Midtown gets a dose of British class with a new Ettinger residency opening this fall. Taking over the historic Turnbull & Asser Townhouse, the British tailoring label’s premiere Manhattan outpost, the leather goods brand is expanding its presence with an innovative and intimate retail experience. The residency carries a wide assortment of Ettinger’s signature leather accessories, including its wallets and luggage range, while serving as the site for the label’s first bespoke offering. Fittingly titled Ettinger Bespoke, the new in-store initiative will allow customers to personalize their own merchandise (they can choose from a selection of eight products) with on-site customization services including embroidery and embossing.
“This opportunity and the coming together of Ettinger and Turnbull & Asser in New York is undoubtedly one of our most exciting brand and retail collaborations,” Ettinger’s CEO Robert Ettinger said in a statement. “We are also delighted that Ettinger Bespoke is being offered alongside Turnbull & Asser’s bespoke services. We really see that as an exciting development for both brands as the appeal of bespoke gets ever bigger amongst our discerning customers.”
The Ettinger residency is open now at 50 E 57th St, NY 10022.
From playing with K’NEX at age 9 to handcrafting luxury glasses today, the incredibly talented Wesley Knight has perfected the art of eyewear design in an impressively short amount of time. “I have always been tactical with my hands,” says the Texas-born, 25-year-old craftsman. “At 13, I discovered building with fabrics and learned to sew and crochet. My appetite for design and creating grew with age as my hands and eye developed.”
Image: Wesley Knight.
A philosophy major in college, Knight made his first pair of glasses for a class assignment. Completely self-taught, he used a method akin to the Socratic method, which allowed the learning artist to be fully immersed in the trial and error process. “I had to ask myself the right questions,” he explains. “I knew I needed patterns, I knew I needed to cut that pattern out, I knew I needed hinges, rivets, and horn … Slowly, I began problem solving in each of these arenas, until I had a functioning horn frame.” Eventually this experimentation would develop into an expanded exploration of eyewear design. When asked about his mentors, Knight mentions woodworker Debra Crane, college advisor George Grant, and his mother as people who have helped him throughout his creative journey. “I always valued her opinion. She would tell me if what I made was not what she knew I was capable of,” Knight says specifically of his mother. “I think this is where my uncompromising standards in craft began to develop.”
Image: Wesley Knight.
After finishing school in Nashville, Tennessee, the Southern craftsman went on to establish his very own eyewear brand and quickly found success due to his unique process—which stems from the close relationship between a client and a creative—and unique pieces. Knight’s first step in his work involves an exchange of ideas and wishes from the wearer. Naturally it is a very intimate experience, but it is also his favorite and most rewarding part of the job, “My greatest joy comes from the multifaceted relationships with my clients as we create a functional object that empowers them,” he says. “I especially love hearing what inspires them because this information will help me create an even more beautiful piece.”
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My appetite for design and creating grew with age as my hands and eye developed.
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With the use of tools he created himself, Knight measures the individual’s face and ears to make a pattern, recording their facial structure specifications. He recalls his most memorable client experience being with his very first customer: “I’ll never forget the overwhelming emotions after my very first fitting with Harlin Sadler,” Knight says thinking back. “His commission spoke life into my passion and future as an artist and creator. I am forever grateful for his investment.” After discerning the needs of his customer, the young craftsman then begins the sketching stage, “I keep the room dark with the exception of my drafting desk, and usually turn on a favorite piece by Philip Glass,” he says. “Sometimes I have a shape pre-imagined in my head and other times I simply start sketching and find inspiration from the contours of my client’s face.” Once his design is approved, Knight then spends upwards of 40 hours of dedicated and detailed work cutting, assembling, and polishing the piece all while ensuring the most complimentary and comfortable frame possible.
Image: Wesley Knight.
The result is a beautiful pair of personalized glasses from the finest materials to last a lifetime with a strong water buffalo horn frame; not just a personalized pair of glasses, but a unique experience that inspires wonder and thoughts of ditching mass-produced branded frames for the lavish oddity. Glimpsing into the future, the bespoke designer sees his brand expanding beyond eyewear. He smiles, “As I grow as an artist and craftsman, I will begin to reach into new realms of inspiration.”
Quintessentially English brand, Gieves & Hawkes, gently splashed waves of Summer nostalgia for the British coastline in its Spring/Summer 2015 collection earlier this week. Tones of ocean greens, marine blues, sand, and ivory transported us from an urban location to a different world in a collection that was as expectedly sophisticated as it was luxuriously understated.
Image: Gives & Hawkes.
