In collaboration with Superdry, Timothy Everest reinvents the idea of the suit

THE TOUTS WHO approached Welsh bespoke tailor Timothy Everest when he was walking past Chungking Mansions the day before our interview obviously didn't know who they were talking to. "The men on the street offered to make me suits, and showed me their cards. So I gave them my card and said, 'No, I'll make you a suit'," HE says, laughing.

Everest is the man who has cut cloth for music greats The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and been decorated by Britain's Queen Elizabeth for his contribution to tailoring. He's in the city for the debut of his collaboration with British brand Superdry.

The Sebiro collection, available at the Superdry store in Tsim Sha Tsui, consists of four distinct looks by Everest, based on some of pop culture's best-known living male figures.

"We started off with an image of a young Mick Jagger with this moppish kind of hair, a tweed jacket and a buttoned-up shirt," says Everest. "Country Rebel, which was effectively Mick Jagger, was based on the idea of this rock'n'roll star lost in the countryside wearing tweed."

Other British icons also figured in the collection: "We based the Superspy look loosely on James Bond, and some other spy characters."

A Savile Row-trained tailor and a British high street brand known for its Americana style and Japanese-inspired graphics is not the most obvious pairing.

Even Everest didn't think it would work to start with. "I hadn't thought about collaborating with Superdry," he says. "I was aware that it was growing fast, but I thought it was a bit odd for a tailor to pair up with a fast-growing sportswear brand."

Everest didn't think there was a match until Superdry took over the former London premises of Austin Reed on Regent Street. The ousting of the heritage brand caused a huge stir, as it had been at that location for over 100 years.

"There was a big write up in the Financial Times that said 'Superdry takes Austin Reed'. The picture showed a man in a very traditional suit, but the colours were wrong. So I thought to myself, maybe. I rang James [Holder, Superdry's co-founder] up and said it didn't make any sense before, but now that you've taken Austin Reed - which is this bastion of men's tailoring, and very close to where I trained on Savile Row - it could be quite fun if we subvert it."

By "it", Everest means the stuffy suit. As one of the tailors that pioneered the new bespoke movement in the late 1990s, he is no newcomer to reworking the suit. "The thing that used to annoy me was that people stopped communicating that difference of having something made on Savile Row," he says.

Everest got his start in the business at the age of 17, working for an uncle who was a tailor. That led to a job with the famed Savile Row tailor Tommy Nutter. "Initially, I thought tailoring was a really boring job. I wanted to be a racing driver, but I gravitated towards London. I saw an advert in a London paper which said, 'Boy wanted on Savile Row'," he says.

It wasn't long before Everest was making the clothes for Elton John's world tour, sketching designs for handkerchiefs in Japan and, for a time, working as a freelance stylist, dressing the likes of Duran Duran for music videos.

At the age of 29, he set himself up in a derelict house in Spitalfields - before it became the trendy, creative hub it is now - and got a group of other designers together to champion the idea of 'bespoke casual'.

"All we were trying to do was communicate the idea of suits to a different generation," he says. "The generation above me didn't want to wear suits, because they found it old fashioned. The younger generation was curious, but they didn't know where to go, or how to go about it. There was an idea that it was old fashioned and expensive. We wanted to make it cool," he says.

Now, once again, Everest is busy reinventing the suit. The Superdry collaboration may not be literally cut from the same cloth, but customers get the same kind of careful and edgy detailing at a fraction of the cost. (It's about HK$3,000 per jacket compared to HK$40,000 for a custom-tailored piece.)

What does it mean to create a modern suit? Comfort and performance, Everest answers, saying that is the big change he's seen during his lifetime.

"Effectively, a suit hasn't changed a lot," he says, "although the cut has become a bit slimmer. Everest says his main task was to widen the appeal: "There are a lot of creatives, art dealers, and graphic designers in Spitalfields, my area, and that sort of person wouldn't usually buy suits. So we started making town coats that are soft-structured. People like the idea of bespoke clothing which is not stiff. We played with the way we made them, and deconstructed them so they become less rigid, and we were also more playful with our use of colour."

The ability to transition between hot and cold temperatures due to the advent of air conditioning is also key, says Everest. "If you look at Burberry Prorsum, their spring collection will have a light coat. Many years ago you would never do that, because a coat is for winter. But with air conditioning, temperatures can change very fast. People are moving around, and want to layer up and down.

"That's what we've been doing with Superdry. The idea is that you can wear a tweed jacket, or put on a town coat and mix it with sportswear as well."

tiffany.ap@scmp.com

Timothy Everest's essential guide to buying a suit

• Think about your body type. If you are really tall, you don't want something to make you look overly tall and skinny. If you are quite big, you don't want something double-breasted because it will make you look even bigger.
• Be realistic. Men are just as bad as women when it comes to vanity and the way they look. Jackets are usually too big because they tell themselves they're going to work out, and pants are too tight because they say they will lose weight.
• Make sure you get a second opinion, even if it's one you don't agree with. Maybe a female, or a cool friend.
• Accessories are very important. Think of suits as a canvas, and accessories are what you have to pretty it up.
• Four to six suits should cover it. It's a natural evolution. After a season or two, you might let one suit go. You don't have to get rid of everything every season. Get a few separates to mix and match.
• Audition two or three different tailors at your local store. There are also a lot of good online forums and brands will also give plenty of good advice on fit.