Fewer, Finer

In a fashion world that’s increasingly unsustainable, these menswear brands prove that integrity is always in style.

- EMILIE HAWTIN

SUSTAINING THINGS over time is one of life’s great joys: relationships, good health, suit measurements. Now more than ever is the time to reflect on what we have and maintain fewer, better things. The most admired chefs of our time, from Alice Waters to Eric Ripert to Dan Barber, compose seemingly simple dishes of impeccably sourced food that support an entire ecosystem. An indulgent meal at Barber’s flagship restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns captures this perfectly: It’s natural food on the highest level, sourced from the farm that is right outside.

We pay increasing amounts of attention to the sourcing of our food, but what about our attire? The ethos of farm-to-table dining mirrors one that is generations old but still practised by a coterie of designers, tailors, and fabric mills who are fighting the good fight against the problematic manufacturing of fast fashion. These brands achieve sustainable style in its truest form: with respect for everyone, and everything, in the process. Aesthetics are at their height. Integrity is a given. And while sport coats, cashmere knits, bomber jackets, and made-to-measure trousers may be unassuming contenders for the future of clothing, many pioneering small brands around the world are quietly redefining it.

Having a cup of tea with the people you make clothes with is very important to Mike Stoll. So is driving to see them. These are two of the reasons why the fabric mills he’s worked with over his 48 years of developing his impressively elegant brand, Private White V.C., are no more than 30 minutes away. Before that, his father and grandfather were doing the same thing. So was the grandfather of James Eden, Stoll’s business partner, who, Stoll says, focusses on the more “glamorous side of things”.