The unofficial Drake's London Appreciation Thread

[TheShetlandSweater]

Some of the styling in the new feature "A Tweed Story" looks very nice.

The scarf here is an interesting way of bridging the formality between the less formal elements (the jeans and the polo) and the jacket. Also creates a nice barrier between the polo and jacket, so they aren't as harshly juxtaposed (not so sure the tweed would look good against a polo). The choice of a navy scarf is nice because it blends in nicely with the polo and jeans and thus doesn't look too colorful or dandy. The scarf also prevents the outfit from being too bland or boring. It adds a nice amount of visual interest without standing out too much. A surprisingly wearable look. (The adjacent tie-jacket-shirt pic is also nice, albeit much more standard.)

You have a similar thing going on here with the pink scarf and pink sweatshirt. Again, I think the pink sweatshirt wouldn't go so well with the tweed without the scarf. Too much of a gap in formality. But the scarf helps relate the two much better. The scarf has the formality of the jacket, but the color of the sweatshirt. Very interesting idea. Never thought of doing something like this and not sure I have the wardrobe to support it, but I am very intrigued and impressed.

Not sure I'd recommend this one, but the model makes it look cool. In all fairness, this model would make a lot of stuff look cool.

Nothing too complicated here. In case you haven't gotten the memo, olive goes well with red-striped or pink shirts. Something about purer colors going well with their muddier complements.

I think this is more the model than anything else. I am not normally a fan of beanies. I normally think they look too youthful for tailoring, but here the youthfulness of the beanie makes an interesting contrast with the non-youthfulness of the model.

 

[mbb355]

Some of the styling in the new feature "A Tweed Story" looks very nice.

View attachment 1511369
The scarf here is an interesting way of bridging the formality between the less formal elements (the jeans and the polo) and the jacket. Also creates a nice barrier between the polo and jacket, so they aren't as harshly juxtaposed (not so sure the tweed would look good against a polo). The choice of a navy scarf is nice because it blends in nicely with the polo and jeans and thus doesn't look too colorful or dandy. The scarf also prevents the outfit from being too bland or boring. It adds a nice amount of visual interest without standing out too much. A surprisingly wearable look. (The adjacent tie-jacket-shirt pic is also nice, albeit much more standard.)
View attachment 1511371
You have a similar thing going on here with the pink scarf and pink sweatshirt. Again, I think the pink sweatshirt wouldn't go so well with the tweed without the scarf. Too much of a gap in formality. But the scarf helps relate the two much better. The scarf has the formality of the jacket, but the color of the sweatshirt. Very interesting idea. Never thought of doing something like this and not sure I have the wardrobe to support it, but I am very intrigued and impressed.

View attachment 1511373
Not sure I'd recommend this one, but the model makes it look cool. In all fairness, this model would make a lot of stuff look cool.

View attachment 1511374
Nothing too complicated here. In case you haven't gotten the memo, olive goes well with red-striped or pink shirts. Something about purer colors going well with their muddier complements.
View attachment 1511378
I think this is more the model than anything else. I am not normally a fan of beanies. I normally think they look too youthful for tailoring, but here the youthfulness of the beanie makes an interesting contrast with the non-youthfulness of the model.

Agree with most of this. Not sure I agree with your points on the formality gap between, e.g., the tweed jacket and the sweatshirt. These tweeds are versatile garments that work well with casual attire because of their spongey texture, busy patterns, and Drakes' relaxed fit. What's your favorite of the featured jackets? I think I favor the brown & burgundy houndstooth best. I also wonder why this lookbook skipped over the "brown, black and blue overcheck houndstooth" jacket, another tweed from the same season.

 

[TheShetlandSweater]

Agree with most of this. Not sure I agree with your points on the formality gap between, e.g., the tweed jacket and the sweatshirt. These tweeds are versatile garments that work well with casual attire because of their spongey texture, busy patterns, and Drakes' relaxed fit. What's your favorite of the featured jackets? I think I favor the brown & burgundy houndstooth best. I also wonder why this lookbook skipped over the "brown, black and blue overcheck houndstooth" jacket, another tweed from the same season.

