Hackett, Jeremy 1954(?)-

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Hackett, Jeremy 1954(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1954.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Hackett Limited, The Clove Bldg., 4 Maguire St., London SE1 2NQ, England.

CAREER:

Business person, retailer, and writer. Hackett Limited, London, England, cofounder and chairman, beginning 1970s. Previously worked in clothing retail and as a tailor.

WRITINGS:

Mr Classic, photographs by Garda Tang, Thames & Hudson (London, England), 2006.

Also author of "Mr Classic" column for the Independent on Sunday.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeremy Hackett grew up in Great Britain and began his career working in a men's fashion shop in Clifton, Bristol. He went on to work in the fashionable King's Road district of London before joining a tailoring shop located on Savile Row, a shopping area located in Mayfair in central London which is famous around the world for its shops specializing in tailoring men's suits. Before long, Hackett began thinking of starting his own clothing business and began by working on the side buying and selling secondhand clothes (the author still buys vintage clothing for his own personal pleasure).

Hackett eventually teamed with Ashley Lloyd-Jennings to form Hackett Limited, which has gone on to become an extremely successful menswear company. By the 1980s, the company featured three stores in London that sold almost one million dollars of new and used clothing per year, for both men and women. In a 1986 article in WWD, Hackett told James Fallon the philosophy behind the apparel company at the time, noting: "Our customers would never go into a designer shop because they would not pay designer prices. … We are not directing our business at people who want to be fashionable. People come here because they know the clothes will be exactly right and as close to tailor-made as possible without tailor-made prices." Eventually, the Hackett brand went on to develop locations not only in England but in thirteen other countries throughout the world. Although the business has been purchased by a larger conglomerate, Hackett still maintains hands-on oversight of the creativity aspect of the Hackett brand of menswear.

Through his business and his "Mr Classic" newspaper column, which appears in London's Independent on Sunday, Hackett has also become a well-known authority on the "English" style for menswear. "Hackett simply relishes dressing well—and helping others to do the same," wrote Samantha Conti in Menswear. "The key to style, he believes, lies in that extra mile of effort a man should go when getting dressed."

Hackett's coffee-table book, Mr Classic, is a collection of the author's columns written for the Independent on Sunday. The columns reflect the author's views and observations on fashion, and the book includes numerous photographs. According to a contributor to Hope Robertson.com, the book "also could be titled How A Woman Wants Her Man to Dress." However, the columns typically include not only the author's observations about the Classic English style of dressing and tailoring, but also a look into the author's own world of polo and Bentleys, his love for bow ties, and his even greater love for his two Sussex Spaniels. The author's collection of columns features Hackett's wry sense of humor and includes numerous anecdotes and observations, as well as a healthy dose of nostalgia for a past age when men in general paid more attention to how they dressed. The author provides a wide range of advice on how to dress, from the ideal length of the sock to how to tie a bow tie that looks just right. As for the author's thinking about bow ties, he told Samantha Conti in Menswear: "Don't wear a fake, pre-tied bow tie…. Tying a tie is like tying your shoelaces. It isn't hard. If it turns out messy, then tidy it up." In his columns, Hackett also ruminates on such topics as Brooks Brothers shirts, penny loafers, the virtue of pajamas, and the art of monogramming shirts. Overall, the book includes more than forty of Hackett's columns along with photographs of classic English clothing.

Writing on Telegraph.co.uk, Hilary Alexander noted that the author "nostalgically details the customs, dress codes and traditions of the past that inform the way he prefers to dress, as well as his collections for the smart town-and-country set." Referring to the author's writing as "witty" in a Library Journal review, Shauna Frischkorn also pointed out that Hackett "expresses clever but firm opinions."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Daily News Record, October 30, 2006, "Hackett's Next Chapter; Now under New Ownership, British Designer Opens Refurbished Sloane Street Shop, Eyes U.S. Market," p. 82.

Footwear News, December 25, 1989, James Fallon, "Hackett Set to Shutter Boston Unit," p. 14.

Independent (London, England), May 2, 2007, Josh Sims, "My Home: Jeremy Hackett's Urban Idyll." Library Journal, May 1, 2007, Shauna Frischkorn, review of Mr Classic, p. 78.

Menswear, March 1, 2007, "A Touch of Classic; London's Vintage Style King Jeremy Hackett Reigns over His Favorite Subject: The Well-Dressed Man," p. 58.

New York Times, August 12, 1986, Michael Gross, "For Men, British Tradition," p. 20.

WWD, April 16, 1986, James Fallon, "Hackett Takes on the Ladies," p. 18.