Gentlemen's Day Out In London | Kirby Allison & Tom Chamberlin

you know it really is so nice to be back in london after so long i've got so many great memories of this place uh today i'm gonna be meeting up with my good friend tom chamberlain editor of the rake and we're gonna be having a nice kind of bucket list day in london if you will but i thought there's really no better way to start the day than with the proper shave from trufin hill so we're going to head in here first i'm going to have a nice proper wet shave and then i'm going to rendezvous with tom to do some of my favorite things here in london [Music] jason see you again yes thank you come through appreciate it proper british morning [Music] now it's so nice to be back here in london how have you been though so have you been well yes you know it's been a long 18 months but it's nice to finally set foot back on british soil exactly have a proper shave here back in town back in town i've been really looking forward to this it's uh one of those rituals that's uniquely in london come over me slowly sir comfortable very [Music] would it help if i invite mike how's that temperature [Music] so with regards to using the badger brush the main goal that you try to achieve is to lift up the hair that's the idea of it so when you are you know using it onto your skin it's helping to exfoliate so taking the dead skin off and then lifting getting the soap all the way around the hair so you have to make sure you go in all the directions once you finish push it up to the opposite direction that you're going to shave and again that will allow you to get a little bit closer without you having to try how aggressively do you work it into the skin you don't need to be i mean say for instance the softer your brush the less aggressive it will feel it's not necessarily that you have to be too you know rough with it once you've made up a lava it's more just making sure you get it around the hair you can be aggressive there's no you know it just depends on your skin type and what you like and what you don't like really [Music] so okay [Music] [Music] me [Music] cheese [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] six [Music] [Music] so what i'm applying on you now is the bomb okay like i said to use the first thing that we apply after the shave so like i said with regards to the balm the reason why we use it first over the moisturizers is more specific for the area that we shave ultimately is it's better for what you need it's giving the skin back what it needs essentially when we shave we take the natural oils off the skin that balm is giving it back the moisturizer is more to oversee it which would be the second one that we apply now for yourself at home you wouldn't necessarily need to use both it's a little bit more of a luxurious like approach to it i would always recommend the balm over the moisturizer [Music] so do [Music] so [Music] so basically with regards to once i've finished the shape the most important thing that you put on after you shave is an aftershave balm okay so that's more specific for the area that we shaved so if i don't know if you notice but i only put it onto the cheeks whereas this one i'm putting through the whole face this one is a moisturizer this is more just to oversee make sure we're covered all corners and give back the face what we've taken off and some [Music] with regards to your shave this gives you in better preparation for your neck shave one thing that we'd like to achieve here is to leave the skin in better condition than what it came in [Music] and a lot of guys think by getting the closest shave in the world it's the best shave in the world but the best shape is to look after the skin as opposed to trying to push because no one comes and fills your face to double check if you've done a good job not that you shouldn't try to get it close but there's direction that you're shaving is better for you as opposed to trying to push extra once you shave right what i mean by right is shaving with the gap with the grain as opposed to against the grain that gets you a closer and closer shave and it's better for your skin so majority of people through to your neck is to shape up okay to a point about here it's going to start to pull back the razor that's where you stop and you connect everything else down to it you can shave across just never back up onto the skin you over shave you get ingrown hairs and what happens is the skin heals up quicker than the head has time to come out so that's what gives you like razor bumps gives you irritation and can make it sore so another tip when you are shaving before you actually start you should try to heat up the skin as much as possible ideally either have a shave after your bath or shower or if you have a little bit of a hot towel by your sink run it under the hot water get it nice and hot what this does is just relaxes the skin helps the blade so you just you don't cause it less irritation ultimately the next thing would be maybe like a pre-shave oil okay that just helps the the blade to just glide a little bit easier again ultimately causing less irritation and leaving your face in better condition [Music] with regards to razors and things like that there's no right or wrong uh to which razor you decide to use but we we recommend to use a double edge razor it's a little bit more traditional plus one it's better for the environment two it's cheaper for blades three it's a closer shave so without you having to try you get it closer and again ultimately leaving your skin in better condition do you have a scent that we've got citrus we've got fresh we've got limes we've got traditional but like a sandalwood or something a little more traditional [Music] you tune up for me sir [Music] brilliant troopit really has the best products so there's no better way to begin a morning start up or shave exactly like we say start it off right yes sir thank you jason thank you so much [Music] wow what an