Fig 31, Hardy Amies Spring/Summer 2014, 2013
Hardy Amies has recently launched a new website offering compelling content from leading writers and thinkers, which brings Sir Hardy Amies’ original concept to life with everything the gentleman of today requires for modern city living, communicated through films and pictures and articles by leading journalists. Many brands convey messages of luxury, exclusivity, heritage and provenance, but whilst these messages appeal to existing clients, service and product offers have to be relevant and meaningful to the lifestyles of younger consumers, and tailoring brands must reach out to young consumers with messages that have meraning to them.
As style, functionality and performance elements of tailoring are the most valued factors for younger consumers when considering tailoring, clever product placement offers much potential to demonstrate these aspects in an engaging way and brands must look outside of fashion in order to relate their products more to the everyday lives of young consumers. In a film titled ‘The Commute’ Mr Porter livens up a monotonous morning routine, as 22-year-old award-winning free runner Mr Pip Andersen demonstrates how the office commute needn’t involve sitting in front of a wheel or standing in a queue. Wearing a Richard James suit paired with Valentino sneakers and merging sartorial tradition with street culture, the product placement of the Richard James suit suggests that far from being boring and conventional, it is the embodiment of cool.
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Whilst most young consumers do not need a suit to withstand the rigours of free-running, it is important that brands bring their tailoring into the modern world. Film provides the perfect platform on which to demonstrate the performance element of tailoring, and menswear at this level is not about fashion per se, as beyond this, people understand that influences on brands are varied. Excellent design, style, quality and performance are ideas that can be applied to any good project, and if the correct messages are communicated that relate to a brand, the brand does not always have to build a story around what it is traditionally known for. (Carlo Brandelli (2013) in conversation with unknown author: online).