Hardy Amies AW13 Manifesto

When starting to think about any new collection I like to give myself a story as a starting point or framework. In the past I have been inspired by stories or photos of Hardy Amies himself from our extensive archive and I often like to collide two different worlds together to create something new. For the AW13 collection I had been thinking about Hardy’s royal connections and him mixing in high society circles. I liked this idea of Hardy being ‘all things to all men’ a quality that I think is important for a modern gentleman today. Simultaneously I like to use each collection as an ‘excuse’ to study or spend time learning more about a topic in which I have a personal interest – I am after all going to be thinking about this every day for the next six months! For this season that was the Bauhaus school of design.

I imagined a ‘what if’ for the AW13 collection. What if Josef and Anni Albers had been inspired to create a collection to wear for a weekend away with the royals at Balmoral in the 1930s. I was particularly interested in developing a new winter check. I personally love checks but am tired of seeing the same designs in every winter collection, so the main challenge for this season was to create a new check – a Bauhaus Tartan. I’m always inspired by the 1930s, a period I like to reinvent and modernise for the modern man. The aim each season is to bring all the enjoyment of being that glamorous man into the 21st century.I think the goal for every Hardy Amies collection is to deliver the best in modern British tailoring. At the moment I feel there is a rediscovery in the enjoyment of wearing tailoring and we want to make being a “modern gentleman” fun and desirable.

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