Journal
King & Allen bring you all the very best style advice, news and ‘tailored’ articles. If you have a question that you’d like to see answered on our blog, send us an email to [email protected].
King & Allen Style Predictions 2015
London. Paris. Milan. The three main men’s fashions weeks of the year all took place in January, and we’ve kept an extra close eye on the catwalks in order to provide you with the most relevant Style Predictions a King & Allen customer could wish for. But as well as looking to the catwalks for inspiration, we also analyse the buying habits of hundreds of K&A customers – and see what trends we should expect in the suiting world based on our own customer’s requests.
Style Tips & Advice
The King & Allen guide to Tweed
This week’s guest blogger is Mary-Cait, who is a consultant at our Northern Tailoring centre in Wilmslow. Being so much closer to Scotland than us soft southerners, she is in a far better position to tell us about one the UK’s most charismatic cloths – Tweed.
Style Tips & Advice
The Suits from ‘Kingsman’
January 2015 saw the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service. This action/comedy is about a fictional Savile Row tailor that secretly houses the headquarters of an elite spy force.
Celebrity Style
Layering up for winter…
This week’s guest blogger is Lorna Thompson – a tailoring consultant at our Liverpool Street store. She’s going to help us beat the winter blues through keeping warm and dressing with style…
Style Tips & AdviceHow to wear a power suit like Michael Corleone in The Godfather Pt II
This month “the greatest sequel of all time”, The Godfather Pt II, will be 40 years old. But rather than waxing lyrical on the inevitable release of the digitally enhanced 5.1 commemorative blue ray edition of the cinematic classic, we thought we’d focus on the Michael Corleone’s suits…
Celebrity Style
Jason Manford’s Guide to Dressing for a Wedding
Recently the stand-up comedian Jason Mansford posted a rather funny homage to the life cycle of a wedding suit on his Facebook page. We thought we’d share it with you. Here’s Jason’s post: When trying on a wedding suit in a changing room you have to prepare it for all the evening’s eventualities!
Celebrity Style
The History of the Suit Jacket
Practical, comfortable, smart and flattering, no other garment has impacted menswear quite like the humble suit jacket. In the following article we trace the steps of this hugely important garment, from the work attire of 15th century peasant farmers to the two buttoned, single breasted style icon that hangs in your wardrobe…
Style History
Overcoat Season is here again
The weather has turned, the nights are drawing in, and October will soon be upon us. It’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to protect yourself (and your suits!) from the elements this winter. Thankfully, overcoats have never come in more styles, cloths and colours than they do today and thanks to a change in overcoat fashion over the last couple of years it is now perfectly acceptable to break away from the classic blues, blacks and greys – even for a business suit.
Style Tips & Advice
Icon of the Month – Jude Law
Jude Law first came to the attention of King & Allen in The Talented Mr Ripley – in which his character Dickie Greenleaf wears some of the best ‘Riviera Style’ ever committed to celluloid. Since then he has gone on to play a number of dapper roles including Alfie Elkins (Alfie), Dr. Watson (Sherlock Holmes) and most recently in the title role of Dom Hemingway.
Celebrity Style
Accessories – the magic number
Pocket squares, tie pins, collar bars, cravats, tie bars… suit accessories have never been more popular. And understandably so: a well-chosen blend of accessories can turn a standard suit into a sartorial masterpiece. But if you take it too far you’re trying too hard and you could ruin all that effort. The crucial thing is to strike a balance, and the magic number to ensure accessorising harmony is, as De La Soul so famously put it, 3. However, this magic number only works if one of your three is your tie or (coloured) socks. If you’re not wearing either of these the number falls to 2.
Style Tips & Advice
Myth busting – The truth about the ‘Super’ number
The ‘Super’ rating on cloth refers to the width of the fibre in microns. It is therefore an indicator (but by no means a measure) of quality and performance. The finer the wool is spun the thinner it is in microns and the higher the Super number – indicating that it will feel very soft. However, the high number also indicates that the cloth will be more delicate and therefore require more care be taken when wearing.
Style Tips & AdviceIcon of the Month – Idris Elba
Idris Elba deserves Icon status on the strength of this photograph alone. At 6ft, 3” he pulls off this double-breasted suit perfectly, reaffirming what we’ve said many times before in The Stitch – that if you’re tall and well built a double-breasted suit is definitely worth considering.
Celebrity Style
Take a tour of our latest showrooms
The wonders of modern technology! Thanks to the clever folks at Google you can now take a full tour of our Liverpool Street and Amersham showrooms from the comfort of your computer! So if you haven’t been to our latest two stores recently, or if you live too far away to visit them, now’s your chance to take a sneaky peak. Unfortunately you can’t feel the fabrics, or hear the tailors beavering away – but it’s the closest to the real experience you’ll get without leaving the house… Tour the Liverpool Street showroom. Tour the Amersham showroom.
King & Allen News
King & Allen celebrates – The Henley Regatta
King & Allen have always kept a close eye on the development of mens summer style – in particular through the sporting social calendar – and it’s been great to watch how the gentleman guests have embraced the dress code with increased relish over the years. This year’s Henley Regatta, in particular, was an opportunity for the gents to show a bit of daring in the way they dress. Across the length and breadth of the river you’ll see a flourish of pocket squares, an array of colourful bow ties, fabulous socks, boaters, braces and of course the wonderfully coloured rowing blazers. Henley attire is not overtly stylish, but it is fun and sometimes having fun is what it’s all about.
Style Tips & Advice
Icon of the Month – Edward VIII: The Prince Charming
It’s interesting to note that the ‘best dressed Englishman of all time’ was also one of the most decadent and controversial. Coincidence? Unlikely… From the playboy antics to the nazi sympathy and bisexuality rumours, the Duke of Windsor was never far from the headlines. Like him or loath him, no one can deny that he was a snappy dresser. Indeed his wardrobe is the stuff of legend. Rumours include:
Celebrity Style
King & Allen ‘Icon’ Special – The Suits of Salvador Dali
One of our favourite smaller stories of this month was about a man called Tomeu L’Amo who spent 25 years proving that an artwork he bought in an antiques store for €150 was a Salvadore Dali original. Dali’s dressing style was almost as original, flamboyant and creative as his art. As well as his trademark chalk stripe double breasted suits (complete with pocket square), he was a huge fan of bright colours and rich, extravagant cloths such as velvet, silk and tweed.
Celebrity Style
Cloth, Construction and Colour – The 3 C’s that will keep you cool this summer.
You don’t need us to point out that May had some scorchingly hot days. If you’re a commuter, or you got married, you could probably recount each and every one of them – for polar opposite reasons! It’s not too late to prepare for the summer heat, and below is the King & Allen guide to the 3 C’s that will stop you sizzling this summer: Cloth, Construction and Colour.
Style Tips & Advice