London Collections Men AW14, Savile Row Bespoke: The Cabinet War-Rooms

For the second piece in this series of commentaries on the latest 'London Collections: Men' showcases, we come to an exploration of Savile Row's own presentation, representing what will be the Row's likely aesthetic take on tailoring for Autumn/Winter 2014. The presentation was artfully staged within another iconic symbol of Britain, The Cabinet War Rooms. The backdrop provided the perfect place for Savile Row to present an extensive selection of each house's bespoke garments in an ambitious event that must have surely taken months of planning and preparation, simply to design and create the tailoring on display.

This season's presentation sported a heavy 1940s influence (again making the War Rooms the perfect location) with heavy-weight flannels and tweeds woven with mossy, earthy and sombre colour tones running throughout the collection. Patterns and stripes were kept simple, and textured donegal tweeds, micro checks or plain twills dominated. Suiting sat alongside lots of crisp white shirting with classic cut collars (reflecting the fact that coloured shirting was minimal in the 1940s and the cut-away collar was largely yet to make an appearance) sober, sartorial ties and equally sober cuts of suit. All in all, the outfits on display felt reassuringly tough and wintery, bringing a sense of 40s austerity to Savile Row's elegant style. There was lots of structure and heavy amounts of canvassing in evidence (as you'd expect of Savile Row's approach to winter-weight suiting) as well as a number of full-cut overcoats and lots of strong, straight notched lapels.

It is difficult to analyse the Savile Row showcase like I might others, simply because each of the pieces on display has been cut by a different tailoring house, using their own house cut, and preferred methods of construction. There are no set cuts, silhouettes, prevailing aesthetics or construction techniques which unite the work on display. Instead, the tailors are told to prepare a selection of work for the show, to their own individual specifications, taking inspiration from a 1940s theme. What is in evidence though, is the beautiful fullness of balance and structure that only an expertly crafted British bespoke suit provides; photos like the one beneath reveal the perfect silhouette, sculpted lapel, shoulder, skirt and waist inherent to the handmade and cut Savile Row garment.

All this is of course elementary, and it is also a simple fact that this presentation showcases the finest tailoring that Savile Row can produce; the quality of the clothing is self-evident. To my mind, what is most important about Savile Row's participation in LCM, is that not only the clothes themselves are on display but the fact that all the major houses in Savile Row come together in one place, to represent (with considerable force) the Row itself.

I have written at length on Mensflair, about the dangers that lie ahead if Savile Row fails to modernise and publicise itself, and I am pleased to say that the en-masse embracing of events like LCM, provides a rare occasion when Savile Row shoes what it can really do. With this presentation, Savile Row presents a remarkably powerful image of British tailoring craftsmanship, quality and style; it becomes a far more attractive proposition to potential customers, and far more of a threat to the big off-the-peg brand names than it otherwise seems.

Savile Row's recent decision to participate in LCM over the last few years, has helped to firmly establish the Row's dominance in the global luxury tailoring industry, and it is also slowly helping to establish a stronger brand identity for those tailors who want to start marketing themselves as the creators of a more relevant, contemporary or fashionable product. As ever, this LCM presentation indicates the sartorial power of Savile Row tailoring, and acts as a welcome reinforcement of the quality and style that Savile Row emanates.