Tailored Suits, The Requirement Of Latest Fashion

Forget jeans and jumpers. Chic, sharply tailored suits are now de rigueur for fashion-forward Millennials, writes Gemma Soames

- Gemma Soames

A three-piece suit, a herringbone overcoat, bespoke Italian shoes and a pocket square—they’re not things you’d immediately associate with the wardrobe of a hip twenty- or thirty-something. Yet given the looks being sported by men on the catwalks, red carpets and pavements around the world, it’s clearly time for a rethink. When it comes to fashion for today’s modern gentleman, traditional tailoring and all-round snappy dressing is having a massive moment.

It’s a sea change that has been happening for a while. “For 15 odd years, we’ve had a resurgence in tailored men’s clothes,” explains Patrick Grant, the extremely well-turned-out director of Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons and ready-to-wear fashion label E Tautz, and a general poster boy for this generation. “We’ve seen young guys wearing three-piece and double-breasted suits, and a huge resurgence in things like bow ties and pocket handkerchiefs. Natty dressing has come back in a big way. Ultimately, we need to feel good in our clothes; that’s why we spend a lot of money on them. And tailored clothes always make people look as good as they can. Girls can go out with a guy for forever and a day, and then suddenly see them in a suit and say, ‘Oh my God!’ Suits are just very chic and elegant—they’re transformative.”

The surge in popularity of heritage brands such as Burberry and Alfred Dunhill, the investment in and reinvigoration of Savile Row stalwarts such as Gieves & Hawkes and Kilgour, and the emergence of newer labels steeped in this aesthetic such as E Tautz and Thom Sweeney, all speak to this new way of dressing—one that’s as smart and sophisticated as it is where it’s at. Gone are the days when it was cool to turn up to your latest movie premiere in jeans; now it’s all about the cut of your suit and the styling of your pocket square.