A paper handed out at the E.Tautz show at London Collections:Men earlier this month featured extracts from Douglas Dunn's poem, Terry Street and contained grainy black and white images of factory workers from the mid-twentieth century in the context of a Northern industrial town (Hull?) with back to backs, murky mists, grim canals and distant smoky chimneys.
Talking of the men who live and work in Terry Street, part of the poem reads:
They are the individualists of our time,
They know no fashions, copy nothing but their minds,
They long ago gave up looking in mirrors.
It's interesting how Patrick Grant of E. Tautz has arrived at a collection for autumn/winter '15 that looks back at a menswear style prevalent in the middle of the last century, when few men were interested in fashion. Yet most men were then proud of how they looked, something that has now been lost. From a time when road and factory workers would wear ties, jackets or suits for work, we now have men caring little for how they look, even in work and formal situations - despite the relative cheapness of clothing now.
So E- Tautz has arrived at a style that looks back at the grey reality of a hard industrial life and reflects that impression in the monochrome nature of the clothing. To cement this link with the past, the collection is made in the UK, as were most clothes before later in the last century. Gorgeous tweeds and flannels in charcoal, dark blue, silver, grey, bottle green, white, black - Donegal, herringbone, Urqhart check - many made at Johnstons of Elgin.
The impression was of cloths, fabrics, tailoring of the highest quality. The cuts were generous, again reflecting menswear styles of most of the last century. Whether or not you'd wear such styles, the look was one to inspire, maybe toning down its monochrome nature with flashes of brighter colour in knitwear and accessories. It will certainly encourage me to dig out my grey trousers, white shirts and herringbone tweeds. For me, this was one of the most inspirational shows at LC:M.
I suspect we'll be seeing wider trousers on the high street in the not-too-distant future, so we're looking at what's coming soon in these images of the E. Tautz show.
At the risk of repeating myself, my one concern about this wonderful show was the complete lack of grey hairs on the models. How well a few gritty older faces would have fitted! Is the aim is to sell only to the younger man and exclude the older man from these wonderful clothes? I doubt it, but I still struggle to understand what the menswear fashion industry is up to here: excluding a huge and affluent demographic seems senseless. Older men should be wearing gorgeous clothes like these - and will do so with very little encouragement.
See E. Tautz and visit the store in Duke Street, London W1.
