Interview with Mats Klingberg from Trunk Clothiers
0January 18, 2014 by Ville Raivio
VR: Your age and occupation?
MK: I’m 41 years old and am the Founder and Managing Director of Trunk Clothiers.
VR: Your educational background?
MR: Master of Science in Business and Economics from Sweden combined with Fashion Merchandising Management in the US and Hotel Management in Switzerland.
VR: What other hobbies or passions do you have besides apparel?
MK: I love travelling and visiting new places, seeing new things, meeting new people and trying new foods. Most of my inspiration comes from travelling.
VR: How did you first become interested in clothes, and when did you turn your eyes to classic style? Why classics instead of fashion?
MK: I’ve always been interested in nice things – nice architecture, nice scenery, nice objects, nice clothes, nice anything really, so it’s something that has always been there and something that has always been part of who I am. At the same time I’ve always preferred timeless nice things, so my style has always been more classic than fashion.
VR: How have you gathered your knowledge of this area – from books, in-house training, workshops or somewhere else?
MK: I studied fashion at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, so I got a good basic knowledge of fashion then. Besides that I’ve learnt a lot from working with great people at some of the best clothing makers in the world as well as reading various books and magazines.
VR: How would you describe your own dress? Which RTW makers or tailors do you favour?
MK: I would say my style is smart casual. Many of my favourite brands are available at Trunk, like Boglioli, Caruso, Incotex, Drumohr, Salvatore Piccolo, Alden, Drakes, Gitman Vintage, Camoshita, Mackintosh and many more.
VR: Why did you set up Trunk Clothiers, and what goals did you set for yourself in the beginning? How has the store been received so far?
MK: The first goal was to get the business up and running and hopefully make a profit after three years. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could start my own business. We made a profit already in the first year, so that beat even my wildest expectations and also made me realize that I was capable of starting and running my own business.
Trunk’s aim is to offer a well-edited selection of clothes from across the world, from both new and old brands, smart and casual and at different price points, combined with excellent customer service in a warm and welcoming atmosphere. The store has been very well received by an international audience of well-dressed and successful (but they would never say that themselves) men living in or travelling through London. We have lots of regular customers in London, but also in New York, Stockholm, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong.
VR: There are dozens of menswear stores in London alone – why should my readers visit yours?
MK: There are lots of great menswear shops in London, but I think we’re different when it comes to the well-curated selection and excellent service we offer. It’s less about offering the latest and trendiest thing and more about great pieces of clothing that will only look better over time. The service is warm and friendly.
Also the location in Marylebone makes us a little bit different. It’s a very central part of London that historically hasn’t been seen as a great shopping destination, but that is now all changing. André Balazs (the man behind the Mercer in New York, the Standard in New York, Miami and LA, etc.) is opening his first hotel outside the US right across from Trunk this year, so we’ve got an exciting year ahead of us.
VR: Should we look forward to new ventures from TC in the future?
MK: We just opened our second shop, Trunk LABS, focusing on men’s accessories in June last year, so no further expansion plans for the coming year. We want to focus on the two shops as well as our online shop to make sure we offer the same level of service we’ve become known for even with the higher footfall we expect to see when the hotel opens. Something we are working on is a small Trunk capsule collection of every man’s wardrobe essentials, so hopefully this will be ready for A/W14.
VR: Please describe TC’s own clothing line and the philosophy behind your designs.
MK: We’ve done various pieces of our own since the start, from lovely cashmere sweaters from Scotland, polo shirts and belts from Italy, shoes together with Edward Green in England, bags with Yoshida Porter in Japan, and for this season we’ve made a small collection of jackets. The fabrics were made by Breanish Tweed up in Scotland and also by Fox Brothers in Somerset. They where then shipped to Italy and made into lovely jackets by Caruso who also manufacture for some of the bigger global brands. The philosophy is to make timeless pieces that will look equally good three to five years later. Great design and great fabrics are key.
VR: Who or what inspires you?
MK: I get inspired by things around me all the time, but mostly when I travel as that’s when I get the most new impressions. I can get equally inspired by discovering a new area in London as driving through the rolling hills in Wales or walking through Aoyama in Tokyo.
Navy suit by Caruso for Trunk
VR: What is your definition of style?
MK: Style is about knowing who you are and finding the pieces of clothing and brands that are you. One of the most exciting moments you see in the shop is when someone who believes they aren’t interested in clothes comes in and tries something on, and for the first time realizes that this is him. You can see their face light up and they stand up straighter.
VR: Is there something you wish more men would know about dressing well? All tips and thoughts are welcome.
MK: Keep it simple and invest in a few really great jackets, suits, trousers, shirts and shoes that can be combined in lots of different ways, both smart and casual. Makes packing for travels and deciding what to wear in the morning a lot easier.
