Since arriving at fashion week back in February 2008, womenswear has always been strong at Jaeger London. Each season Stuart Stockdale delivers strong pieces that women actually want to wear, but it's not all about womenswear. Menswear continues to be a key part of the brand. To celebrate that the brand has decided to launch their first freestanding menswear store.
Located in Cabot Place West, Canary Wharf, the store will focus on tailoring by providing a Jaeger London branded fitting service in store to make sure that your suits sit perfectly. "This is an exciting development for Jaeger menswear and its expansion," Belinda Earl, Jaeger's Group Chief Executive, said. "Canary Wharf is firmly established as a destination shopping area, giving us the opportunity to showcase our strong and stylish menswear collection to our growing menswear customer base."
The store officially opens to the public on November 21.
Since its runway debut at London Fashion Week back in 2008, Stuart Stockdale has failed to disappoint with his collections for Jaeger London. One hand that's a good thing but on the flip side it creates a huge expectation every season for the brand to deliver and unfortunately their S/S12 collection wasn't as strong as what we've seen from them in the past.
The collection opened with colour but in a subdued way compared to the neons and metallics that've seen elsewhere. Soft yellows came on mid-sleeved summer dresses, a subtly pleated double pocketed dress in mint came styled over a long sleeve yellow top and high waisted skirts came in a fair orange. Even the outline of a summer trench came in the hue.
While it was good to see Stockdale experiment with these tones this season on pieces like scallop hemmed cut out dresses, they didn't work as well as the more muted pieces sheer black dresses and green and black looks like a two piece shorts suit that came towards the end.
Good news: all you fans of Jaeger London's effortless aesthetic and statement pieces will be happy to know that the brand's collection will be streamed live this season. Following in the footsteps of Marc Jacobs and Burberry, amongst others, the label will be making its show more accessible by allowing fashionistas at home to stream the show as it happens.
Tune in here or here at 3.30 p.m. GMT on February 22 to get your very own front-row view of the show. Belinda Earl, CEO of the group, is pleased with this development because the brand is "utilising the power of the internet to share the excitement of our runway show with our customers, giving them a preview of Jaeger London's Autumn/Winter 2010 collection at the same time as the world's leading fashion editors and stylists." Lucky us! Just ensure to set a reminder and let us know what you think of the collection.
Stuart Stockdale, design director of Jaeger London, reached a huge milestone this September: The luxury brand's 125th anniversary coincided with the 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week. Lara Stone, Jaeger's Autumn 2009 campaign model, was lined up to walk the runway. Masses of international press had flown in. Even Anna Wintour had RSVPed. "There is a big buzz around Jaeger at the moment," Stockdale said. "It's a great time for British fashion."
A great time, indeed. Just ask Michael Salac, director of Blow PR, which handles up to 16 shows each London Fashion Week. London could be on the way to its next 'moment', too. "I think that Paris, Milan, London and New York always have their time," Salac explained. "The last time London was so popular was back in the mid-'90s." Sarah Mower, the British Fashion Council's Ambassador for Emerging Talent, told the New York Times in September that now, designers are open to advice from buyers and mentors - which could turn into always-valuable sales. And if more money's following British designers, then will the crowds have to keep coming, right?
Some designers have a way of never choosing a bad project. Case in point: Stuart Stockdale. The current design director for Jaeger, Stockdale trained under John Galliano while studying at Central St Martins, and from there, went on to work with big names like Jasper Conran and J Crew. When he took over at Pringle of Scotland from 2000 to 2005, the label took on a sexy factor, largely credited to Mr Stockdale himself.
The designer's Jaeger days started just last year, and after three seasons showing his collections at London Fashion Week, Stockdale has the fashion community wrapped around his little finger again. Affordable luxury that looks endlessly expensive? He's got plenty of it, thanks.
This week, Stockdale chatted with The Fash Pack about his need for Kings of Leon and keeping himself creative. Hint: at the weekend, you can find him at the museums.