enjoyment you know there's a few things i enjoy more in london than a proper shave it was great to catch up with jason uh and uh let's get the day started so i'm gonna meet up with tom uh he's down at the piccadilly arcade uh having a shoe shine or actually the burlington arcade having a shoe shine so let's go meet up with tom and today he and i are going to enjoy some of our favorite things to do here in london [Music] kirby tom it has been entirely too long how's everything going welcome back to london well you know it's so great to finally you know step foot back on british soil well it's almost home yes we've got proper british weather here today so yes and it sort of ruined my shoes let's go get them polished is that right yeah sorry for that to delay coming to see you but we we have a big day ahead of us yeah i'm excited well you know i mean it's my first time back in a long time and what better way than to spend a day in london with a good friend doing the things that we love doing that's extremely fascinating but if i can live up to it how have they been in london the past few months picking up kirby i've got to be honest uh and and i'm really thrilled about that i think that people are really i mean you know you there's a lot of people here today this is um this is sponsoring so boston is always quite busy but nevertheless um it's nice to see people out and about yeah that being said you and i are of course big fans of the slightly up the beaten so that's where we're off to um nevertheless it's um it's nice to be or to feel like things are turning slightly yeah absolutely well it's nice to see the heritage firms really exiting and the other end of this after what's been a really challenging period for them i mean i mean by and large i think that we can't discount covid's impact on the businesses but i think that their streamlined businesses and their also this the story that they tell narration i think narrative is going to play such a key role in every shot every brand big or small these days and because it's inherently built into these brands hopefully they're going to be okay and now that america seems to be opening up more they're going to be able to get out there and do their trunk shows and that's a big difference well i think as people are kind of reintegrating into the world you know being able to actually travel and meet with people yeah right you know seeing taylor seeing shoemakers versus walking into large box shops yes is really going to bode well for savile row and for german street and for these heritage brands that have you know really been serving the well-dressed for such a long time and also you know as um as way and i think i've spoke to you about this before way um was saying how uh where people are going to go out they are keen to be uh dressing up just you know just before and revisiting a kind of a greater expression of their through their clothes of themselves and i think that yes circumstance means that people won't want to dress up anymore but ultimately i think that there's a sort of a precariousness a vivaciousness something something that people are intrinsically wanting to say that is a bit louder than before and so going someone likes to have a robe getting something made has the ability to do that and so the hopefully that goes well for heritage shops yeah as covered you know departs and people yes returning to shops but time will tell yeah now kirby do you know why i'm excited you're back in london well as much as nice to see you face-to-face i think it's fair to say that you've kind of kept a lot of people going through kobe the content you've been making everything you've been doing has been really terrific and um i think that it's exciting because people have heard that you've been coming there's been a sort of cacophony of of of anticipation and um hopefully it means things are opening up i mean you know having not been here for so long i mean there's so many stories that we've wanted to tell and haven't been able to yeah i mean savile row has changed a bit since the last time i've been here tom yeah i mean yes both good and bad i think uh there's the people that you would expect to be here however obviously there's been some casualties so over here we've got uh kilgauer and it's empty and it's a real shame yeah an abercrombie and pitch on the corner is close which is probably a nice thing i mean not for them but yeah let's see um the uh you know over here hardy amy's uh had to close up shop but we see two new brands have filled the slot and that's really exciting because these are two young um brands that are you know much more accessible yes absolutely and i think that what's really exciting is that people who um are young and especially the people from california are asleep you know they're taking a punt by coming here because it's not cheap to be on several it's you know there's there's there's a there's a real risk that you take by comfort by coming here and i think that uh it's it's terrific that they are doing that because what it shows is that every tailor's heart lies in several rows and i think that you are um you may have a shot outside of outside of another outside of mayfair but i do think that people's you know there's this sort of soul in terms of turning gravitates back towards here because this is where it all sort of stems from absolutely and where a lot of them would have trained as well standard yeah but i think it's also evolved a lot because you see with these guys as you can see in the window here they're not they don't have navy blue suits no offense yeah um you uh you know literally the window they have plenty of you know everyday menswear options that people have to be able to be able to get made for themselves custom-made and bespoke and whatever measure yeah i think it's so important for especially uh the heritage houses and savile row you know to have one foot really anchored in tradition yeah you know the navy suits you know