No person has the same body shape, so spend the extra money needed at a tailor to get the perfect fit for you. That will make you feel great and I can promise that other people will notice as well!
Photos: Trunk Clothiers
http://www.trunkclothiers.com/
Category Interviews, Quality Stores, Tradesmen, Web stores
Men in Style: The Golden Age of Fashion From Esquire
0January 17, 2014 by Ville Raivio
In 1993, the American publishing house Rizzoli performed a small-scale cultural achievement. To this day, Men in Style: The Golden Age of Fashion From Esquire is the only English-language collection of style illustrations from Esquire magazines published before 1950. Great leaders of lines and colours, such as L. Fellows, drew inspiration from jet-set venues and real-life characters on both sides of the Atlantic for fine images, while the editors from Esky peppered them with pithy commantary. Before around 2000, these moving pictures had staying power only on the shelves of collectors, so much so that the most helpful of them have shared scans online — and these illustrations bounce back and forth on menswear sites even in 2014.
Men in Style was edited by Woody Hochswender and Kim Johson Cross, who both busied themselves in style as part of Esquire’s team back then. The collection runs a bit over one hundred pages, with original olden commentary and interesting contemporary essays on the changes in men’s fashions from the ’20s to the ’40s. Just a quick bit from the pages: rationing fabrics made three-piece suits and double-breasted jackets mostly obsolete during the second WW. With no reprints since 1993 and scarce copies to be found, this small book costs several hundred dollars today. While I’m not too convinced whether the fine folks at Rizzoli can be coaxed to run a re-run of the book, some anonymous menswear dilettante has scanned the book and shared the PDF with the rest of us. I’m happy to pass along the Right Stuff on Keikari. The book is an essential add for men of lore and vintage alike.
The link below should work nicely for the time being, and a quick search online should show up more sources if this one is removed.
http://ebooksmio.com/painting-design/1203-men-in-style-the-golden-age-of-fashion-from.html
Photo: original uploader
Category American style, Inspiration, Links, Reading, Vintage
Liverano&Liverano by Emanuele Tagliaferri
0January 15, 2014 by Ville Raivio
Liverano&Liverano is in the habit and business of suiting men in their Florentine cut. The link below offers a virtual presentation leaflet from 2010, written in Italian and featuring plenty of bright, sharp photos.
http://www.blurb.com/books/1454471-liverano-liverano?SSAID=314743
Category Florence, Links, Tailors
You know you have a problem when…
0January 13, 2014 by Ville Raivio
“1. You’re on vacation and you find yourself constantly worrying about how many menswear RSS feed updates you’ll have to scroll through when you come back.
2. When you’re in London, your girlfriend wants to go to the British Museum and you’re trying to think of a way to convince her that Savile Row would be more fun. When she wants to see other parts of Europe, you start researching what cultural life there is in Naples. Also, neither of you have ever been interested in Budapest, but now that you’ve learned about Vass bespoke…
3. You’ve considered moving to a region with longer winters just so you can wear FW collections more often, but then shudder when you realize you would have to find a new tailor and dry cleaner.
4. You feel kind of lonely and empty inside when you come home and don’t see a package waiting for you at your doorstep.
5. The sole motivation for advancing your career is the shoe collection that you hope you’ll one day be able to afford.
6. You find that your early years of sneaking glances at women are now coming in handy when eyeing particularly well dressed men.
7. You’d rather flip through a swatch book than Playboy.
8. You’ve bought things that you’ll never wear, and don’t know anyone who would, just because they’re interesting in and of themselves and would be nice to have in ‘a collection.’
9. Your friend asks you for your opinion on a pair of shoes he’s considering buying, and you don’t even know where to begin.
10. You know how to say wool in six different languages and “where is the bathroom” in two.
11. You get annoyed when sales associates know less about construction and materials than you do.
12. You avoid shopping at Barneys or Saks with your girlfriend for fear that one of the sales associates may come and greet you by your name while you’re with her.
13. Without you requesting, your tailor occasionally sends you swatches of fabrics you might like.
14. You hold on to seasonal catalogs you get in the mail for ‘archival purposes.’
15. You’re about to have sex with your girlfriend, but then have to pause so that you can fold and hang your trousers by their creases, find hangers with molded shoulders, and insert cedar trees into your shoes.”
~ Derek Guy
Category Quotations
Markus Scheer, Shoemaker
0January 11, 2014 by Ville Raivio
Markus Scheer is the seventh Scheer to master the gentle craft and man the wheel at Rudolf Scheer&Söhne, the German-speaking Europe’s Lobb&Co. The documentary below was first aired in 2011 and offers no closed captions for the global audience, but the moving frames speak for themselves and show Austrian hands making great things of leather.
http://www.servustv.com/cs/Satellite/Article/Fast-vergessen—Handwerkliches-Erbe-011259520908853
Category Cordwainers, Videos
Copyright © 2013 Ville Raivio
