BRITI SH MENSWEAR a modern retelling


Despite being a pairing that’s often over- shadowed, men and fashion have extensive history when it comes to British culture. Te three-piece suit was conceived by Charles II in 1666 London, while Beau Brummell, with his tailored tailcoats and pantaloons in the 19th century, is cited as the original dandy and style icon. Te trench coat was popularised through Burberry from the beginning of the 20th century (the forerunner to that being out- erwear for expeditions to Antarctica), while everyday classics such as the Stan Smith trainers and Fred Perry polo take their names from English tennis players. Subcultures too are an intrinsic part of


British style, whether it’s the Teddy Boys of the 1950s (subverting the suit to become the uniform of working class youth), or 1980s’ goths (bonding in their Batcave, a DIY club in Soho). Tey span across musical genres, cities and classes but all have one primary motive: to disrupt conventions and be a bonded form of self- expression. But like with a lot of things, the stereo- type tends to hark back to tradition: a tai- lored suit in sombre shades worn with a


4 FOCUS The Magazine May/June 2019


shirt, tie and polished shoes - a look that on weekends in the country is replaced with a Barbour jacket and tweed cap. Today, Savile Row still maintains pride of place in London with its bespoke tailor- ing but there’s also so much more that ac- curately represents men’s dress. Like with womenswear, there are the different styles that define approaches to design, be it smart, subversive, playful or sporty.


Tere’s also the changing notion of how to define gendered dress. As Jay McCauley Bowstead, author and lecturer at London College of Fashion, states in his 2018 book Menswear Revolution: Te Transformation of Contemporary Men’s Fashion: “designers from the turn of the millennium to the present day have used menswear to ad- vance a form of ‘reverse discourse’: chal- lenging the values of orthodox masculinity by reclaiming and reframing qualities such as fragility, sensitivity, and sensuality as positive and desirable”. With all of this taken into consideration, here’s a guide to the what and who defining menswear in Britain today.


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