double-breasted suits you know proper classic menswear that follows the rules yes but on that same side you know i guess on the other side of the coin in order to remain relevant in order to appeal to a new generation of well-dressed men you know there has to be a degree of modernization and so seeing things like odd jackets safari jackets you know more casual wear that still is drawing inspiration from classic menswear and tailoring i think is important to really seeing salvaro continue to be successful absolutely look choice is key and remember you know we're we're the land of the british broadcasting corporation choice is everything we love choice we're big on toys the bbc is an extraordinary sort of choice giver savarro's traditionally now coming you know tristan is now becoming that yeah i mean guess what it's published itself yeah this is a shoe shop yeah first one ever to open up on salvo row and you know to have drake's move in to have that you know the service coffee shop open up exactly i think is really bringing life to this street uh and making it a little bit more dynamic than maybe it has been traditionally it allows uh people like me people are you to have a reason to talk about it yeah and i think that that's not a trend that's going to stop i think people are going to keep evolving this which is really interesting yeah speaking of the service should get a coffee yeah brilliant you said stephen yeah ah yeah here he is be careful there he you know he smells something nice to see you steven how are you pleasure who's this oh wow she wasn't excited oh excited aren't you hello yeah how you doing yeah good good yourself yeah not too bad yeah well nicely i think we're gonna be seeing you in a few days hopefully yeah nice to see you yeah thank you beautiful jacket thank you thank you yeah that's great so you're filming today yeah well you know just catching up on what we've missed for the last 18 months yes so it's nice to be back and i think it's it's interesting there's an area of excitement honestly on salvo row now that britain's can travel to the united states proper yeah and the americans can come here yeah really picked up the last month september it's back to normal yeah that's great yeah there's got to be longevity yeah well hopefully it's a really good few months with everyone excited to finally be able to see their tailors and for tailors to be able to see their clients and for people to be able to wear proper clothing exactly get back and dress up yeah get back out of the uh the jumper exactly not that you ever stopped yes yeah well great well nice lumping into you lovely i mean i think steven is such a great example of just bespoke tailoring you know kind of continuing on i mean of course his father yeah that's a yeah it's a great story you know one of the famous head cutters of anderson shepard yeah and then he's kind of updated their cut right introducing the panel yeah and then um you know doing great work off the road i've only ever heard great things about him in his work and he's a good character he sure is so one of the things i love about london is there's really so much great choice i mean you know there's so many houses right yeah and one can you know very easily with a little bit of you know investigation find someone with whom they get along great you know who personability is absolutely key in the relationship with your tailor because you need to feel that it's about it's a trust relationship you need to trust that i think that there is in some ways an over emphasis on the product and at the end of the day the relationship is really what creates that richness yes and bespoke tailoring absolutely and being able to develop a relationship with the tailor with whom you get along you know that can get to know you know your personality know your wardrobe and then really begin to be able to actually prescribe clothing and pieces for you well it's really the zenith anything uh well any person who's ever gotten anything mate has had an idea in their head of what they want to look like it's a psychological thing and your tailor needs to understand that psychology has has to has to know you and know how you want to be turned out ultimately and cuts accordingly yeah it's absolutely crucial yeah but then i feel like the next step is they've got to know you so well that they can make better recommendations yeah that's true as well than what you could make for yourself because it's i mean anyone can go to a tailor and say you know i want this this and this yeah but to have a tailor that can say you know what sir you know these were some things i were thinking that were maybe a little bit outside your comfort zone uh but would really work well in your wardrobe that is whenever it becomes rich like what terry did today when he told me i was so effing boring and aren't we all yeah which is great i agree i don't have to think when i wear it but he uh but he was absolutely sure that i you know it was time for me to start pushing pushing boundaries so glad he did it yeah i can't wait to see the next piece he's making for you oh it's very we should visit him today we should [Music] no shortage of business for you guys today yeah lots of people coming in there's good loads crazy yeah one white one take away one white and one black yeah yeah take away [Music] brilliant well on a proper day like this i you need a little bit of mid-afternoon coffee so i was thinking you know i've got a pair of shoes got down and girling that are ready for pickup do you mind dropping in with me i couldn't think of anywhere better things to go frankly and i'm excited to see the shoes so i've got a new pair of belgians from uh gaziano being made oh great body yeah well good you know i think you know i've i've realized certain gaps in my shoe wardrobe over the last 18 months i'm having to fill in some of the more casual pieces there must be a few involved between yeah yeah well you know i had an even i envy your shoe collection