Getting the measure of you via TV fashion

Dec 3 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

TV shows like Madmen are showing men that being smart works. Dawn Collinson reports

SARTORIAL celebrities like Robbie Williams and Russell Brand are huge devotees of made-to-measure suits and, of course, Ant & Dec are rarely seen out of the jungle without a smart three-piece.

But it’s a nostalgic cult TV show which has sparked the biggest boom in bespoke tailoring.

Shaun Lavin, director of the newly-opened Liverpool tailors Berkley Bowen, says US drama Mad Men and its slick 60s fashions has re-ignited men’s desire to be well suited.

“As soon as that show started, we had a lot of guys coming in saying they wanted to look like the main character Don Draper because he’s always so incredibly smart,” says Shaun.

“So that whole 1960s style is having a massive revival at the moment and it is such a great look. Although I do have to tactfully tell some clients that if they’re 4ft 6 and 14 stone it won’t matter how good the suit is, they still won’t look quite like the guys on TV!”

The nostalgic Manhattan influence is just the latest in a long line of trends which Wallasey-born Shaun has seen since he started in the tailoring business a decade ago.

He actually began his career in the pub trade, but became disenchanted with the increasing violence.

“I’d grown up in pubs, my parents owned them, but I started to get sick of it because it was becoming something I didn’t remember,” he explains.

“I always liked looking smart and I liked clothes, so when I got talking to a guy who did tailoring and he suggested it, I decided to give it a try. I joined a company down in London who trained me and took it from there, and I found that a lot of it was about talking to guys so I think my pub background helped.”

Working around the North- West, 49-year-old Shaun established a client base of professionals, mainly businessmen and sportsmen.