Hackett in Tassels

Hackett On Shoes

“My Father once said to me ‘I am too poor to buy cheap shoes’ and taking his advice to heart I now have a closet full of shoes. I have a passion for shoes and probably my favourite are the first pair I had made by George Cleverley about thirty years ago and they are still going strong. They are black punched oxfords. It is well known that women always notice men’s shoes, so if you want to make a good impression…”

Jeremy Hackett

Hackett King's Road

Jeremy Hackett

Quilted Hackett

Hackett Summer Kit

© Garda Tano

Hackett 1985

Hackett London

Hackett Autumn 2010

Hackett Interview

Hackett Suit

Hackett 2010

Jeremy Hackett - The Mr Classic Blog

Hackett à Paris

© 2009 Monsieur

Hackett, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris

Jeremy Hackett Presents

Hackett Style

Hackett. As I wrote here last year, I have been wearing Hackett since the 1980s. I support the brand. Why? Let me explain. To begin with, I simply like the clothing. It's classic and well-made. For a RTW brand, you could do a lot worse.

Plus, it represents a link to my youth, a reminder of Saturday afternoons sauntering down the King's Road in moleskin trousers, chelsea boots, Barbour jacket, Hackett shirt, and a pair of colourful Hackett socks. Ah, the socks! I am certain the selections of bright and cheery hosiery are placed near the inside entrance of Hackett stores to draw in passersby. If you walk by a Hackett store, you will know what I mean.

Finally, there is Jeremy Hackett. I have written elsewhere of my admiration. (This is not a man-crush, so please do not be alarmed). Mr. Hackett, I will argue, embodies a particularly confident English style. There is no need here to be loud and brash, to draw unwanted attention to oneself. Quietly comfortable in his own moleskin, he knows who and what he is and what he has accomplished. He possesses a degree of self-assurance, I think, that is exceedingly rare. If I were to choose a living sartorial inspiration, it would be Mr. Hackett.

To Hackett, I raise another glass of champagne.

Mr. Hackett

The world seems utterly foreign to me these days. It has changed enormously since I was a younger man, and not at all for the better. Fortunately not everything has succumbed to trendy fashion, and if one looks hard one can still find pockets of tradition and continuity.

This brings to mind the clothing store Hackett. It is amazing to me to realise Hackett has been around for 25 years. During school and university holidays, after obligatory visits to Gieves & Hawkes, Cording's, and New & Lingwood, I would join other young men on a pilgrimage to the Hackett shop on New King’s Road in Fulham. There I would acquire dress shirts (with spread collars and double cuffs), cords, and maybe a v-neck jumper or two. Later we would pick up vintage items, such as a pair of old Lobb brogues or a covert coat, at markets in Kensington and Camden.

Mr. Hackett himself got his start selling vintage kit and in the early days the Hackett shop offered a limited selection of second-hand clothing. It became a mecca for betweeded Young Fogeys and Sloane Rangers, plus floppy-haired officers from the Guards and the HAC, some of whom would visit on their antique bicycle or in a VW Golf GTI. The Hackett brand grew into a major success. But by the early '90s the YF and SR sets started to move on. My sartorial interests, too, had changed, and I focused my attention on other sources. By the mid-'90s the Hackett polo shirt became linked to the shaven-headed 'yob' element.

My interest in Mr. Hackett has persisted over the years. A self-made man who left school at 17, he displays none of the vulgarity and weirdness of his American counterpart(s). He seems a quiet, decent Englishman who through hard work and diligence has created a successful business. It is a view corroborated by those who know him. His friend Ty Jeffries, in a profile in the Independent on Sunday newspaper, where Mr. Hackett writes a clothing advice column, has said: "He remains such a nice guy, very genuine, unpretentious." Mr. Hackett's success warrants a large measure of admiration and respect. Whether or not he receives it, is another question.

Certainly his recent book, Mr. Classic (Thames & Hudson, 2006), was greeted in some quarters with confusion and misunderstanding. A collection of Mr. Hackett's newspaper columns, the book combines the author's musings on, say, Belgian shoes, dinner jackets, and cardigans, with a number of alarmingly creative photos of young men. The effort is a bit too artistic for my tastes, yet it does have undeniable appeal. The section on creative monogramming helped me look at my dress shirts in a new light, while his recollections of visiting Brooks Brothers and Belgian Shoes in Manhattan and Bel y Cia in Barcelona were amusing.

Just a quick note. The book cover features a photo of a young man wearing flip-flops with a dinner jacket, and somehow the notion has spread that Mr. Hackett himself approves of this look. He does not, as a reading of the relevant column confirms.

Is it time to give Hackett a second look? Perhaps, if you are so inclined. I of course am allergic to change, to the extent that switching from, say, Gordon's gin to Bombay Sapphire and back again, is a traumatic event. Still, on re-examination a return to Hackett might seem as if I were re-embracing an old friend with whom I once spent wild days of youth. Hackett seems to be on the move to bigger and better things. So, I will give it some thought. In the meantime, in my recent discussions with company officials, I am given to understand Hackett will be available on these shores in the next year or so. Let me know what you think.