and my wife is constantly saying how how i just she she just would feel sick if i got home well i get constant grief from my wife you know i've transitioned much of my wardrobe into the office you know so that it's out of sight out of mind that's fair enough well let's yes [Music] [Music] [Music] when i was 18 it was 17 we all started going to the pub i felt that if i wore shiny shirt well shine shoes and nice shoes to the pub whatever else i was wearing that would make me the smartest player in the room and that from that point that was like that's what i want to be yeah you know if i'm if i feel like i'm the smartest guy there i'm sort of much more comfortable you were less likely to be id'd you dressed properly i think one of the greatest travesties is a man that's taken the time and the effort to dress up in a suit and tie but has given his shoes no attention i absolutely agree absolutely agree and i was actually speaking with uh someone that's a member of the world household and she said that he said that the you know one of the first things it's a good line by the way it was one of the first things that the queen looks at is one's shoes that's entirely true you know and so you know he has he actually goes to great lengths that whenever he is with the queen or has an audience with the queen or something he brings his highly polished shoes in a box yeah and puts them on before he goes into like buckingham palace or windsor or something yeah very good just in case they get scuffed just in case i am and he's got these shoes he only wears whenever he sees the queen terrific i also know that the the other thing with the queen is that the one thing she can spot from a mile off and doesn't like is a pre-tied bow tie oh that's inexcusable i mean if you're outside of grade school i mean my son nathaniel he's about eight eight years old he's in third grade and he has a pre-tie tie and i think that you know what this might be the year where he has to learn how to tie a proper tie himself my dad taught me how to tie a tie i just don't remember when so i don't even it's funny my father never even actually taught me how to tie was a neighbor yeah because i had some high school event i had to go to he wasn't there he was at work i ran over to the neighbor's house and then i'm convinced that after he taught me how to tie the tie that i promptly forgot and then the next time i had to tie a tie i just kind of made it up and somehow landed on the old burger oh that's good thank god for that i know that we've we've come in here to get you shoes but we basically nice pit stop yeah we might say thank you this is much appreciated we've got to bring you up to up to speed yeah yeah yeah especially considering your shoes which are absolutely amazing i'm really surprised these are holding up as well as they are given the weather yeah amazing it and i'm delighted for you because i know what the nuisance it can be after all the effort you put into it i think that that's not happening you know midday midday uh shine who does something yeah midday polish yeah every it should be a part of everyone's ritual i think quite right you know win in london yes exactly simon kirby hey so great to see you nice to see you again yeah it's nice to be back in london tom of course not too bad well it's always fun to pop in to uh you know the shop and see these beautiful shoes which i think you believe i have up here waiting for me you do let me grab them for you very excited to show you these i'm always it's always uh especially exciting to pick up a pair of shoes in london right because i feel like more often than not they're being posted to me in the united states so it's like picking up a suit in london you're now not going to be able to do your sort of famous unboxing yes this is it this is the grand room but nevertheless that you know i'm enormously envious of it yeah so tom hasn't seen these but we were talking about them yeah these are kind of a coveted necessities i've been dressing more casually as a proper pair of belgian levels that's terrific yeah so i love the burgundy piping yep and the nice kind of a black dark gray suede and then done up properly you know proper gatiano girling work here it's terrific now is this on the deco last this would be on our slipper last yeah you got a slipper last night yes we have our own specific slipper last slightly sort of soft chisel which sort of works well for the occasion that you'd wear this type of shoe and i think they came out lovely yeah they look terrific and what i love about this is it's a cemented sole which you guys do now yes and that is a much softer more flexible outsole and so for something like this i'd wear without socks or with you know even shorts yeah it's nice to have that flexibility built into the loafer but then that said it's still properly made up by gaziano and girling and so i'm looking forward to maybe a little bit more longevity and durability to this than my previous pair that this is replacing well you're not going to be commuting in these and i think that that's the thing you're going to be wearing wearing them in occasions which is slightly more relaxed and therefore the need for it to be sort of you know hyper reinforced is not necessarily you know germain yeah for the occasion we do do a goodyear welted option of a belgian loaf yeah like this one here well that's another beauty yeah i mean you can see the difference i mean in terms of sort of the heft i mean i guess the shoe tree adds to that well this is quite something so this is all crop yes fill alligator and it's an interesting use of the different scale yeah i love that it really sort of differentiates um the advantage exactly god is pretty beautiful i think i need a pair like that in my life also yeah you know i like the idea of exotic casuals but again a nice juxtaposition absolutely but funny enough this does sort of turn into a dress sheet isn't it it kind of really picks it up and brings it into a