NEW COLLECTION
IEVES AND HAWKES STANDS SENTINEL ON the corner of avile Row, gatekeeper to the home of men’s tailoring, with a history stretching back to 1771 across nine monarchs to the reign of George III. An intimidating and impressive place to be, one imagines, not that John Harrison, the recently-installed creative director, is showing any signs of nerves when I meet him to hear about working at such an iconic address. One advantage John has is that he is actually returning to Gieves and Hawkes, having spent some years there at the beginning of the century, and he is clearly delighted to be back. “I’m totally excited about the challenges ahead. I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” he says without delay. “I’ve always loved it here. It’s an amazing company and I’ve got a lot of heart and passion for the brand. To have been involved with the company in one of its generations and then to come back in another is quite rewarding. It’s a big responsibility as much as a big challenge.”
So, in the 15 or so years you have been away,
John,
what have been the main changes? He says: “When I was here before, we offered a lot of jackets, a lot of suits, a lot of ties. It had more of a gentleman’s outfitter feel as opposed to the more blended lifestyle feel we have now. New technology allows us to work on the tailored product that we offer; to work with newer fabrics, better interlinings, things like that. We are able to offer much more comfort within the suitings and we have a much more lightweight structure coming out next spring.” Before we get to that, though, John is keen to highlight what we can expect to see in the soon- to-be unveiled autumn/winter collection. With photoshoots taking place down in Dorset as well as
Urban warriors: AW18
positions Gieves in a modern environment
at the uber cool Nobu Hotel in London’s Shoreditch, the imagery is as impressive as you’d expect. “We are quite into consistency and stability,” explains John. “For the winter collection, we used a very modernist house on the Dorset coast as well as The Cobb at Lyme Regis Harbour. We wanted to show our clothes in environments where they are used. We had this vision of a journey of someone who needed our clothes - someone who might spend the weekend down in Dorset but returned to work in London during the week. That gave us a framework. We used The Cobb which was good for outerwear. For the more formal side of things, we came back to Nobu in Shoreditch. Dorset is very English, The Cobb has an elegant symmetry to it and Nobu is very modern. We wanted to be in a modern arena with a contemporary backdrop. For Gieves and Hawkes it’s very easy to get sucked into tradition and you end up putting the clothes in an old, historic house and I was keen to make it more modern. “The key message is to put the collection into a much more modern and contemporary environment. We don’t have to push the company’s heritage into our customers’ faces; little touches, little nods to where it came from are all very good but I don’t believe people want to be immersed in heritage all the time. It makes the experience feel quite old fashioned. They can remember the heritage of the brand but the garments need to be applicable to modern tastes.” Although John has been back at No 1, Savile Row for little more than a year, it is clear he is at the heartbeat of this creative company. “I’m a big believer in taking advice
and through talking with people,”
things he
says. “But it’s not my name on the building, it’s Gieves and Hawkes. Without becoming too committee driven, there is a tight unit that drives us. We plan things. We’ll put down quite a few scenarios and then pick what we think is right. And we’ll plan it so that next spring/summer we
Relaxed styling: the AW18 collection tweaks the talior’s heritage
are not suddenly jumping to another feeling so there is continuity. When you open a magazine or look at the web, I want our pictures to be recognised as a Gieves picture. As you can clearly see a Tom Ford picture or a Gucci picture, we want to have the same feeling.” So, what does he particularly like about the winter
SAVILE ROW STYLE MAGAZINE 31
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