Suit and Tie: The Evolution of Mens Tailoring

Everyone knows a well tailored suit can do wonderful things for a man, theres just something about a well groomed man in a suit. So its no wonder the market for mens tailoring is steadily growing and growing and being approached by high street brands meaning whatever your budget you can always look sharp.

Most surprisingly perhaps, relatively cheap high street retailer New Look, who have just real eased their 'Downton' Collection as you can imagine, its a collection heavily inspired by British heritage so theres plenty of tartan, Herringbone, elbow patches and flat caps. Heavily cliched but the sharp tailoring does look impressive for the low price tags (£50 for a suit jacket, £18 for trousers) and will no doubt be a resounding success with the New Look customer.
Elsewhere in Europe, and a little more upmarket, we have Tiger of Sweden who have been making news recently after opening a store in Piccadilly recently and then casting Rafferty Law, 16 year old son of Sadie Frost and Jude Law, as the lead in a recent promotional film. In the short clip Rafferty Law plays the 'rebel' whilst modelling the Swedish companies sharp tailoring.

By the looks of things this is just a hint of whats to come for mens tailoring and I think its definitely one too watch to see what happens next. Below is the video for Tiger Of Sweden, let me know what you think!

+ SIZE

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com)
Whether you're in fashion or not, every one knows that size has and always will be a major debate within industry. What with the constant editorials and runways jam packed with thigh gaps and frail, waif-like models shoved down our throats on a regular basis its no wonder some women find their confidence wavering. 
(Source: http://frutoproibido.org)
The fact of the matter is, no matter how revolutionary some designers may try to be (Mark Fast 2009) high fashion will always be a place for scarily thin models and I feel thats something we all must come to terms with, it may make us feel obese and shit but lets be brutally honest, high fashion looks better on thin models which is its purpose, its a dream we wish to one day achieve that we think one day we can buy in to, 'one day ill be a size 6 and a millionaire'. This became even more apparent when plus size icon Crystal Renn recently shed her infamous pounds and became like one of the models we see on the runway. 
(Source: http://www.mydaily.co.uk)
People say that glorifying plus size is just as bad as glorifying anorexia however, we've become so obessessed with size that the lines have completely blurred. Renn herself said "It's simply bizarre that 'normal' is the new overweight." which is true, in fashion tell someone you're a size 14 and you can just imagine the looks you would receive but this is normal healthy size. In recent years however the subject of size has been greatly adapted to make fashion accessible for almost everyone, which it rightfully should be. In fact in the last 5 years the plus size market has increased by 50%, which makes sense as the average dress size for British women is in fact 16.
It seems however that a lot of brands are yet to tap in to this market. This year saw the first ever Plus Size Fashion Week in London. High street giants such as Topshop and Zara still seem to be catering for the very small, particularly Zara whose size large fit like a size 12, which can sometimes make shopping a little depressing. 
Some brands have realised the potential and began creating garments for this market. New Look have their Inspire range, Evans cater for the bigger lady and Next go up to size 22.
Creating probably the most on trend plus size clothing we have ASOS curve, for sizes 18-28. Creating larger sizes of current on trend garments making it accessible for all sizes. For vintage lovers, online site Modcloth offer a wide range of plus size garments. 
The dilemma is that a lot of plus size clothing is not usually on trend and some create terrible clothes which is a shame. However, the appearance of popular fashion retailers such as New Look and ASOS in plus size fashion could perhaps warrant other high street brands to do the same in the future?