The Mayor of London is drawing attention to the British city’s menswear industry, which is blooming now. To celebrate the heritage of men’s fashion, Boris Johnson’s team has launched a vibrant campaign that features signature fashion looks born in Britain.
While Paris is an established center of female fashion, London has considered to be the home of menswear since the days of Beau Brummell, the legendary dandy who lived in 18-19th centuries in England. Today, the menswear industry in the UK is worth £10bn, as estimated by Mintel. The official page on the Mayor of London’s website states that male consumers will be spending more than women on their clothes by 2016.
Tapping into this trend, London’s principal has kicked off a promotion that puts the brogues, 3-piece suit, tartan and bondage trousers into the spotlight, inspiring the British to be proud of their unique national fashion traditions. The posters with the iconic piece and a historical fact about it have been placed across London Underground to promote the international leading men’s fashion event, London Collections: Men, that was taking place on January 6-8. The images of the campaign were shot by street photographer Jonathan Daniel Pryce—the shooting sessions took place in and around Smithfield Market and at Beppe’s café in East London.
“With the new campaign, we wanted to tell that story to Londoners in a way that would showcase London’s menswear brands to a broader male shopping audience—not people with a specific interest in the industry already—and give exposure to small and medium businesses that aren’t generally running out of home campaigns on their own. [We also wanted to] stake a claim to being the menswear capital of the world… and show how the creative industries are helping the economy and creating jobs in town,” commented Tom Lancaster, the creative director of the initiative.
For the campaign, the creative team used a heritage map developed by Lancaster in collaboration with the British Fashion Council, GQ and the Museum of London in 2013. The map lists iconic styles that were created by London designers or public figures and started making waves across the globe.
Londoners are invited to contribute to the campaign by explaining why their London postcode is the most stylish area in the city. The ideas are to be shared using #londonmenswear on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram—the message is to start with the postcode. The most inspiring comments, photos and videos representing a person or a place will be shortlisted for a sweepstakes—the best entries will be selected by London style gurus including Dylan Jones (GQ editor and chair of London Collections: Men), designer Patrick Grant and Fashion Curator at the Museum of London Tim Long.
The competition is running January 3–16. There will be three major winners who will get the items featured in the posters, and five runners-up who will get tickets to Hello My Name is Paul Smith exhibition running through March 9 at the Design Museum.
