Footballing legend Gary Neville and the Mayfair-based menswear brand Hawes & Curtis have unveiled a stylish new collection to kickstart a summer of sport
Words: Will Mofftt
Standing before a sharply-suited crowd on the top floor of Hawes & Curtisâ Jermyn Street store, Gary Neville endorsed his new menswear collection with trademark humility. âThereâs some fantastic looking blokes here,â he said. âWhy have you picked me?â
Launched just over a month before England flew out to Germany for Euros â24 and the fever pitch of another tournament swept us all into that familiar carousel of hope and dread, the 32-piece collection has what Neville describes as âa bit of everythingâ. Lightweight linen suits in classic navy and stone are paired with crisp linen shirts, with chino trousers and cotton polos providing a more laid back silhouette.
âThe clothes from this collection are the kinds of items a lot of pundits will be wearing. I started to wear them and just really loved them,â Neville said. âIâm happy to take them to the Euros.â
The ex-England and Manchester United footballers involvement came about through meeting Hawes & Curtis CEO Touker Suleyman on the set of Dragonâs Den. The pair have become friends since meeting on the show, an experience Neville described as âthe most nervous Iâve ever beenâ.
When I ask Suleyman, the British-Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur, why he chose Neville as a brand ambassador his answer is short and sweet. âWe wanted an iconic English person and Gary said heâd love to do it.â
The enlistment of a proper football man to launch a collection aimed at the sporty and the sauve makes sense, particularly given Nevilleâs reputation not just as an omnipresent pundit but as a hardworking businessman. He has the capacity to cut through social boundaries and appeal to a broad base.
Since he acquired Hawes & Curtis in 2001 for ÂŁ1 â the company was ÂŁ500,000 in debt and about to go into administration â Suleyman has transformed the brand into a flourishing business that turns over ÂŁ50 million a year.
Founded by tailors Ralph Hawes and George Frederic Curtis in 1913 the venture has operated from Jermyn Street ever since, serving royalty â it held a royal warrant from 1922 until 1985 â and the rich and famous. Former customers include Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Fred Astaire.
Strolling down Jermyn Street in the early noughties Suleyman, who had experience working in clothing manufacturing, walked past rows of menswear stores and asked himself âwhat do they do that I canât do?â. He went through the company accounts of all the brands on the street and I came across Hawes & Curtis, which was up for sale.
Taking on its debts and liabilities the entrepreneur has turned the heritage store from an ailing brand to a profitable business with 15 branches across the UK. It also has stores in Germany and the UAE, while the company operates a British, German and Australian website.
If that sounds like a straightforward arc towards profitability, think again. As Suleyman tells me: it has been a learning experience from day one.
âAt the beginning, when you start a business like this, it's very difficult to get scale, so we opened loads of smaller stores thinking that was it. Then I realised that that was not the way forward,â he recalls. âSo we closed a lot of stores and pushed into much bigger stores. Itâs all about our flagship stores from now on in key towns [across the country].â
Suleyman talks of plans to open another five to six stores in the not too distant future, one of those being on Nevilleâs home patch in Manchester. He also has ambitions to expand into Birmingham, Cardiff and Liverpool. Sharpening the brandâs online presence in the US is another priority. âWeâve got a very good business website but we can do better,â he tells me matter of factly.
With this embrace of digital marketing strategies and a pivot towards leisurewear itâs clear that Hawes & Curtis is evolving with the times. While that seems like a natural course to take, especially given the demand for smart menswear beyond the triage of suit, shirt and tie, there is an inevitable balance here to be struck between heritage principles and contemporary tastes. How does Suleyman plan to modernise without losing that traditional penchant for quality tailoring?
âItâs a 110 year old brand. Iâm not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater, that's for sure,â he responds. âWhat weâre doing is modernising the product and the clothing. Weâre looking at spending money on our shop fit going forward, but weâre always keeping in mind that weâre a heritage brand. Ultimately, there arenât that many of us left.â