off the wall and they put like an art fascia there to make it part of the artwork. So that's going to encourage people that do the graffiti tours to come into the shop at the same time. Um my point is this what other things can brands do, maybe the bigger brands, to future proof themselves so that they don't feel these struggles and and these pressures on the high street that we're currently experiencing?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Well, I mean, there's two things there. There's the pressures on the high street. Uh, how do you insulate future-proof against that? I mean, that's a tough one because I think that uh a lot of businesses have been finding it hard to um deal with the current economic climate with Brexit, because if you look at it suddenly, if they're manufacturing abroad, the cost of goods have gone up because they're buying with a weaker so that's tough. Um then we have the rates increase, which is I mean, these are things almost beyond their control. These are the macroeconomic things that are affecting the ordinary people in the in the high street. The upside of the of the macroeconomic side is you've got more tourists coming in, therefore, spending more money in London, certainly. Um in terms of In terms of the marketing uh of a brand, it's increasingly about lifestyle. So when you go to Lululemon, that's exactly why you've got um you know yoga and wellness classes in there. Look at Rafa putting in a coffee bar into uh uh what is essentially a biking accessory shop. That is a super smart move, you know, because they know what their consumer is gonna do. They know if they put a coffee shop in there, that consumer's gonna dwell. Not only dwell, he's probably come in there for meetings as well. If he wants to get on the phone call, he wants to do something like we're doing right now. So that's super smart. Um and increasingly, you know, Gresham, we used to work for Gresham many moons ago. Bringing in you know art into Shoreditch, again, it will improve dwell time. It's all about lifestyle now. So when we talk about um menswear or women's wear fashion, those brands exist within the universe of lifestyle. Um you know, and if I'm if I'm working on a fashion brand and trying to promote them or a menswear brand, I say to them, we're gonna bring you breadth and depth. And what do I mean by that? I'm taking you off of the menswear pages, and I'm gonna put you into the lifestyle pages. So, you know, you sit within travel, you sit within drinks, you sit within food. It's all part of the consumer's lifestyle. So if I was looking at any brand, I'd be saying, Okay, who's my consumer? What are the interested beyond menswear? Right, they're interested in this, that, and the other. Let's have little bits of it and and let's sh sit within the universe of that consumer.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yeah. No, I I mean it it makes makes total sense. Everything's kind of gravitating towards well, we're all so emotional these days. We all need to be pampered and catered to, and everything needs to be esoteric, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Yeah, yeah. Ease. I think that's important because technology has sped everything up. So technology has done two things. First of all, people have less time, despite we have more technological tools to help us do our job, we're now doing way more than we ever did. Uh, are we more productive? I'm not sure if we are. Certain product productivity figures in the UK uh are are uh you know still in flux and not as strong as they should be compared to the other European countries. You know, so technology are we doing more, are we answering more pointless emails? Probably yes. Are is too much detail being looked at? Probably yes. But that's because of technology. Are people expecting quicker responses? Of course they are, because we have mobile phones and we have email and we have handheld devices which were never there when I started in 1990. You know, those things never existed when I was working at Condi Nas. Now there's this pressure. So I think going back to what you're saying about you know people wanting things, technology is a burden and I think it's a gift. You know, it allows a brand to communicate globally, to sell globally. But for a consumer, also, there's a there's a tyranny of choice. There's too many choices, there's too many things.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

Oh, we don't need too much of a we don't need passion fruit, shower gel.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

No, but but think about all that. I mean, you think about the GDPR thing last month, right? How many emails did you get from brands? Oh god, yeah, yeah, dozen. You know what I mean? So you're being constantly bombarded by that. So if anything, GDPR was almost aware of resetting that, but it's a tyranny of choice, there's too much choice, which takes us back to Marx Suspense as an house of Fraser. You've got to have a point of difference, or you just don't cut through the choice.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Well, um, listen, Dominic, it was great talking to you. Um I I did want to actually tap onto Brexit very quickly. I know you can say the word Brexit and then it can just open the floodgates. But I was curious to know how Brexit has affected um some of your your fashion houses that you look after, like New and Ligwood and Richard Adamson. Because if I can just tell you I was speaking to David Mason a month or so back who runs Mason and Sons. Yeah. And he said that the Brexit has actually had a very positive impact on his business because with the weaker pound, people in America are now just buying more and more stuff from him and exploiting the weaker pound. Has that kind of resonated across some of the pluses and minuses?

