Jeremy Hackett - The Mr Classic Blog

Last weekend my house was crowded with models, there to be photographed in my garden by the fashion photographer Garda Tang. 

A grey backdrop was erected and the models had all been asked to wear their own clothes. There was no styling, make up or lighting, relying purely on the overcast light of the day. I was struck by the ambition of these young people, three of them were at University, amongst the others was an artist,  an actor and another studying photography. None of them saw modelling as a career.

My role on the day was to keep them fed and watered, I was surprised how much food they consumed and yet they were stick thin.  Although not wishing to intrude on the shoot I shot a couple of pictures which reminded me of the photographer  Larry Clark and no, I wasn't legless at the time.

Jeremy Hackett

The other week I drove down to the Chelsea football team training ground in Surrey for a photo session with the squad and to issue them with their new off pitch kit. It consisted of a three piece suit made from a English worsted cloth in a subtle navy glen check with a Chelsea blue over check, teamed with a pale blue shirt, knitted striped tie, and brown suede chukka boots. Having just written that last sentence it suddenly occurred to me that next season they should be wearing Chelsea boots.

I'm on a bit of a roll having previously written about the perfect waistcoat and I have now discovered the perfect trousers.

The other day I dropped into our Regent St shop just to browse around and chat to the staff. It's very illuminating what you hear on the shop floor that never gets relayed to the office. Between you and me, I have recently put on a few pounds so I decided to invest in some new trousers.

Now, I like my strides to be narrow but not skinny. A well informed member of staff immediately suggested to me a style called Sanderson and casting his eye over my waistline gauged exactly the right size, which shall remain a secret. The whole rigmarole of trying on clothes is testing for a lot of gents so it was with some relief that the first pair of khaki cotton chinos I tried fitted perfectly. Nick, who was taking care of me, quickly and efficiently turned up the trousers and explained that the alteration could be done whilst I waited.

I decided to take advantage of our in house monogramming service and thought it would be fun to have my trousers monogrammed. Nick suggested I take a seat at our Beefeater bar and have a gin and tonic, whilst  the tailor turned up my trousers and stitched on my initials J.P.H. Well, it was past midday so to hell with the waistline.

Jeremy Hackett

When I see an item of clothing that I really like I tend to buy several pieces.

So it was when I was wandering around our Sloane St shop I came across a cashmere and lambswool mix sleeveless waistcoat that fitted perfectly. It was not too heavy and not so light as to be flimsy.






What I like about it is it's flexibility it can as easily be worn under a suit, a tweed jacket or a blazer when a long sleeve pullover is too bulky and it looks great worn over just  a shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Throwing my credit card to the wind  I immediately bought one in every colour, three that is. No sooner than I had started to wear them that I noticed an article in the Times dedicated to the Paris Fashion shows and can you believe it, Jil Sander had sent her models down the catwalk wearing tank tops over shirts with the sleeves rolled up.




Never one to say I am at the cutting edge of fashion it was nice to think that for a brief moment I was ahead of the curve.

Jeremy Hackett