I was stunned by the sartorial disarray. Black suits worn with colored shirts and three buttons décollete. I would have never thought it possible in London. It was like going back in time to Hollywood in the 70s, bared chests less the thick gold chains.
It was in this context of worry about the state of English dress that I undertook a visit to one of the most stylish of silk masters and LL member: Mr. Michael Drake. The few hours with Drake and his team, the vision of so many style-rich products being hand sewn, for export to the entire planet, from central London, was the doctor’s cure for the sartorial funk that ailed me.
When I recounted my London experiences to my host, his response was precise, “there are not any rules anymore.” It was an honest and chilling fact that made so many lines written about sartorial rules suddenly seem university anthropology. “But I make things for people who understand. And while I craft products to my retail customer’s specs, and fulfill bespoke orders from individuals, I also make a lot of things just because I like them”, Drake explained as he moved around the corner to gather a few magnificent, heavy silk squares in his ample hands.
I knew I was in the presence of a kindred spirit when he laid the 35” silk squares down, “do you know the picture of Cary Grant in “To Catch a Thief”, the one where he wears the large dot silk square?” Sure enough, the square was there before my eyes in orangey, white dotted technicolor. “These are samples. I don’t know if I will ever sell any, but I really like them.” Meanwhile I was calculating the hundred color combinations I wanted these scarves in (to go with my gray suits) as frankly speaking I had never seen anything so well made. “I see it right away in a creamy white background with brown spots” I ventured. “I have it”, he replied with the phrase I would hear often during the course of the day.
Michael Drake displays his way of folding a silk square:
At this point the square is folded one or two more times such that it resembles a necktie, a long rectangle or cylinder. Then it can be fashioned and worn in many different ways. Here Drake wears it a la Gary Cooper.
From scarves we moved to ties, hounds tooth patterns and Churchill dots. “It is from a picture of Windsor with his wife. He wears a flannel DB and has this astoundingly handsome dotted tie. It’s simply the most elegant man’s tie made.” I had to agree with him. The only thing is that I called the design a Cooper dot and made it as the LL club tie:
So it can be debated whether it is a Churchill dot Cooper is sporting or vice versa, what cannot be debated is the designs natural and enduring elegance. It worked awfully well in the 1920s and nearly a century later, it won’t spoil your looks.
Many of you will remember the great cashmere and silk scarves that in previous times could be purchased at Hilditch & Key in Paris. What I didn’t know is that they were made by a young Michael Drake. “I learned a lot from the couple who were the managers of Hilditch Paris at the time, they were always fighting, but they knew their stuff.” Drake is releasing new products in this style and I saw the first samples. They were lovely to touch and the colors could only be equaled by the best of the Hermes of the past. This is a truly a difficult undertaking and one that bespoke lovers are sure to embrace.
“I do love Paris”, Drake explains as he describes the influence of Parisian chic and Italian style on his work. It’s a kind of “best of” approach that finds form in sober, discrete yet colorful designs. The chic, the epigrammatic is everywhere to be seen. “If you can sell your products in Milan and Paris, you can sell them anywhere in the world.” But the irony is as strong as it is perplexing. Michael Drake and Jean-Claude Colban, the two undisputed masters, export virtually everything they make away from national markets where men have all but given up on silks. “It’s not worth the trouble and we don’t have the time to explain things relating to elegance, one either gets it or not.”
This was just the beginning of a very informative visit. The cutters were cutting, the craftsmen were sewing, and the finishers were finishing all by hand. Slip knots, madder silk, flared ends, linings, soft silks, heavy silks, ties of every shape and color awaiting retailers each with their own distinctive spin on elegance. Yes, it was all there as I expected to see it. But the thing that informed me the most about Drake’s ties was Drake himself: creative, enthusiastic, and as curious as a kid in a silks store.
Michael Alden
PS. The end result of these few hours of sartorial cure will hopefully make its way tangibly, into the hands and round the necks of Drake’s fellow LL members. I am proposing to issue a set of neckties and scarves that will be selected to dress the clothclub fabrics creations each season. The first bit of work will be too design the silks to go with the newly issued summery blue Brisa, brown Prince of Wales and Violet gunclub. Stay tuned for announcements.
Drake's silk square in olive green. Warning: The following scene may not be suitable for the sartorially challenged as it contains images of three silk elements, ascot, scarf and pocket square, being worn together.
You see there is nothing terribly frightening about wearing silks.
Cheers
