The London Lounge

ShortList wrote:
ShortList's most stylish man.

With the daily tidal wave of fitting-room selfies posts and the job of forever tagging/liking/retweeting sepia-toned outfit pictures, if you’re honest with yourself (and we mean really honest) there must be days when you feel like throwing in the sartorial towel. Sure, it’s easier to share your new look, but how does one show off one’s innate knack for snappy dressing with so much visible competition around?

It was while thinking about this tricky conundrum that we decided to launch our Most Stylish Man competition. In a bid to find out what makes the modern man tick in the 21st-century style and grooming stakes, we teamed up with Remington and began a search.

The premise was simple: send in your pictures, impress our judges and you’ll be crowned king of all fashion until the end of time. OK, not quite, but you’d take centre stage in an exclusive style shoot for ShortList, win a £2,000 wardrobe overhaul courtesy of Reiss (including a private shopping experience) and bag £250 of Remington grooming products.

And you did not disappoint. With more than 500 entries to sift through (200 of which you can check out here), our judges had an extremely tough time narrowing the results down. There was no escape. Not only were we flooded with photos, but we also had a crack squadron of style hunters in Reiss stores up and down the country.

After much deliberation, our panel of judges whittled it down to three finalists. So who are the lucky trio? Our first runner-up, sharply tailored Raashid Hooks, caught the judges’ eyes with his slick suit, fedora and glasses combo, while Jaqob Bagley’s minimal look earned him a spot on the podium – you can see them below. But the duo were pipped to the post by 30-year-old Martin Reynolds, who impressed everybody with his gentlemanly over-the-shoulder umbrella pose and effortless smart-casual get-up. A fan of understated, Scandinavian fashion (“No big logos, no blind trend following, no brash colours”), the London-based systems analyst is confident about the key to good style: “Clothes should express something about your personality.” He now sticks to his stripped-back mantra: be noticed, without sticking out.

So what are his top tips for looking good? “Next time you buy a suit, get it taken in by a tailor so it fits perfectly. It’s the small details that are important; colour-coordinate your tie and pocket square. Always. And if in doubt, dress up, not down.” What about grooming-wise? “Pick a fragrance you like and stick with it. And girls like beards. Grow one. But keep it neat and tidy with a trimmer.”

You heard the man. Go forth and look incredible. Who knows, maybe next year you’ll be walking away with the crown. Or at the very least, an excellent new outfit screaming out for likes.

In second place is 19-year-old University Of Cumbria student Bagley, who describes his style as “classic with a new-age twist” and counts Steve McQueen as an influence. His biggest fashion faux pas? “I arrived at a party wearing a pink and black short-sleeved chequered shirt with a black dickie bow, when everyone else was wearing tracksuits. It didn’t go down well.”

After moving from New York to London just over a year ago, 32-year-old runner-up Hooks has not only started his own tailors, The Hooks Company, but also been spotted by our trusty style hunters while out and about. “They found me – I was in Canary Wharf speaking to a friend when two people came over for a photograph.” And if he had to describe his style in one word? “Timeless.”

uppercase wrote:What do LL members wear on the weekends??

couch wrote:When I saw Edwin DeBoise last Wednesday, he opined that wider lapels were coming back. Not sure where his early intelligence is coming from, but I thought I'd report his view . . . .

pur_sang wrote:[...] I think when the street realizes that style don't simply mean a slim lapel tight suit on a young man, in a few years time, the guy in the beige suit will win and they'll start to say how ill fitting the winner's suit is.

ShortList wrote: Death Of The Suit

ShortList’s style director Adrian Clark saw City-boy tailoring take a back seat at last week’s London Collections: Men...

While our sporting abilities may be questionable, us Brits excel in dressing the part. Well, that’s if last week’s London Collections: Men – the city’s showcase for masculine style, kicking off the month-long festival of European fashion weeks – is anything to go by.

Previewing what we’ll be wearing in spring/summer 2015, the best British labels took field, track and festival casualwear as overriding trends, marking a departure from tailoring. Despite a heritage for sharp suiting (it is the home of Savile Row, after all), oversized shorts, boot-cut jeans, tank tops, shell suits in technical fabrics, sneakers and trackie bottoms took centre stage.

Designer James Long fused boxing elements with patchwork denim that had a tropical Balearic flavour in one of the strongest collections of more than 100 brands showing at the three-day event. “For me it’s more than just sportswear, it’s fashion. It’s what I wear,” says Long.

Other highlights were Topman Design’s Britpop-meets-Woodstock collection, with washed-denim flares, psychedelic prints and old-school trainers, plus Nasir Mazhar’s dissipated visual language of the UK garage scene, with white sportswear-based pieces; wide-legged shorts, sweatpants, billowing shirts, braces, gym bags and back packs.

Rising star Kit Neale was also a favourite, with a nostalgic look at the quintessential British holiday, with inspiration from prints taken from the airport to coastlines of the Med (below). Even the less likely candidates Burberry Prorsum and McQueen went down the sporty route, respectively showing everything with hi-tops and multi-coloured sneakers, while some labels known for tailoring – such as Savile Row’s E Tautz – also had oversized sporty separates. Best tell your suits you won’t need them this time next year...

pur_sang wrote:...The fashion world is feminizing men...Pitti is feminizing men... the 'peacock' ... as stylish.

pur_sang wrote:[...] However, if you ask someone to picture masculinity, I doubt anyone (men or women) will have any of these runway models in their heads. The fashion world is feminizing men, men don't need a wardrobe makeover twice every year. [...]

Frederic Leighton wrote:

pur_sang wrote:[...] However, if you ask someone to picture masculinity, I doubt anyone (men or women) will have any of these runway models in their heads. The fashion world is feminizing men, men don't need a wardrobe makeover twice every year. [...]

When I get dressed in the morning, my last concern is to look like a man. I am a man. I don't need to look like one. I don't worry if what I am wearing, or 1-2 inches difference in the length of my coat, makes someone think that I am not masculine enough according to their idea of man.