They may work together despite the formality gap, but I think there is a formality gap and that the scarves help bridge that gap nicely. Whether you think that gap needs bridging is up to you. They have pictures later on without the scarves and I think they look fine, but not quite as good.

This is fine, but just not quite as interesting, exciting, or stylish IMO.

As for which jacket I like best, it is hard to say without actually handling the fabrics and seeing them in person. A lot also depends on what you want to use the jacket for. That being said, I think the one in the above picture and the bottom three pictures looks really nice and also very versatile. I think it could work with a lot of different color schemes, not just the standard grey trousers, blue shirt kind of look. They show it above with cream, olive, and brown, but it could also work with a lighter denim, khaki, and grey of course. You can try pretty casual combinations like the one above, but you could also go a little more formal and urbane and pair it with charcoal flannels, a white or university stripe OCBD and black knit tie (maybe...it depends on how grey or beige the jacket actually is). I wouldn't go with black shoes, though.

The jacket with the pink sweatshirt is reminiscent of that Moon tweed that has been popular for a while, albeit a bit darker and a bit smaller patterned. It looks a little less versatile, but really nice if you just want a standard tweed jacket to wear with grey trousers, repp tie, etc. You could try it with other things too, but it's a bit stronger and darker so it won't work as well with lighter colored pants.

 

[mbb355]

They may work together despite the formality gap, but I think there is a formality gap and that the scarves help bridge that gap nicely. Whether you think that gap needs bridging is up to you. They have pictures later on without the scarves and I think they look fine, but not quite as good.

View attachment 1511577

This is fine, but just not quite as interesting, exciting, or stylish IMO.

As for which jacket I like best, it is hard to say without actually handling the fabrics and seeing them in person. A lot also depends on what you want to use the jacket for. That being said, I think the one in the above picture and the bottom three pictures looks really nice and also very versatile. I think it could work with a lot of different color schemes, not just the standard grey trousers, blue shirt kind of look. They show it above with cream, olive, and brown, but it could also work with a lighter denim, khaki, and grey of course. You can try pretty casual combinations like the one above, but you could also go a little more formal and urbane and pair it with charcoal flannels, a white or university stripe OCBD and black knit tie (maybe...it depends on how grey or beige the jacket actually is). I wouldn't go with black shoes, though.

The jacket with the pink sweatshirt is reminiscent of that Moon tweed that has been popular for a while, albeit a bit darker and a bit smaller patterned. It looks a little less versatile, but really nice if you just want a standard tweed jacket to wear with grey trousers, repp tie, etc. You could try it with other things too, but it's a bit stronger and darker so it won't work as well with lighter colored pants.

Interesting you say that. Your point that it's difficult to select a favorite without actually handling the pieces or seeing them in person is well taken. But my view is that the brown/burgundy houndstooth (similar to the Moon, as you say, though houndstooth instead of glen check) is most versatile because it is neither light nor dark, but rather a kind of mid-brown that works with either light (beige, cream) or dark (charcoal, navy) trousers. The jacket you selected, while beautiful, is on the lighter side of things so I might worry dark trousers would present too stark a contrast. Perhaps that concern is ill-founded since the jacket you selected has dark colors in it. But again, I'd need to see the piece in person to know for sure.

 

[TheShetlandSweater]

Interesting you say that. Your point that it's difficult to select a favorite without actually handling the pieces or seeing them in person is well taken. But my view is that the brown/burgundy houndstooth (similar to the Moon, as you say, though houndstooth instead of glen check) is most versatile because it is neither light nor dark, but rather a kind of mid-brown that works with either light (beige, cream) or dark (charcoal, navy) trousers. The jacket you selected, while beautiful, is on the lighter side of things so I might worry dark trousers would present too stark a contrast. Perhaps that concern is ill-founded since the jacket you selected has dark colors in it. But again, I'd need to see the piece in person to know for sure.