different sort of i think it's super versatile to be honest you know we've made quite a few recently in blackrock oh yeah brown cognac yeah or cognac yeah i mean or like a nice yeah coffees would look absolutely amazing yes yeah terrific i mean a great casual line here i mean this is um again i think as one develops your wardrobe i mean you start with the bread and butter the formal the black cap toe oxfords you know maybe you add some semi brogues maybe you add some brown but whenever it really gets to be fun is whenever you can begin expanding kind of outwards a little bit as we spoke about earlier with terry hayes and his recommendations for you into the more casuals and then maybe pushing the boundary with more interesting pieces i actually bought my wife a pair of the uh woven leather and it was you know it's it's still too much she wears it you know some uh you know and sort of special occasions down about we i think she tries to keep away from the rain because she's sort of i guess i guess abuse it with a sense of value um and uh but but but it's got me thinking about the type of shoes that i have in my cupboard that work for you know sockless wearing and i don't really have anything yeah so this provides that yeah well i'm not the type of person that wears trainers on the weekend right so even if i'm out with my children big surprise but you know i mean so the question is it becomes okay well i'm not going to wear you know trainers on the weekend what can i wear well you know even if i'm wearing a nice pair of shorts and a nice linen shirt you know a pair of belgiums you know sockless you know totally works on the weekend is appropriate definitely completely yeah i think as well now we can finally travel a bit more wearing a loafer through airports and things like that it's very easy comfortable no hassle with laces yeah the perfect travel shoe also yeah and it's got an exceptionally soft lining i know this is going to fill out feel absolutely is it long well it is lined um which i like because yeah it has a little bit of structure and actually makes it lighter you know what is that it's a um super soft almost glove glove really yes well they make gloves from peccary yeah yeah the king of grounds yeah lovely and what an intro i love the uh kind of the variation in materials used and i mean it's these details about a well-made proper pair of shoes especially like a pair from got7 and girling that i think really set them apart i mean it's the oak bark tanned leather outsoles it's the special material used for the lining i mean those small nuances that are completely overlooked with most other brands i think are really what take a pair of shoes in the next level absolutely and i think it's also um uh i mean this is the vision of tony to have a shoe that has a sort of an optical illusion effect to it where it's about elongating the silhouette of creating a real sense of elegance in your feet and for someone like me who's quite big and yeah big feet that's really important to not feel self-conscious about the shoes you wear and when you wear a pair of shoes that it's designed in such a way that it sort of tricks people's eyes into thinking that there's something yeah if not smaller but more elegant there well that's the sculpture of a beautiful pair of shoes or a beautiful suit is how it uh you know complements kind of our natural physique yeah to make it look more elegant and how you feel when you wear them and then you polish them up and then ultimately especially when you're in london people will step on them and yeah or your children for that matter i'm always you know defensively walking so my role with my children is the funny one is i i i'm basically uh i wear basically nothing until they're standing by the front yes yeah that's right and then i stay there and then i get dressed i'm the same way whenever i come home the first place i go is into my closet you know to get out of whatever i'm wearing for the day yeah they did they do seem to have a sort of you know a target marked on my yes oh there's no question it's usually your most expensive shoe as well that the kids or most freshly polished exactly yeah yeah you know you've just spent 30 minutes doing a beautiful mirror shine and they come running up to give you a hug and smash your hair and you can you can't be upset but secretly with your teeth but we love them really we love them we love them yes it's at work well thank you so much for these and um a pleasure that's i've been really looking forward to picking them up and it's so great to be able to do this in person great and it's great to see you simon it's great to be back in london nice to see you again thank you very much let me bag those up for you yeah please okay i brought uh you know an extra large piece of luggage in anticipation the fact that i would be taking a lot back with me for this trip how did you plan your packing for this trip well i mean i always we actually filmed a video on me packing for this trip and kind of walking through what i was thinking yeah i think the greatest hazard of packing is the temptation to pack too much right because inevitably we're traveling to some place we're excited to visit you know we want to take the best of our wardrobe with us and you know so you inherently want to pack too much so i think the biggest challenge is exercising discipline i think uh also taking into account where you're traveling so you know this trip is just to london so really was much easier than if i was also going to paris because you know you know london's quite formal and paris is much less formal than london so if i was traveling to paris i packed brown right so then you've got two different sets of shoes right different trousers and different suits that you're going to wear but for this it's really quite easy three suits two pairs of shoes five white shirts a few ties and that's it so terry of all the things that you pack to bring to london what would you consider to