For your reading and viewing pleasure we present the first in a series looking back at highlights from the first year of
The Classicist, the weekly column devoted to timeless style, enduring elegance, and true, built-to-last luxury as opposed to mere extravagance. For our first installment we present the best of
Men's Style, from
Savile Row to
Italy and
New York and back again, with
suits, jackets, cashmere, shoes, accessories and everything in between. These are not the sort of things that ever really go out of fashion, so if you haven't already added to your wardrobe with some of these staples it's not too late.
1.
Anderson & Sheppard of Savile Row
Savile Row stalwart
Anderson & Sheppard, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, is steeped in tradition, to say the least. Yet while other old-fashioned bastions of upper-class masculine British taste have been sold off or hideously modernized, A&S has managed to adapt and survive. The firm not only outfitted the great
Fred Astaire - perhaps the best dressed man the modern world has ever known - but also Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, authors
Evelyn Waugh and Somerset Maugham,
Gary Cooper, Noel Coward, Sir Laurence Olivier, Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Duke Ellington.
2.
David Chu Bespoke
In New York City,
David Chu, founder of the Nautica brand, operates an ultra-chic
Bespoke shop at his gorgeous Townhouse in
Gramercy Park. "The bespoke experience is about understated elegance," Chu told The Classicist. David Chu Bespoke "blends the best of Savile Row and Neapolitan tailoring, marrying craftsmanship with modernity." Garments are hand-cut and stitched by a master tailor based in
Naples. A gentleman can order anything he requires to be custom made, from suits, overcoats, tuxedos, and sport jackets to trousers, shoes, scarves, and 12-fold ties.
3.
Dunhill's Timeless Classics
In times of economic uncertainty luxury consumers looks to timeless classics they know will hold their value and last for years as opposed to flash-in-the-pan trends and glitzy impulse buys. We think that
London-based men's clothier and luxury goods firm
Dunhill, which dates back to the 1890s, is well situated to weather the storm in similar style thanks to their espousal of these same values. That's a very good thing as the company recently opened two new flagship stores, in
New York City and London. The 7,000-sq.-ft. NYC store (above), on the corner of Madison and 55th, replaces the old shop at 711 Fifth Avenue.
4.
Duncan Quinn - The Coolest
Quinn , who makes some of the world's coolest suits, isn't exactly a tailor, though "designer" doesn't really capture it either. So how would he put it? "I simply have a strong view and an aesthetic to go with that view," he told The Classicist, "which encompasses the cars, wine, sailboats, cocktails and croquet." Sounds good to us. The dashing London-born former lawyer makes
Savile Row-style clothes "constructed to celebrate days of glory and nights of excess." He opened his first shop in
New York in 2003, and along the way he's attracted quite a following of well-dressed fellows, "gentleman rogues" who ascribe to the Quinn aesthetic.
5.
Loro Piana Luxe
Italian luxury label
Loro Piana makes the most comfortable, classic, stylish and subtly luxurious clothes we've ever had the pleasure of putting on. World-famous for their
cashmere, the 200-year-old company, which began as a
textile merchant, has also branched out into other areas (including accessories and women's clothing) in more recent years with equal success. Loro Piana's motto has it that true luxury is "knowing, not showing," i.e. dressing for yourself, not to impress others. It's "an inner satisfaction that comes from an aesthetic, intellectual, tactile pleasure, stemming from tradition, research and genuine quality." What could be better than that?
Continued after the jump.