SPEAKER_00 25:57

So the pluses and minuses are the pluses are weaker pound, more tourists, um, more spending in London. Um certainly the luxury watch market doubled their sales straight after Brexit. Everything had to be repriced because suddenly the watches were, you know, people were piling into London and Regent Street to buy watches. So, yes, inbound money from tourists, that's fantastic. We at a business level, we're actually seeing uh European brands uh coming to market in the UK, dipping their toes in the water because it's now cheaper to do that. Uh the negative side of that is um cost of goods. So if you're a uh clothing manufacturer and you're manufacturing Italy or you're manufacturing Turkey, suddenly your margins being eroded by the fact that the um you know the pound is weaker. So there's pluses and minuses there. Uh where it will all net out, I have no idea. Uh, I think we need to see what's going to happen with Brexit. If it's a soft Brexit, you know, then we've only shot ourselves in one foot. If it's a hard Brexit, we've shot ourselves in both feet and in the head.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

Yeah. I mean, it's it's not just Brexit also that we're contending with at the minute, it's the Trump tariffs, right? So, like, for example, we mentioned the whiskey earlier. There's about 25%. That worries me.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

I know, right? Um, because we're looking at, you know, they've slap tariff on our still, we slap it on their bourbon in the Harley Davidson's, right? They come back and they hit the whiskey. Will it all blow over? I think it probably will when the adults get into the room and a deal is done. I think a lot of it is rhetoric, a lot of it is noise. But when the when the people meet in the in the dusty and cloudy back rooms, you know, cigar-filled rooms, they'll sort that out and there'll be a um there'll be a resolution of that. But remember that under Trump, and it's not down to Trump, it's down to the cyclic economic cycles of the world. America, the Dow Jones is at a record high. Americans have never been won't see it.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Dominic McCarthy there from ANM Comms. Thank you, Dominic, and now it's time to speak to the editor at large, the menswear style, Beck Loads. I'd like to introduce to the podcast Beck Lodes. Beck Lodes, the editor at large for Men's Wear Style. How are you doing today, Bex?

SPEAKER_04 28:14

I'm good, thank you. Yeah, how about you?

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Oh, I'm flying. So, Bex, I've got to say this is probably the the favourite, my favourite part of the show. Getting you on because you do all the heavy lifting, you do all the research.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

I try.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

You do, and uh, I can just kick back and you know, this is like the the proper the authority comes on the show and tells everyone what's going on. So um, big news. Well, I guess the main theme of this week, we've just been talking to Dominic McCarthy from AM Comms uh about London Fashion Week and the catwalk. Did you get a chance to go?

SPEAKER_04 28:50

I didn't go actually this year. Um no, unfortunately I was a little bit hectic, and um yeah, I think it's it's London Fashion Week is an interesting one. I think uh if you've been going for a few years, sometimes you sort of wonder about dipping in and out. It's quite a crazy atmosphere, and it's it's changed it's changed a little bit with some shows about sort of a bit of preferential treatment with some people, but um yeah, it's a fascinating if you haven't been any listeners out there who haven't been, it's a it's a great place to go and see people in their prime walking around in their you know best put together outfits and things like that. So and obviously seeing new designers, up and coming designers and new collections. So that's exciting, it's exciting stuff.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah, and it's really good that it's happening in Jermaine Street because so uh there's what do you call it, the catwalk, the ready to buy. Now they've been doing it for about four years, as you know, we were just talking with Rick uh Dominic. And Savile Row is just a mess at the minute because of all the road works they're extending in the the pedestrian area, and it just looks sort of a write-off, and it has done since February. So, you know, it's good for menswear that something like this is still happening in Germain Street, because otherwise, you know, it's just not a great representation of fashion, I don't think, at the moment. So it's it's great that it's happening there. And especially down at St.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

