Menswear and vintage
My interest and exposure to craft tailoring and accessorising, embellishing began with my parents. My maternal grandfather was a diamond dealer and jeweller, and my father was a patron of fine-suitmakers across Hong Kong, Mumbai, Dubai, London, Chennai, and Singapore. I have maintained this tradition by developing relationships with a few artisans across similar cities where I have commissioned interesting works. I commissioned Sartoria Assisi for their specialism in double-breasted suits. They supplied a hopsack wool from a closed mill in Middle England and designed a naval-style sports coat for me. With Ring Jacket, I made a green chalk-striped suit inspired by the ‘mob-style’ suits my father made as a young swashbuckling entrepreneur. The story of my father in my life has been told in the essay, Vignettes in Red.
Recently, I have been interested in the works of Rav Matharu Singh MBE, who is also known as clothsurgeon, and P Johnson - an Australian atelier working in the spiritual style of peak Armani- as well as the dying art of accessorising among men's dressing. My enduring interests are in ‘sprezzatura’ and the rule-making and keeping around men's dressing, Amekaji, vintage and modern denim, and the ‘revival’ around South Asian craftsmanship by diaspora shops.