Of the cool palette: tailored grays were softened with bits of earthy naturals, while darker hues were given a modern edge, paired with contrasting navy. Highlighting the brand’s Savile Row precision—it is most known for its bespoke service—it is the details of technique in the SS15 collection that makes it strong, be they Gieves & Hawkes’ formal tailoring, casual knitwear, or smart pairing of a denim jacket with sand coloured chinos.
Image: Gives & Hawkes.
Nautical stripes featured on the knitted shirts and structured blazers echoed the coastal feel, while a waxed cotton Parka—a key piece for the season—and outerwear constructed from other waterproof materials appeared, also referencing the unpredictable conditions of the English Summer. Easily-slip on shoes donned the models’ feet, a reoccurring footwear theme with other LC:M brands this season, and featured weekend bags showed the flexibility and simplicity for the busy wearer. Finally, outfits were finished with linen scarves, light pocket squares, cool neckwear, and eyewear inspired by the military.
Image: Gives & Hawkes.
Through it all though, Gieves & Hawkes—true patriots to English heritage and uncompromising on quality—showed that the brand still maintains all of the eveningwear to be hand-made in Great Britain.
Named artistic director at Berluti in 2011, Alessandro Sartori’s artistic vision can be seen in the story he portrays each season, capturing the classic elegance of menswear while adding a modern twist and evoking the spirit of the brand. Here he discusses Berluti’s Grande Mesure program and emblematics shoes, as well as essentials and trends that breathe life into timeless styles.
Essential Homme: Describe your personal style.
Alessandro Ssartori: My personal style would be a blend of traditional tailoring and modernity. There is a focus on construction, quality, and a novelty of materials that have an artistic touch. The artistic touch could be with proportions, colors, fabrics, and so on.
EH: Upon joining Berluti and helping to launchready-to-wear, what are your intentions for the house?
AS: My aim is to create a full universe where the shoes are the center and the silhouette is the focus as it’s being built. Berluti has a vocabulary already and we keep building from that while we think of the existing customer and want to extend. We want to complete the style and keep the language of the house to offer ready to wear for the customers who currently buy the shoes and waited for the ready to wear collection. I also want to tie in everything from the presentation to the shoes and clothes. It is not just the presentation to showcase the products but the location, the setting, the music, and the full direction of the brand and house is part of it all. We want to embody the collection into a format, a place, a situation, an ambiance.
EH: What do you want men to feel when they wear Berluti?
AS: I want them to feel unique, special, with a lot of character while respecting their comfort and needs. I want to give a strong style, a clear identity, a sharp masculine look but at the same time not transforming the man. I want to add something different and amend their style at best.
Image: Berluti.
EH: Who, in the past or present, embodies the spirit of the Berluti man?
AS: A lot of customers, ambassadors, and friends of Berluti embody the spirit of the house. Some friends of the brand include Pierre Casiraghi, Joshua Jackson, Jeremy Irons, and Maurizio Cattelan—all very nice gentlemen. What I like about them is that they are authentic—real men in their lives wearing Berluti’s clothes, ties, and shoes. They are artists in spirit projecting character, personality, attitude while looking impeccable, trendy, and stylish in their own unique way.
EH: Tell me more about the Grande Mesure program.
AS: The project of the Grande Mesure program was always in our brand route. We do the ready to wear collections with a small, unique handmade group of tailors and boutiques. As our ready to wear collection is already at a high level, we wanted to extend the bespoke service instead of made to measure. This process engages the customer with the tailors in taking their measurements, suggestions, ideas, fabric choice, lining choice, stitching, pockets, and everything else to be made into a pattern in paper. After hand cutting and hand stitching, the garment is crafted where at least three to four fittings is needed totaling to 72 hours—if it’s a jacket as an example. The full bespoke collection includes 25 pieces and ranges from trench coats, safari jacket, sports jackets, suits, tuxedos, shirts, jeans, chinos as well as shoes. It’s an intimate stage of customization and personalization combining traditional tailoring and modern designs. This service makes Berluti the first worldwide brand that offers a full “bespoke wardrobe.”
EH: With Berluti offering a full wardrobe service from the bespoke collection, how do pieces like chinos and denim benefit the modern day man?
AS: There is a combination of factors. First is the fabric and quality used for chinos and denim. The exclusive materials mixed with the handmade construction creates a one of a kind piece tailored specifically for the customer. It’s the product for you, made for you, and designed by you. When you wear it, you feel it. The difference in proportion customized to your body is a level of magic. As denim and chinos are everyday staples, comfort and product is exactly to your fit.