James, they've got so much going on there now. It's a great hub. Um, obviously they've got Dover Street as well. The new Dover Street, well, not that new the Dover Street Market and things like that. So there's a lot of great brands down there.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

So yeah, absolutely. And um, did you see I sent you uh an article that I did on my site actually, because I was out and about with a camera just uh being nosy, taking a load of pictures. No one wanted to take a picture of me.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

Oh no, there you go, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

But oh, actually, David from Grey Fox blog wanted to take a picture with me, which was really sweet. Um, even though actually I don't know if I was invited into the picture, he was talking to Robin from Dandy Dad, the Dandy Dad blog. Lovely. And they came in for a selfie, and I think because I was within earshot, David felt a little bit like, oh come on in, Pete. And I just went, yeah! And then I got in front. Yeah, fucking hell. Um so that was sweet, but then uh other than that, but I got a few pictures of everyone else looking very good.

SPEAKER_04 31:17

Richard you got some great photos. I know.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Well, uh you know, if I don't say so myself, right? And they're really good. It's I've got my girlfriend's telescopic camera, so there I was, you know, nicely tucked away in the crowd, taking sneaky pictures. Got one of Jim Chapman who was on last week.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

Yeah, that was great, really good photo. He didn't he reused it on his Instagram. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

What a hero, right? Love Jim. And I um oh, I got to got to meet him and speak to him, right? So I was walking down the street and I could hear a couple of people behind me, and I looked around, and there was Darren Kennedy, also he's a former guest on the show, and he was talking to Jim Chapman. I thought, oh okay, I'm here I am on the same street. I could just position myself. So I started slowing down my walk, pretending to look into a few windows, etc.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Oh, I loved it.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

And and then pounced like like a one of them dinosaurs. Yeah, that's the one, that's the one. And startled poor Jim. Jim! And he was like, whoa, where the f where the fuck did this guy come from? Um but that was cool, so I got to meet him, he was really sweet. And what was I talking about before I started going on about that? But yeah, just uh um yeah, the the start the guys that were wearing some really good cool standout pieces. I thought David Gandhi was wearing a great green field jacket from PVC Wise. No, he's just on the money, isn't he? Um what do you think about David Gandhi?

SPEAKER_04 32:51

Well, I think whoever is I I actually don't know who his stylist is, I should know, but um yeah, they they do a good job. He always looks smart, um, and I think he never goes like too crazy, but I think he always dips in and out of like something that's up and coming. Like a lot of linen is gonna be featured in suiting and things like that. So he was wearing a nice uh linen jacket, wasn't he?

SPEAKER_01 33:15

So yeah. Um Well, this is the thing. My girlfriend can't see the the big fuss, the big hoo-ha.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

Really?

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Um but then she's going out with me, which is kind of like a weird frame of reference, right? So I could be I'm David Gandhi in her eyes. That's awesome, right?

SPEAKER_04 33:36

I think of course.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

And David Gandhi is me in her eyes.