be the one that is the sort of archetypically british or sort of london centric yeah you know my stroller so i had it made here you know right off of saint george's street by robbie taylor who has since retired yeah and um you know it has a waistcoat right it's tremendously versatile it's one of my favorite pieces to travel with it took me a while to learn how to wear it because it's a black odd jacket which oftentimes in classic kind of hashtag menswear you know people really you know give black uh jackets a very bad name but just i i really appreciate the versatility of it the formality of it i can dress it up with the waistcoat you know i can wear it with different trousers to mix it up and so that one outfit you know the jacket with two trousers and the waistcoat can easily be a week's worth of different outfits terrific so that's my favorite piece of i never travel to london without that one piece okay there you go it answers the question perfectly yeah what about for you though what anything you know i mean which of all of your outfits do you wear that make you feel most you know british that would have to be i i would i tell you and there's a story behind it i was i have a navy blazer with wonderful gold buttons and the thing with the gold buttons on the blazers i always find that you have two options you have something engraved in it or you have or you have it blank i think blank looks a bit dull and it looks a bit crazy um if you have something on it though there has to be a reason yeah did you choose that specific design so what i did is school buttons yeah exactly so that's fine if it's a school level that makes sense but out in the wider world you have to make a choice and so what i did is i took the design from uh my signature ring with my family and had that put onto the buttons and it looks terrific um but anyway i said i was at a party and and uh and a man who he's a journalist a fellow jazz we we it was a it was a party at another magazine um he said he said i really like jack and i said i was kind of school uniform um and he said why are you a courtier yeah and i thought okay brilliant good if he just assumes i'm working at buckingham palace and i'm doing something right so uh but i think that that one fits i guess the sartorial history of the uk and also i think makes me feel the most like a sort of well the archetype of a of a of a i guess a hopefully well breast dre well-dressed brit yeah absolutely and i think also you know with the blazer kind of again the the tradition kind of referencing back to you know public school you know your time at university um you know is a very british experience and how you know at least in british public school you know there's a uniform yeah it's very formal i mean you see children you know as young as eight you know going to school with jackets um and so you know they've always got the gold blazer buttons yeah that being said i did play golf the other day wearing plus twos and on your instagram yeah it was brilliant which i guess has a story what were your shoes i mean did you have proper you know technical golf shoes or did i think gaziano actually has a proper golf shoe that they do now well it's interesting because i was wearing cromptons from gaziano and girling really yeah okay with spikes on the bottom or just no i risked it i thought you looked brilliant thank you very much and again one of the other things i love about british just culture is the fact that there is a uniform for every single aspect of life what you go shooting in what you go golfing in what you wear to henley what you wear to ascot you know even what you wear in london during the week versus what you were in london in the weekend and for those that enjoy clothing and being well dressed i mean this is the pinnacle yeah and it's great and you know interesting brands like purdy for example really interesting in that sense because they're traditionally known for being country side sort of or country where yeah and uh they're now making clothes that they they want their vision ultimately is to still make terrific guns etc but the clothing needs to be as relevant in the city as it is in town really sorry in the country and so you know they are of course making the breaks and your field jackets and everything but they they have this idea of wanting to wear the same thing in the the city uh and in the country and that and and without having to make a change how does that work though well i guess you know with um because tweed in the city i mean you know traditionally i mean like a heavier this is beautiful it all comes down to this yeah yes but it all comes down to design ultimately design color all these sorts of things and i think that um uh the lady lucan uh councillor lucan who who runs a brand called lucan she has this idea of having a jacket where the bellows pockets in the city can carry box cigars in the country can carry lots of cartridges and so my kind of jacket yeah yeah i like it yeah it's a norfolk jacket that's brilliant so so i think that that's that's sort of becoming they're figuring that one out i think we're almost there on that one yeah brilliant well um what next do you think i think we should go to german street okay because another one of my favorite places i think we've done savory uh and i think that german street um will provide us with a little bit more um uh you know entertainment yeah visually but of course we'll end up popping into david off no doubt yeah well that's uh where we'll end the day that's uh one of the best places uh how about florist you want to go to flores let's do it you know i always enjoy seeing their new kind of seasonal selection fragrances i've got a nice collection of floors fragrances in my my closet but again i feel like whenever you travel one of the great things is to kind of pick up little mementos you know that you can really only find where it is you're traveling to and with floris i think in particular you know they're kind