They seek him here, they seek him there….If the Kinks wanted to lampoon today’s dandies they wouldn’t have to search far to find one because demand for designer menswear is booming. As a result Selfridges is set to open the biggest men’s shoe department in the world in its flagship Oxford Street store.
The 10,000 sq ft shoe section is part of a larger revamp of Selfridge’s menswear floor and its design reflects a growing taste among today’s men for high-end, cutting edge fashion. The new department will stock 72,000 pairs of shoes ranging from bespoke Tom Ford boots to flip-flops at just £25 a pair.
Next year the first Christian Louboutin men’s boutique will also open in Selfridges as menswear, including everything from leggings to £3,000 cashmere coats, continues to do a swift trade. Buying manager Adam Kelly believes that the way men shop is changing and that they are increasingly drawn to more avant-garde designs.
He says; “There is definitely a demand for more catwalk fashion. We now get customers coming in with catwalk images from style.com and telling us which pieces they want to buy from the collection.”
And it’s a trend that is being echoed elsewhere. Terry Betts, of online menswear retailer Mr Porter, has also noticed a growing interest in styles spotted on the catwalk and believes it heralds the emergence of what he calls a “really strong fashion guy.”
“Historically in menswear, the catwalk pieces were the dressing and the majority of the sales came from the more classic things,” he says.
“But we’ve noticed that there is a customer who wants the really visual pieces from the shows.”
Industry insiders believe this is due to a combination of catwalk fashions becoming more accessible via the internet, an improvement in collections and men becoming more informed. These factors have led to a boom in designer menswear sales and a corresponding proliferation of new outlets.
Among the most high profile of these are Alexander McQueen’s Savile Row shop and Burberry’s first stand-alone men’s store which opened in Knightsbridge this week.
This trend hasn’t gone unrecognised. In June the inaugural London fashion week for men took place, delivering a noticeable boost in sales for the labels taking part.
“All the designers we’ve spoken to since have seen a massive uptake in their books so it really has paid off,” says Jessica Punter of GQ magazine.
The Kinks 1966 hit poked fun at ‘Swinging London’ and the dedicated follower of fashion who ‘flits from shop to shop like a butterfly.’ Given the commercial success of today’s fashion industry, no-one is mocking the twenty first century dandy.