SPEAKER_04 33:40

Yes. But yeah, some people they're not so sure. Some people think he's a bit sort of too sort of out. He's very sort of chiseled and he's got a very distinct look. But um, I think he's a very good looking guy. I think he he always looks smart, he's so um dress-wise, he looks very good.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Um he's an absolute Adonis, and basically um I w I won't tell I won't give any names away in this podcast, but although I just dropped Jim Chapman and Darren Kennedy in it. But uh I was on the red carpet and there was David in the background, and I thought, oh, maybe if I position myself here, I could uh catch Gandhi on the way out. And all the other bloggers were doing the same thing. So there and I was I was talking to uh a friend and I said, Oh, you know what you're up to. Oh, there's David over there. He goes, Yeah, yeah, I'm positioning. He goes, I'm in the queue for Gandhi. And then he gave he gave me his camera, right? And he goes, Uh, you know, just wait here, you know. When he comes along, can you get the picture? I was like, Okay, alright, no problem. I understand how it works. Um I was waiting for about five minutes and I just said, I said, mate, I've got to get on with my life.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

You know, I can't I can't just wait around.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Yeah, you're waiting for get you with Gandhi. So anyway, I gave him his camera back, made an excuse and got out of there.

SPEAKER_04 35:03

You took a great picture of um the Chinese actor Hugh Bing. I did not, he's 47. Sorry, but he looks incredible.

SPEAKER_01 35:12

Yeah, he could pass for a 20.

SPEAKER_04 35:14

Yeah, but I was like, what? Really? He's been modelling for 20 years. So do you know what?

SPEAKER_01 35:19

He uh do you know what he does? It I realize this, it's sunglasses. If um if you wear sunglasses, you can get away with being that's why that's Bono's secret. Bono's been faking this eye injury for so long that he's like, I can be 65 and no one's gonna ever guess.

SPEAKER_04 35:38

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

If you've got the crow's feet or the the the the bad Botox, then you know it's a lot harder to guess the age. What's going on at the moment? I guess it's the end of Pity, right? They're all wrapping up and going on to Milan, or that's what you haven't.

SPEAKER_04 35:50

So everyone's moving off to Milan now, but um Pity looked great. Apparently, there weren't so many uh people in crazy outfits walking around. But I have never been to Pity, but I'd love to go and see that apparently men spend more time taking pictures of themselves and their male friends than anything else, apparently. Um but there's some I think uh Craig Green was he was one of the guest designers this year at Pity. Um and he actually teamed up with Nike. Um, so there was some cool stuff from him, some interesting shoes coming out, and um some knitwear that they use the same materials they do with the fly knit. So um yeah, some interesting stuff, a lot of like travel inspo um uh designs as well from other people like cars, um, and a lot of uh sustainable uh um fashion designs going on as well. Um a lot of eco-friendly leathers and um shoes and things like that. Um yeah, it's quite interesting. Um still at the forefront of a lot of people, I think.

SPEAKER_01 36:57

Yeah, no, it's uh it's a massive thing at the moment. I noticed that Richard Bedull's just got a new collaboration out with King Tuckfield, and they've the the message of the brand is that you know people are buying £20, £30 jackets and they're just going through them like wildfire. And I think it's Stacey Stacy Wood, who's a designer, um, said, Look, you know, our parents now, grandparents used to have clothes and they used to cherish them, they would actually hand them down. Um you know, when was the last time you handed anything down apart from to the charity shop, right?

SPEAKER_04 37:28

So true, so true.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

So you should check out that collection anyway. Uh if people are listening, it's King and Tuckfield. They've got um Richard Bedew. Richard Bedew, is that how you say it?

SPEAKER_04 37:38

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

The smoking man. He just looks so good smoking.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

Yeah, he definitely you can tell, he's got that face for it.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Yeah, I've seen him in the middle of the street, and he's on Instagram smoking as well, so he's not he doesn't give a crap. So, yeah, but you're right, the the sustainability factor is just resonating everywhere. It's still and good. I just hope it doesn't go away until we actually sort it out.

