Devil’s Advocate
Ben Sherman
Miranda Michaelides makes a sturdy defense of Ben Sherman and Lacoste, classic designer labels that have been adopted by less than classic men
Ben Sherman and Lacoste are high class, classic and successful design labels whose clothes are nowadays often seen in the UK on men who are none of those things. The fellows I’m talking about hang around in groups of four or five at the local cattle market night club-bar polishing off a few sherbets (beers) Their Saturday night may involve leery sleazing over passing women, rubbish R&B, possibly a bit of vomit on the way home, maybe a fight, and definitely the unimaginative same the next week. There’s no doubt these are not the men the designers have in mind when styling their latest collection. The models and lifestyles used to advertise their latest range of clothes are a million miles away from their real customer.
These labels, as with many other designer labels, come with a history. Rene Lacoste was a French tennis player who won the US Open in 1926 and caused a sensation with his self-designed short-sleeved light white shirt, a world away from heavy long-sleeved tennis fashions of the time. Nicknamed ‘The Alligator’ by the American press, the name caught on as ‘Le Crocodile’ in his homeland and Lacoste had a suitable logo designed for his blazer. When he retired in 1933 he set up La Societe Chemise Lacoste to produce versions of his tennis shirt, each with a ‘le crocodile’ logo. The line was a success and by the ‘50s his firm had expanded into golf and sailing wear and made a big impact in the States. The company bloomed under family management (Rene’s sons Bernard and Michel) from the early ‘60s to the present. The use in recent times of designer Christophe Lemaire has even seen a resurgence in the brand’s cools status, with young sports people such as tennis player Andy Roddick embracing ‘le croc’.
Lacoste should portray relaxed, casual elegance with, perhaps sporting undertones – a quick game of tennis and Pimms on the lawn. It’s about sportswear with class, clothes which blend style and function with grace and elegance. And yet, and yet… sadly the reality is quite different – in the UK at least. We see scruffy ASBO kids wearing Lacoste as a badge, hanging out on street corners putting the fear of God in local residents. These are the boys who will have a tracksuit ‘for best’ and care more about their trainers than their kids or girlfriends. Outfits are usually accessorised with gold chains and a spare cigarette behind the ears. It’s mixed too with the casual sportswear attire which American rap culture has popularised, the sort that just doesn’t quite work on your average white boy. Unfortunately this has not stopped it from becoming ubiquitous and removing all individuality and style. These clothes usually use achromatic colours and manmade fibres stitched by some child slave-worker in China. And the wearers of these sports clothes rarely partake in any sport whatsoever.
With Ben Sherman fans, it’s another story. On a Friday night, once away from their place of employment, these men will groom and preen, gel and wax, moisturise and lash on the Kouros/CK/Lynx aftershave even before the clothes go on. This modern day man will become peacock and be proud of the way he looks. And so he should be. Anyone who makes this much effort with their appearance cannot be a bad thing and should be admired. But it’s not just about the labels for the Ben Sherman boys, it’s the total look. From shoes to hair products, thought and effort will have gone into their outfits. They have adopted this designer label for the quality fabrics and the original styling which dates back to the 1960’s.
Arthur Bernard Sugarman set up Ben Sherman in back streets of Brighton in 1963. He was already much travelled and had experience in the US clothes industry. His first lines of clothes, which combined lowkey pop art styles with clever military touches (famously the target logo) quickly became the favoured choice of the smartly dressed Mod, suedehead and skinhead of generations past and present – Modfather Paul Weller even recently designed a range of clothing for the brand.
Like the 1960s mod, today’s man will also care about how they look and how they come across. Even if worn with dress down jeans, the Ben Sherman shirt is worn with pride. The man with the most up-to-date Ben Sherman shirt will be the alpha male amongst his peers. He may even own a pink or lilac shirt with embroidery and be manly enough to wear it.
And it needn’t be superficial, to generalize wildly, this man may have a keen interest in sports – football or fishing – and no doubt a gym membership. He is loyal to his friends and will eventually marry his girlfriend. He will have worked hard to earn the money to buy the clothes, and his local stockist will have him on speed-dial to call him up first when the new range has been delivered.
So whether as an eminently Brit fashion shared with Mod culture or suave European leisurewear, Lacoste and Ben Sherman are very much more than the drab costume of lager-swigging hoolies who populate the parochial high street at kick-out time on a weekend evening.
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