of seasonal fragrances aren't widely distributed outside of their boutique on german street and uh crucially the product is almost as good as the venue yes it's a beautiful beautiful british shop um the ones that people sort of imagine when they travel here and so it's nice that there are still shops that sort of realize that yeah well with that how about uh we head off to german street and see florist but not before i collect my shoes don't forget your shoes thank you simon it's so great to see you nice to see you i'm sure i'll see you around this week enjoy german street yeah thank you [Music] i love this shop yeah it's great yeah after you no no no thank you [Music] yeah kirby edward welcome so nice to see you thank you for having us pleasure and it's so great to be back of course how are things getting along yeah picking up well actually which is really nice yeah it's so good to see yeah well so nice to be back people out and about yeah well finally all this time yeah absolutely and the weather has turned uh turned quite nice compared to this morning yeah people didn't see it on film but it really was a damage this morning yeah now it's just quite pleasant yeah it's one of those mornings very dark yeah yeah miserable no it's brightening up now it's good to see well it's so great to be back on german street lovely to have you back one of my favorite things whenever i'm in london of course is to pop into the places that you can only find here in london and of course flores is one of those and edward one of the things i've always appreciated are your hand poured seasonal fragrances i kind of been collecting them over the years thank you very much i thought we'd drop in and just kind of see you know what you have this new of course well we have um spiced bergamot which is our hand poured one for for this season which is quite a nice warm fragrance it's got some ginger notes resinous notes some sandalwood as well so it's quite rich but it's also got the sort of the freshness of the bergamot as well um if you like i can show you where we uh where we handball our fragrances and where where all the magic happens yeah [Music] come on through thank you wow beautiful i think this is the first time i've ever been back here edward it is i think it's the first time i realized it existed hard to believe yes this is this is like the throne room this is the secret the secret group it's our inner sanctum yeah this is sort of like you all the wonderful bits that you could show off but you're such a classy brand that you just don't and you keep it all back here for kirby night yeah i mean princess diana i mean this is a bit of a museum as well as being our perfumery so this is where all the magic happens gosh this is beautiful i mean how long have you guys been in this location since 1730. really here in like the same in the same location that's right yes the building is from the late 1600s and we've been here since 1730 and all the cabinets in the shop are from the great exhibition and all these ones were replicated um in 1900 to to replicate the shop really unbelievable and you're what the seventh generation uh ninth generation actually generated unbelievable i mean it has to put you among the most the oldest family held businesses in all of all of england for sure one of the old i think um the oldest perfumery certainly in in england and um i'm one of the oldest in the world definitely wow and believe yeah that's still independent since your family runs yeah that's great but yeah this is our sort of in the sanctum where we create all of our new fragrances that we launch um into the range um and it's a lovely quiet area to work from yeah away from the sort of hustle and bustle german well one of the things i love about flores is i mean you guys have just i think one of the most significant archives or collections of fragrances i mean i've got so many of my own i mean that's like i'm probably up to eight or nine different bottles i know yes that's the thing i do guys with it i know from being president that i know that you are a man of richard and scent play such an important part in your morning routine well it's funny i mean i feel like you know i'm not ready for the day but i don't know if it's psychological or whatever i mean but i mean i'm not ready for the day until i spray my scent and it just it's the last thing i do before i leave you know in the morning and it just yeah is the fragrance and whenever i spray that and you know i've got my line up there and so you kind of have you know you know use different fragrances for different occasions or different purposes and so you know you kind of reflect take a moment of reflect of what you're going to do that day and then you make your selection and then you're ready to go out yeah oh i agree something very reassuring about having your fragrance it's like a safety blanket for us gentlemen well and then one of the other things i love is that you know i mean again you guys could easily rest on you know your several hundred year history but you know with your hair hand poured seasonal fragrances you guys are still constantly inventing new fragrances and then we're in the room that you do your bespoke fragrances in where someone can still come and and you know have a consultation and create something that's totally unique and one-of-a-kind wonderful absolutely yes we have all our bases and blends here and we um we we still use our uh antique glassware that's from the early days and and everything is measured out in fluid ounces and fluid drams which is the way we've always done it really and yes so this is where where customers can come and sit with our perfumer for a couple of hours or longer depending on the consultation yeah and create their own fragrance and then they can name their fragrance and we'll keep a handwritten um record of it so it goes down in our in our books uh but also it's kept on our computer system and then whenever they want to reorder they they've got