SPEAKER_04 38:00

Yeah, I I agree, I think it's a great thing, and Christopher Roban, he was doing it again as well, which he normally does, but again, this time he sort of teamed up with NASA and he had uh like um images of the melting ice caps around you know, that's going on at the moment, um, on shirts and shorts and caps, and um he's teamed up with Timberland for footwear, and so yeah, again, very much like looking towards like acting now and and helping the environment and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

So I mean it's good because look, you're not gonna get the plastic out of the ocean, right? It's not gonna happen. You're just not gonna get rid of it, it's there, but you can stop throwing more crap into it, right? That's the idea.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

Definitely. I think more and more people, I think actually just recently, more people are taking notice. Like um I didn't you see a lot of it on the front cover of magazines or in newspapers, you know, a lot of adverts looking at um like Adidas again with their parlay. Um that was on the the cover of uh I think it was the evening standard the other not the evening standard, just the newspaper, the metro I think or something. They just used a plastic cover. It was quite quite interesting. You can see people looking at it and and hopefully people actually doing something about it. That's the main thing, not just thinking about it, actually doing something.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

I think if you play on people's consciousness or just hammer the message home, then they'll just they'll just have to start doing it just to shut everyone else up around. Um but you're right about the the pity thing with just dudes taking pictures of dudes and their mates. Now there are some people that I follow that are doing it well, um and it the other people that are doing it just infuriate the hell out of me, to be honest with you. And I'll tell you why, and it's not born out of jealousy because I'm sat in a squalid flat somewhere in Bethnal Green, and they're out in Florence eating the best goddamn pizza that anyway. It's all because they go up to products and brands and just say, This looks sharp, this looks good, this looks sharp, look at this cotton sharp like they you it's clear that they know fuck all about that product or or that brand. Um, and you're right, it's just all about getting their picture taken with that brand. And I'm not learning, I don't know why I follow them to be honest with you, because they're I guess most of them are mates, and like I said, I'm you know, bitterly jealous that they're out there and not me, but that's half the course, isn't it? But it would be a lot, it would be very helpful if people could actually just start, you know, instead of using social media as a platform to brag about what they're doing and where they are, to actually use it as some kind of informational channel where we can actually learn about the brands that they're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 40:43

Oh, where's that from, or who's wearing that, and things like that. And yet you have to go and Google it or search through something, or it'd be nice if it's just there, you know, and people actually properly research and say, Yeah, this is what I'm wearing, or this person is from here, or yeah, it'd just be nice to do that.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

This looks sharp.

unknown 41:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Everything sharp, everything's sharp. Dangerous place out there in Pity at the minute. Lots of sharp things going around.

SPEAKER_04 41:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

I sound really bitter, don't I? I am bitter. I am bitter.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

We're not bitter, we're not bitter, it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Well, look, good luck to the guys in Pity off to Milan now. Um, where does it end? Is it New York? New York Fashion Week, or is that yes?

SPEAKER_04 41:26

Uh hold on. What about Paris? Um, actually, I'm not sure. I'm not sure of the schedule, actually. Should we look that up? Um but yeah, we just sat thinking about. But um, yeah, there's lots there's lots more to come. And um, but there was a lot of great stuff at London Fashion Week. I mean, you know, there are downsides to it, but there's also some really great stuff. I think Oliver Spencer was one of my favourites actually. I thought it was a great show. Um that was really cool. Um, so it continues to do well, and and it's great that we've got a lot of uh you know great um British brands um who are doing really well in the fashion world.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

So yeah, it's good to see them out there as well because they obviously have to pay for I I think it will cost a small fortune to go out there and set up a stage.

SPEAKER_04 42:09

Oh, most definitely, because a lot of people I think you know now have to go into doing presentations, which are gonna great, but there's nothing kind of beats seeing an actual live show. Um, but yeah, it costs a fortune. Absolute fortune.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

Thank you, Beck Loads, and thank you for listening. That's the end of the show. Thank you to Dominic McCarthy from AM Comms for coming on. Do check out their website and check out St. James in general, because if you're coming to London from out of town, you'll find some great restaurants, art galleries, fashion houses, it's all there. We're over on iTunes, so make sure you subscribe, leave a review, like I said, if you like what you hear. And until next month, remember it's only fashion people, and you're never fully dressed without a smile!