@EyeRespect: Martin Freeman in the Eye Respect Showroom and has just picked up his latest pair of Mark Powell x Eye Respect Sunnies (07.11.2012)
He looks freaking amazing. GAWD MARTIN JUST STOP OKAY?
Oh Martin. Could not love you more.
For those of you into the suit porn and/or the writing thereof, here’s Martin Freeman looking unspeakably awesome in a—HOMG hnnnng—two-button double-breasted suit (I’ve never seen THAT before), while hanging out with his favorite tailor, Mark Powell.
Mark Powell is considered a ‘Savile Row renegade.’ The tailors of the UK have guilds and associations to protect the integrity and craftsmanship of traditional British tailoring, and Savile Row has one of its own, The Savile Row Bespoke Association. Not just anybody can open a shop on Savile Row and claim themselves to be A Savile Row Tailor; they have quality control. Mark Powell is totally in their league and would be welcome if he ever chose to open a shop on the Row, but he finds them overly conservative and prefers the weirder atmosphere down in Soho.
Powell’s clothing lines have a strong 1930s gangster flair to them, along with pulling from other distinctive historical periods, and he’s a strong presence in the mod movement. Mod is a gangster-inspired high-fashion punk movement that first rose in the 1970s and 1980s. Your mod boys like to go for that dangerous combination of thuggish rebellion and a sense of taste.
Which may shed some light on Martin referring to himself as a ‘vengeful mod.’ XD
(For a bit of interesting Sherlock meta, Vivienne Westwood—the designer of Moriarty’s suit in The Great Game—is the empress of punk fashion. She was active as a clothing designer and a participant in the thick of the 1970s punk movement. So in the language of suits, Sherlock is razor-sharp technomodern in his Spencer Hart, while Jim is an anarchistic punk at heart and John…wears cable-knit and gingham. XD But his ACTOR dresses more like Moriarty than Moriarty does!)
Edit: Esterbrook pointed out my brain malfunction. The original mod was a movement in the 1960s, and is strongly tied into soul and Motown, the Beats, R&B, and all that. There was a mod revival, though, in the 1970s, that WAS tied into punk subculture. That’s the one I was thinking of.