StockholmFW
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They had The Row menswear for a short while back in 2009.
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Mention of the streetwear trend causes the sisters to raise their eyebrows in unison. “I don’t think people are taking big risks in menswear,” says Ashley.
“It’s funny, because this is more of a risk than putting words on a T-shirt,” Mary-Kate says. “Who knew that black, gorgeous, perfectly fitted suits would be a risk?”
The Row’s president, David Schulte, suggests the industry is lacking the male equivalent of the sophisticated ease that the label has offered women. “There’s plenty of hoodies out there, but there’s not a lot of places to go buy a beautiful suit,” he says.
The jacket was made in Japan, a nation whose strong tailoring tradition is little known in the U.S. This new men’s collection is The Row’s latest initiative, and the subdued tones subtly exude ease. There is no bold Gucci-inspired embroidery, Thom Browne–esque shrunken sizing or low-slung streetwear styling.
Ashley has been wearing the jacket as part of the meticulous system that she and her sister formulated since founding The Row in 2006. It is the result of a two-year project in which they and their small team traveled the globe, inspected seams, counted stitches and pitted factories against one another. Taking a page from industrial manufacturing, they employed performance trials that they call “wear-testing”: trying the clothes themselves or asking friends and associates to borrow samples and report back. This is not new—this is how The Row works: slowly.
Back to the jacket. Its cut is infinitesimally shorter than that of traditional blazers, and it features a style of lining the sisters discovered in Japan in which a layer of the suiting fabric is sewn inside nearly to the armpit. Into this is cut the interior pocket, which Ashley calls, with precision, a besom—the tailoring term for a flapless pocket with reinforced trim. A signature of The Row’s new suiting, this lining gives blazers a polished look while eliminating layers of horsehair or other structural materials that shape many European and American suit jackets.
The decision to expand into menswear was prompted by customers, friends and family who frequently asked, “When are you starting it? Where can I find it?” Ashley says. The concept was to create something “for the husband” of The Row’s female clients, adds Mary-Kate, noting that her own husband, Olivier Sarkozy, is a habitual suit wearer. In 2016, the sisters began the development process in earnest. “We spent a year really figuring out the fit of the suit,” says Ashley. “Single-breasted, double-breasted, tuxedo,” says Mary-Kate.
They labored over and then lengthened the pants’ rise at the waist. “I think a men’s rise has gotten short and small,” says Ashley. “There’s something about a slightly higher rise that is quite sexy.”
“We’re talking millimeters,” says Mary-Kate.
They sent identical instructions and materials to different factories, evaluating what came back. Some factories improved on the designs by perfecting the stitching around a buttonhole or collar, or making a subtly better curve on a cuff. “People have their strengths. We like to utilize them,” Mary-Kate says.
And designing for men has inspired the sisters to consider new tailoring for their women’s collections. Ashley says, “Menswear has shifted our eye.”
