Prices start from about £800, a fraction of the cost of most off-the-peg designer suits, and by popular demand they now offer their services to women. This tailoring operation – set up by father and son Joe and Charlie Casely-Hayford – can make a bespoke suit within a few days, should a client request the express service, or in up to six weeks for those who can wait. The vast, corrugated warehouse in east London, furnished with beaten-up leather sofa, retro wicker floor lamp and shelves filled with vintage magazines, is the antithesis of Savile Row’s intimidating workrooms. Her advice is something I bear in mind when I visit the Casely-Hayford studio to be fitted for a trouser suit. “I always ask myself, ‘Can I wear the jacket over my shoulders with an evening dress? Or with a T-shirt and jeans? And do the pants look just as great with an oversized cashmere sweater or a skinny tee?’ I like to get a lot of wear out of what I buy and design.” I think I had two pay cheques tied up in it, but I felt like a million dollars whenever I wore it – and that’s what I try and give back with our suits in the collection.” She references photos of Julia Roberts, Kim Basinger and Winona Ryder from the late Eighties and early Nineties as design cues, and cites fabric, cut and, importantly, versatility as the holy trinity. I was seduced by her giant ad plastered on a billboard in New York’s Soho at the time I wanted to be that woman so bad, I bought the suit. “I was the youngest on my team when I joined American Express in the early Nineties, and the first thing I did was buy a navy-blue wool suit from Donna Karan. “If you’re buying a suit, it’s usually because you want to impress, so why choose some-thing average? Suits look dated when they’re too straight,” explains Amy Smilovic, founder of Tibi, who recalls her first suit purchase. Women in power would do well to look to Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, who fares very well in navy and steely grey by Austin Reed and Chanel. ![]() Hillary Clinton’s scores of trouser suits come in a spectrum of retina-searing colours (including turquoise, tangerine and marigold) and questionable styles, too, such as a ehru jacket and slacks combo that was way off the mark. Few female leaders navigate tailoring well. And so it isn’t surprising that political women are so quick to step into one as soon as they have something important to say (as opposed to male politicians, who now increasingly veer towards a jacket off, sleeves-rolled-up approach when it comes to addressing the nation). It should make you feel pulled together, and it should be your best ally a fail-safe cover-up for a late night, say, or a disguise for disorganisation. It should make you look taller, thinner, richer. And you should know it the second you put it on. ![]() The right trouser suit will make you feel like a better version of you.
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