The Gold Standard, Harrods' smart new menswear department

“The concept was actually very simple,” says Jason Broderick, general merchandise manager for menswear at Harrods, “we just wanted it to be the most luxurious menswear department in the world.” Broderick and Marigay McKee, Fashion and Beauty Director, are co-creators - with US architectural firm, Callison - of the slick gold, taupe and metallic ground floor. It’s a gilded backdrop for the sharpest menswear; a playground designed for Hedge Funders with an AmEx Centurion card and an hour to spare.

The £9 million menswear department curves around the south eastern corner of the world’s most famous department store bathing Bottega Veneta, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Dunhill, Turnbull and Asser, Lanvin, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana and others in a golden light that seems to suggest that if you pull on that two button cashmere Bottega jacket (£1600) the world might just become a better place. Even by only a cuff length.

“Traditionally we had the scenario of 'the grey suits are over here sir' or 'the navy this way...' and so on,” says Broderick. “Whereas men today want to feel and live a retail experience by looking out for things by themselves. Men have become more confident shopping for their clothes over the last ten years in ways that traditionally only women did.” Hence the shop-within-shop idea giving each brand the space to create their own signature within the overall Harrods banner. At Louis Vuitton their emblem of luxurious travel is suggested with their monogrammed upended trunks (£21,500 each). While outsize black ginger jars like lacquered sentinels give the Ralph Lauren Purple Label its esoteric air.

Exclusives and one-offs are a Harrods signature (as if gulls’ eggs really could be available throughout the year if only you knew where to look). This brand value is embraced in the menswear department with one-of-a-kind items scattered throughout the collections. Just one Burberry trench coat, signed in the lining by its designer Christopher Bailey, was left on the rail during my recent visit. Though my guess is it’ll be long gone by the time you’re reading these words.

The-not-quite-finished basement houses Tom Ford’s only London ‘shop’ – a paean to masculine sartorial excess (I defy anyone to not find a home for his tan alligator, chunky zipped bowling bag, as long as they’ve got £15,000 handy). It plays its occult seductions opposite the personal shopping department and alongside other men’s brands such as Neil Barratt, Paul Smith and Rag and Bone. This space is itching to become the throbbing bass to the heady sartorial notes upstairs.

The boys are back in town

The dedicated menswear day at LFW signifies both what we men choose to wear being of increasing importance to an industry in tough economic times, but also a welcome change of pace and mood to the high-jinx, feeding-frenzy called womenswear.

Men’s clothing presents itself, even in a catwalk setting, in a calm and measured way. Suave Cary Grant to the women's gobby Lady Gaga. Without every being dull, of course. And true to the renegade spirit of London’s fashion weeks past – there was the eye-popping clash of the unwearable pressed up against the eccentric, nodding towards the slick and covetable.

Into the latter group was Royal College of Art alumna, Carolyn Massey’s collection, inspired in part by a camping trip to Dungeness, hence the drawstring detailed caghoules, so refined that they at times morphed into shirts. Her trousers were sharp and flat-fronted and her shorts, neatly tailored. The stand out piece, a multi-pocketed caghoul-inspired top summed up the luxury utilitarian spirit of the show.

The big guns, including Mr High Street himself, Philip Green, was a front row presence for the Topman sponsored MAN shows where Katie Eary’s disturbing cut-out collection had models painted with exposed sinews, blood vessels and bones. While Topman’s own collection, a refined take on youthful, sports-influenced menswear – cotton trousers and wide short-sleeved shirts, trod the commercial/edge line with easy confidence.

The evening’s selection of tailor-to-watch, Wintle, a Child of the Jago, Tim Soar and outré B-store climaxed what was a confident day of British men’s fashion. Noteworthy were Wintle’s pale, loose-cut tailoring with contrast ribboned edging and bStore’s preppy elegance of buttoned up, loose shirts and old-school satchels. We may not choose to wear all of what was on offer, but with this standard of product, we’ll certainly be spoilt for choice.

What Eddie did next...

‘We get the style set coming in on a Saturdays, cool couples in matching trainers and a dog,’ says Eddie Pendergast, a kid with a shiny new toy. And why shouldn’t he be grinning, his just-a-month-open store has swiftly gained a healthy slice of local consumer ker-ching. ‘Throughout the week it’s architects, the creative’s from Hoxton and Shoreditch, just look at those people going by. Is there a more diverse street in London?’

And he’s right. As we peer through the picture windows at the front of Pendergast’s latest venture, Present (launched with his business partner, Steve Davies), the view outside is almost comic in its clichés of urban cool. Dreadlocked skate kids in Keds and baggy Firetrap jeans dodging around vagrants and anxious City types who’ve slipped through the north edge of the Square Mile like spies under the Berlin Wall. And what they all do as they glide, amble or shuffle past the Present window is look inside.

Where they see Gwilm Davies, recent winner of the World Barista Championship (making him the best coffee maker in the world, indeed) holding court over his treasured La Victoria Arduino machine as it wafts the mouth-watering aroma of freshly brewed Arabica coffee. This neat placement of both talent and coffee ensures a tight knot of drinkers at the entrance intriguing passers by to head deeper inside the shop. ‘The action at the door is deliberate, it gets people interested to explore further,’ says Pendergast.

Where they find a surprisingly welcoming 1200 square foot industrial space. The floors may be poured concrete, but the mixture of period display cabinets and high tech metal and wood shelving softens the effect with the help of magazines like limited distribution Monocle, vintage Sex Pistol posters and handmade Ceri Trudon scented candles. Artfully worn-in Haversack tailoring from Japan (before sold only at Liberty), and Ramdane Touhami’s cult brand, Resistance R T with its clashing checked bombers and gilets with satin linings, compete with Davies’ own-design Tricker hybrid boots, the shop’s biggest hit so far. This is menswear as sensory overload – colour, aroma and detail grabbing your attention from every surface.

It’s the confidence with which Pendergast and Davies, who between them have over thirty five years in menswear design and retailing, mix up diverse elements at price points from the eye-watering to the every day (a cup of Gwilm’s coffee is a steal at £2.40 for a flat white) which will likely ensure their success. With a smart roster of brands lining up to join in the fun including Macintosh and a 600 square feet of basement about to be integrated into the retail space, this is no longer just the present but, indeed, the future too…