Jacket Required, a New Men’s-wear Trade Show in London
Courtesy of Jacket Required
The scene at London’s hottest new men’s-wear trade show.
“It’s about time”, “London should have a show like this”
Everyone said the same thing. Jacket Required, a new contemporary men’s-wear trade show in London, felt much like a bunch of well-dressed friends finally getting the chance to hang out together. The dominating look on site: men in versions of a blue shirt, ankles showing.
For two days at an art school in Shoreditch, business was brisk with buyers and bloggers. The event was invite-only, as was the after-party, which pleased everyone. “If you are not at Jacket Required,” one boutique in Rotterdam tweeted before boarding the plane, “you are not into fashion.”
The idea for the show came to its three founders — Ford, Andrew Parfitt, 39, and Mark Batista, 38 — in a pub. “We wanted to get brands that hadn’t shown anywhere else in Europe,” Batista said, “to bring something new that buyers won’t find in France or Italy. So they kinda have to come here.”
The next spring-summer Jacket Required is already planned for February 2012.