Image: Berluti.
EH: Why are the “ready-to-walk” shoes in your Emblematics line indispensable to a man’s wardrobe?
AS: They are timeless styles and products representing the history and innovations of the house. The designs are classic and unique in their own way varying from the cut, color, and material. The five styles encompass the modern man’s lifestyle interchangeable from work to social settings to leisure fun during nights and weekends.
EH: Which shoe style would you recommend as a staple piece for every man?
AS: The Andy loafer in tobacco. The more you wear it, the more beautiful it becomes. As it gets older, the soft leather takes the shape and size of your foot. This style can be worn with your suit, jeans, or my personal favorite, a classic three-button suit or custom brown chinos.
EH: How do you see “trends?” And how does that affect you when designing for the next collection?
AS: As a designer, I love them. But at the same time, I like timelessness. I like to build pieces that you can blend with your wardrobe. My collection blends between the modern trends and the previous seasons while keeping in mind color, design, fit, and silhouette. I want to expand [our customer’s] options—to blend the new and classics, and for these options to last many seasons. I design for my customer and his life.
New York is in for a treat this May because one of London’s finest and most respected purveyors of bespoke dress shirts, Budd Shirts, are sending their classically trained tailor to NYC at the end of this month. James MacAuslan will be touching down in Manhattan on the 27th of May and will be taking fit sessions for New York’s stylish elite over a four day period at The Barclay Intercontinental Hotel. Only happening once or twice a year generally, if you’re after some exceptionally tailored bespoke dress shirts, you better make sure you get yourself down there on these dates (which you can find here). Though the name of Budd Shirt Makers may not be familiar to you, they’ve been around longer than some American states. They were founded in 1910 and they continue to operate from the same small West London store in which their business began over a century ago. Each shirt that Budd offer has been hand made in their UK workshop and they are one of the few remaining tailors who still have a cutting room on the premises of their shop – which you can see after the jump.
Budd are, perhaps, most famed for their bespoke shirt making process and their reputation in this field comes from the fact that each bespoke shirt from Budd is hand drafted and hand cut on their premises and will be precisely tailored to an extensive set of measurements taken beforehand. The cloths used in the Budd shirt making process are of the finest quality and they work alongside some of the world’s leading cloth manufacturers such as Thomas Mason and Acorn Fabrics of Lancashire and the Italian manufacturers of Albini and Monti. Budd Shirt Makers enjoy a world wide reputation despite the relative humbleness of their surroundings. They still operate from a single store and despite their limited street presence, see demand for their dress shirts and accessories increasing all the time. This, of course, is testament to the quality of garments that they produce and admirably showcases that if you make something of a superior quality, it will always find its audience.
If you’re going to star as Neil Caffrey in the hit-series White Collar, described as debonair, charismatic, and suave, looking like a schlub off set is probably a no go. No bother for Matt Bomer, though, who’s taking his affinity for bespoke menswear to the next level, designing and hand selecting an entire collection for Alton Lane, including tailored accessories, bespoke suiting, and shirting fabrics. If you’re not familiar with White Collar — first question being: why? — Bomer plays con man Neil Caffrey, and would you believe it, his character knows a thing or two about how to dress. In fact he’s so styling that Gilt wanted in on the action as well. And so it was. Or will be. This Tuesday, January 22nd, beginning at 12PM the “Caffrey Collection” will go on sale for 36 hours, and feature exclusive ties, bowties and pocket squares ($29-69) and the opportunity to purchase bespoke suit and shirt packages. The suit packages ($2,000-$2,995) and three shirt package ($425) will be available for seven days. Separate from the collection, but included in the sale, will be tailored apparel and accessories from like menswear brands including Thomas Pink, Mr. Brown by Duckie Brown, Hickey, and Simon Spurr. But wait, there’s actually more. Gilt will debut an exclusive editorial spread featuring Bomer in select Alton Lane products AND offer a complimentary Alton Lane custom pocket square, designed by Bomer himself, to the first 500 Gilt member who visit the sale. Make that 499, as we’ll like be first in line. Capping off the marvelousness: 10% of the sale proceeds, as well as from customers who make an additional purchase from any of Alton Lane’s stores in New York, D.C., and Boston, will go to Project A.L.S., a national organization which Bomer is closely involved, funding research for what many know as Lou Gehrig’s disease. To put this all in perspective: Matt Bomer is styling, and now you can look, err, dress like he does, at a discount (thanks Gilt!), all the while making a charitable donation. Is it Tuesday yet?
