Kilgour (Q4602)
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British bespoke tailors on Savile Row
- Kilgour & French
- Kilgour and French
- Kilgour, French & Stanbury
- Kilgour, French and Stanbury
- Kilgour Bespoke Ltd
- JMH Tailoring Limited
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Kilgour |
British bespoke tailors on Savile Row |
|
Statements
A black silk shirt in thisKilgourcollection featured two intersecting grids of differently sized white dots. Was there a relationship between the two? “Of course,” replied Carlo Brandelli. “The smaller ones are a quarter of the size of the large ones—it is about working in that proportional way.”A Vitruvian mania for the imposition of order over whim drives Brandelli’s exactitude. “I don’t like using arbitrary measures in the proportion of tailoring, because it is so exact. . . . I don’t like the way that so much design is so flimsy, and concepts are just pulled out of people’s minds. There is data to my work. I like proper ethos and theory.” His continuing mission at Kilgour is to pull down, then reconstruct some of the elements of the edifice of tailoring.When you’re fresh out of a J.W.Anderson show, though, these innovations can seem softly spoken. To up the impact at this morning’s presentation, entitled All the Work, the room was lined with around 800 cut paper pattern pieces hooked by hanger on the rails—a visual calorie count representing the amount of work put into the 150 pieces in the collection. Conversely, only a few of those pieces were featured alongside their paper prototypes.Brandelli focuses on the borderlines of his pieces; the collars, cuffs, and pockets. Instead of being folded over, his notch collars are inverted to appear as if protruding from beneath the jacket above. Pocket openings—sometimes backed with Alcantara—are also calibrated to trick the eye: The flaps are tucked inside but look as if they are not. The result is a cleaner silhouette accompanied by the detail the regarding eye expects—a stencil of the standards that this designer is interrogating. His shawl-collar overcoats in flecks-of-gray cashmere-alpaca mix and a black version that Brandelli rightly feels is as appropriate for upscale evening events as for low-key days, are paragon examples of his urge to elide the extraneous. Even the most puritan minimalist sometimes parties hard though: For him a half double-breasted jacket in gold lamé came with a collar line that zigzagged strikingly down the body. This was consistent with Brandelli’s pare-it-down priority to present meaningful minimalism for the formal dresser.
11 January 2016
If tomorrow Carlo Brandelli were to lose all his earthly possessions, including the creative directorship of Kilgour (it would be the second time he's let that go), then he'd be just fine. Beneath his tinted spectacles the designer radiates a total self-assurance that makes one think he'd do very well leading a cult. Which, to some men, is sort of what Brandelli's Kilgour is and was anyhow. Since today's outing was the first Brandelli collection for five years, here is the backstory. Brandelli started freelancing for Savile Row tailor Kilgour in 1999, then bought it with backers four years later to develop it as a brand. They sold it in 2008, but Brandelli remained captain. But after his first ready-to-wear show in Paris in 2009, the new proprietors said they wanted to go all-bespoke. Brandelli resigned, and afterward he did artistic projects, "no clothing or fashion at all," he said today. That was until January last year, when Kilgour changed hands again. The new owners, Brandelli reports, "said come back as freelance creative director and finish what you started. And I thought there was an opportunity for me to progress to be the firstcontemporarybespoke brand on Savile Row. And actually in tailoring in the world. Because nobody does that. It's either all very traditional, or everybody is in this little group called 'modern.' And modern, for me, is 'up until now,' while contemporary is 'looking forward.' Contemporary is a forward-thinking, positive way to look at creativity, and it's not a word that applies to most of what happens on Savile Row, frankly."So what is the essence of this progressive manifesto, which Brandelli says would have been exactly the same without a five-year hiatus? It starts with reduction of the traditional ornaments of the jacket lapel—the decorative peak, the once-functional notch, the rounded shawl, etc.—and then their reconstruction. "It should be part instinct, part science, part design principles through process," said Brandelli. His instinct led him to the curve of the shawl's reduction by angles (Brandelli feels strongly that curves have no place in menswear); the rearrangement of the peak to a flattering accomplice for the V chest shape; and an extremely reduced or overlaid notch (reminiscent of a detail in Alessandro Sartori's first runway collection for Berluti).
Akin to rustication in classical architecture, Brandelli has created the "impression pocket" that leaves a small contra-colored sliver of "negative space" where the pocket flap would usually be. And seams on his jackets are delicately broadened to show the structure of his designs.The prime material was flannel: "It absorbs the light. Contemporary camouflage for the modern man," said Brandelli. Below the jackets, though, it seemed that the trousers had been rather neglected: "It's a flat-fronted trouser with a narrow leg; really simple," said Brandelli. Hmm. An athleisure-touched element was a tracksuit that aped the shape of a business suit, and Brandelli has collaborated with Adidas to make a flannel-uppered trainer upon which customers can use tailor's chalk to color in the three stripes. Those Adidas lines suit Brandelli's preoccupation with geometry: "There's no reason why you can't develop a language that becomes more angular," he said.These tweaks to the language of suiting might sound slight, but they felt significant. Brandelli could just be a visionary—or he may just be jolly bossy, with a hypnotic, commanding manner. If he's the former, then perhaps he can alter the assumptions that the future of men's clothing is bound to evolve from sportswear—and that Savile Row is a beautiful anachronism.
12 January 2015
Carlo Brandelli is something of a menswear guru in London, originally because of his old store Squire, and now for his creative directorship of the Savile Row institution Kilgour (Cary Grant and Fred Astaire had suits made there). So his first-ever fashion show inevitably sparked heightened levels of interest, especially because those who know him are aware of his excruciatingly high standards. Some of the inner circle—Nick Knight, Peter Saville, Roland Mouret—traveled to Paris as backup for their buddy, and Robert del Naja from Massive Attack produced an original soundtrack. But Brandelli ultimately needed no high-powered support. He sailed through his catwalk debut.There's a stringent classicism to Kilgour's custom-made business, and Brandelli managed to translate it to the ready-to-wear runway in an invigorating, forward-looking way. He's always been one to talk about the make of garments. Here, he didn't need to. Some jackets were cut from a mohair so sheer it was easy to see the effortful effortlessness that went into their construction. The color palette was essentially navy and white, a complement to what Brandelli was calling "design minimalism." That might mean a navy jacket with the collar shaved away, leaving only a lapel (lined, like the cuff, in white), or a sheer navy shirt with buttons concealed under a white-trimmed fly front. The signature Kilgour flourish appeared in a stripe of fabric down a trouser leg, or scattered with subtle randomness across jackets and knits. Alcantara synthetic suede made for a must-have one-buttoned blazer, paired with white trousers for a crisp dressiness. There was a purity to the look, which reminded Mouret that Brandelli was once set for the priesthood. Hey, fashion's the new religion, and Carlo will undoubtedly snare a congregation with this collection.
25 June 2008