Life has a funny way of coming full circle, doesn’t it? And there’s something beautiful about that. Some call it fate, others karma. Some don’t care what it’s called and just get on with life. In the last year, English Cut has gone through changes, and there’s been people both leaving and joining the company. As ever, changes can be scary and tricky – but it seems now, holding this new issue of The Cork in my hands, that English Cut has come out stronger and even more focused than it was before.
A new team has been put together, but it’s not any old intern they picked up on Savile Row. Instead it’s a reunion for English Cut main man Paul Griffiths with two of his previous Anderson & Sheppard colleagues: in the late 80s Paul worked with Edwin DeBoise at Anderson, and he’s now the new cutter at English Cut. Ten odd years later Paul took on a new apprentice, Karl Matthews, and he’s currently the in-house stylist at the Chiltern Street store. Add to that Edwin’s son, Matthew, and you have a full house.
Since collaborating at Anderson & Sheppard, Paul and Edwin have worked in a parallel universe of sorts. The same type of suits, the same dedication to quality and the same type of customers … but under different signatures. Today, those forces, that knowledge and experience, have come together under one name: English Cut. Not only that, but through Karl and Matthew the next generation of skills and craftsmanship is safeguarded.
The Cork magazine is an editorial version of the brand. We investigate different aspects of the English Cut universe, we dissect the collections, look at them from both a realistic and a conceptual point of view: “how can this be worn, what would you wear with this suit”, and so on. For this issue, we decided to take the SS18 collection out on to the streets, to let the summer linen and thin cotton poplin fight its own way through busy Marylebone crowds, skilfully captured by photographer Adam Whitehead. Modelling the suits, Richard and Orland represent a modern take on tailoring, perfectly in sync with English Cut’s contemporary sartorial values.
But we also wanted to create a different take on what to wear this season, an artistic slant on the English Cut wardrobe. Life isn’t always black and white, most of the time it’s grey … a bit blurry. Our second editorial shows how everything isn’t always what you first assume. Enlisting the creative brilliance of Paris-based photographer Paul Rousteau, we conceptualised and deconstructed the SS18 collection, creating shapes and silhouettes that stand out from the ordinary drabness of everyday life.
The two shoots, and what they represent, plus all the other stories about both English Cut and other, non-related but equally interesting people and events, show what makes The Cork tick. Each issue is a snapshot of a time and place, seen through the buttonholes of a bespoke two-piece moleskin suit.
