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My love of classic menswear grew out of other interests. While studying early 20th century history at the University of Michigan and New College, Oxford, I developed an appreciation for the quotidian elegance of the men who’d invented jazz, weathered the Great Depression, fought a World War, and raised families afterward. Jay Gatsby, Charles Ryder, and Robert Jordan all dressed that way too—in flannel, linen, and tweed—as did the hard-living writers who’d created them. Perhaps most of all, these clothes were the uncredited but beloved stars of Golden Age Hollywood, where they became Platonic forms of elegance on the broad backs of Gable and Cooper, and the light feet of Kelly and Astaire. It was a stylishness that had little to do with “fashion” as I understood it, and everything to do with a sense of masculinity that I, as a young man at the turn of the millennium, felt was mature, honorable, and endangered.
After graduating, I pursued all those other interests professionally—historical museums, book publishing, film and television—but my pleasure in clothes and style remained a daily constant. I eventually developed my sartorialism into a freelance career as a writer and filmmaker for clients ranging from Put This On to The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 2017, I became a fully ordained “man of the cloth” when I started working for the renowned clothier Alan Flusser. Alan’s authoritative books on classic menswear had profoundly shaped my sartorial knowledge and sensibility from the start: I would now learn the trade of custom clothing in his Manhattan atelier.
Three years later, when the opportunity arose to run New & Lingwood’s shop on the Upper East Side, I was ready for the challenge. I’d first visited the famous Jermyn Street location as a penniless pilgrim over twenty years ago, ogling its selection of stiff detachable collars and sumptuous silk dressing gowns like they were the Crown Jewels and Robes of State. As I’ve grown older, New & Lingwood has in a sense grown younger, updating its distinctly bold take on classic British elegance to stay relevant to a new generation of menswear aficionados who respect tradition but want to set their own style.
I came aboard just after we all went into COVID-19 lockdown. With our stores shuttered, we’ve used the opportunity to take stock of who we are—of who YOU are—and will hopefully emerge more finely tuned than ever to the needs of our customers, both old and new. New & Lingwood is a small business—just three shops and a website—but as titans of corporate fashion and retail tumble all around us, we hope to remain a place where you can drop for a quick tipple, a tour around our latest collection, and a chat about the finer points of style. Simply put, we believe that clothes are culture, and culture is a conversation. We hope you’ll join ours.