I don't think it's actually as light as it looks. Painters like to talk about 9-step value scales with 9 being the darkest and 1 being the lightest. I think this would be a 4. It looks lighter though because it is very neutral and very unsaturated (very grey). I think this is also why it would be very versatile. Less saturated colors tend to go with more (although grey jackets are actually less versatile for reasons I'll mention in a minute) because they just can't contrast that much. This is why grey trousers go with so much--they are just very unsaturated. Same with middle values. They can only contrast so much. Things farther apart in value will contrast a lot (think black (9) and white (1)). A 4 can only be so far off in value from the rest of the ensemble.

With standard tailoring ensembles you have to balance the jacket, the shirt, and the tie. From a value perspective, the way this is standardly done is that the jacket is definitively darker than the shirt and the tie is definitively darker than the shirt. This way you have darker, lighter, darker. The jacket and tie don't have to be dark, just darker and a 4 on the value scale will give you that. You don't have to go with the darker, lighter, darker combo, but things become trickier if you don't. If you get rid of the tie, things become much easier because you have much less to balance. Think of a cream linen jacket. You could pair that with a striped shirt, or a blue shirt, a denim shirt, or even a madras shirt (Mark Cho has a video with this combo). But there wouldn't be too many tie options that go well with this. For evening wear you have the classic ivory jacket, white shirt, black bowtie look, but that only really works because the bowtie is so small. Imagine what that would look like with a black grenadine!

Another thing to consider is how much things fade into the background. Less textured things and voluminous things will fade into the background more and so will less saturated colors. Less patterned things will also fade into the background more. You generally want the trousers and and shirt to fade more into the background and the jacket and tie to be more in the foreground. This is why trousers are almost always low saturation in tailored ensembles (grey, olive, khaki), and why lighter, paler, less saturated shirts are the norm. This is also why navy jacket grey trousers works well, but grey jacket navy trousers doesn't: the jacket is more background than the trousers. This is also why patterned pants are harder to wear and why chocolate brown pants are harder to wear than one might think. Ties tend to be more saturated, have more sheen, and have plenty of volume. This helps them come forward. Jacketings tend to be bulkier, more textured, and more saturated and this also helps them come forward.

I think the jacket I was talking about above really versatile because it is saturated and patterned enough to come to the foreground, but not too saturated that it will clash with a lot. It is also mid-value and this helps the range of trousers it will go with. For the sake of contrast, imagine a dark navy jacket. I don't think dark navy jackets go excellently with very light grey trousers, or cream trousers, or lighter khakis (though these combinations are pretty common) because there is a big value gap. Dark navy will go much better with mid or dark grey trousers or darker khakis because that value gap will be smaller.

 

[Dadacantona]

I also wonder why this lookbook skipped over the "brown, black and blue overcheck houndstooth" jacket, another tweed from the same season.

Same. thats my favourite of this season‘s jackets.

 

[Philip_85]

Has Drake's every offered any of their tailoring in long sizes?

 

[Calanon]

Found another hole in my lambswool jumper from Drake's in the side, so screw it, no good at repairing so I'll post it for repairs - £25 for two hole repairs isn't the worth, but it's annoying I didn't notice it when I bought it.

 

[CGN_Bonvivant]

ALD for Drake's is on the way!

 

[clemente21]

Anyone have ideas about how Drakes chukka sizing corresponds to most C&J models? If I'm a 9 US in the chukkas I'm guessing 9.5, but would love to make sure before making these impulsive eBay purchases.

 

[Nat25]

What’s the latest ALD drakes collection?

 

[mbb355]

ALD for Drake's is on the way!

What was the last one like? Is it just accessories or what?

 

[Remy Fool]

What was the last one like? Is it just accessories or what?

https://www.drakes.com/usa/editorial/drake-s-x-aime-leon-dore/

Iirc the suit was also for sale but it's been too long. Lots of scarves and hats and shirts I think.

 

[Dadacantona]

The last one was quite a big collection. Cotton suits, games blazers, tracksuits, scarves and hats.

 

[mbb355]

https://www.drakes.com/usa/editorial/drake-s-x-aime-leon-dore/

Iirc the suit was also for sale but it's been too long. Lots of scarves and hats and shirts I think.

A lot of people seem to love this collab but this is one of my least favorite Drakes lookbooks. Ah, well.