their unique fragrances we'll make it up here especially for them whenever they need to one of these days they have to do that yeah it's just like yeah yeah it's like having my son's name in the book of charvet yeah he goes back and pulls his pattern you know one day you know you you want your your um your son or your daughter to be you know hearing uh london at flores i think my father used to always have a fragrance yeah reorder it you know and then the nostalgia there yeah yeah you know right there with the king you know actually yeah that's great we've had some people that um they want to have the fragrance that their their friend has created and so we say well no we can't give it to you but if you want to you know if you can ask them if they give permission then then we can gladly make it up for you yeah so we have that a few times where somebody's given a permission for their friends what a great gift is to kind of have your signature fragrances bespoke and to give it to certain family members i mean you know it's one of those experiences i feel like that is so unique to london heritage brands like this really don't exist in very many other places no no no you know we were support for choice here but the um uh outside of london were you know it's sort of dwindling fast yeah um but hopefully like uh the the sort of the the kind of the reputation of london is a place where these sorts of brands are helps sort of bolster its kind of yeah its relevance going forward but what what have you brought out what's the i've just brought out really our glassware here and some of our um what's in the box some of our bases and blends so here we've got um this is a a base which is a citrus base we have basically a few different um bases from each fragrance family so floral family citrus family woody and oriental family as well or ambery and then we have the individual areas so if you wanted to add bergamot or you wanted to add sandalwood or cedarwood or cassis or whatever the ingredient is then we can work with those to to to customize the the fragrance and this is cypress neroli i've got the neroli voyage oh great similar base or um similar in the same family but um in fact let's have a let's have a smell while we're here um feel these salads they're quite weighty guys sort of yeah i'm always a bit nervous someone would drop one on their foot but it was never so it never happened well i'm nervous about that i could hardly be picked out i'm honest i think last where i am sort of that that does make me nervous isn't that because that's it does it makes us nervous as well actually this is a very good question i would sort of would suggest is a very traditional english gentleman set i think it reminds me of sort of didn't taste wrong but like when i went to like my father's club or his uh he used to have a health club in the city which he designed as a sort of gentleman's club come officer's mess come gym yeah and it worked very well but the but the idea was that there were lots of the sort of things you'd find in white bathrooms and the smell that you know very funny something like this it's just sort of something that like a gentleman applies it's very refreshing yeah exactly um it's it's similar to it's probably closest to our jf fragrance that we have in the range but it's just like oh brilliant thank you but it's it's different but very sort of close close to that one there yeah interesting well talk to us about i mean the the hand pours i mean the golden amber i think was earlier this year late last and um when was that yes it was late late last year okay um was it no actually it was earlier this year sorry yeah um and um and then yes the spiced burgundy that we have now i know irrelevant during coasters people have we've lost track of everything it's become very uh yes it's very strange it does seem like a time warp flexible yeah so this is the golden amber which you'll be familiar with and then which is fresh so distinct a little bit i mean this is a really great kind of spring day fragrance it is it's it and then we've got the the like you say more sort of seasonal winter style fragrance spice bergamot which is um spicy it's it has the bergamot um opening to it to give it the freshness but then it's got uh lovely notes of ginger and um frankincense and sandwich sorry um and so these are eau de parfums yes yeah these oh it's very different that's very nice and it has a marine note as well which is one of the top notes it's a little bit like the smell of of the sea like the air the salty sea breeze how does the um i mean i know that with whenever you create a frag fragrance you're layering the different notes uh how does it vary with like a uh you know eau de toilette and an eau de parfum right i mean this is a higher concentration i mean for the hand poured fragrances than it is yes yeah the the eau de papams tend to be a higher concentration of of fragrance than an eau de toilette but does it allow i guess greater kind of delineation or development of these notes kind of as they linger it depends on the type of fragrance and and um and the notes so sometimes you can have a um an eau de toilette that could be stronger than an eau de parfum just because of the sort of nature of the fragrance so if you have a node of cologne that's perhaps very rich and woody um that would probably last longer than an odor perfam that was a sort of light citrus fragrance or a light floral fragrance so it does depend on on the sort of the nature of the fragrance because the sort of lighter citrus notes and lighter floral notes they they tend to be the very volatile molecules that just lift off the skin quite quickly whereas the um the sort of richer woodier notes and spice notes and vanilla things like that they're the very heavy dense molecules that stay on the skin right until the end of the day or the next morning so yeah sort of how it works so it's a little bit like um a bit like music really you've got the language of perfumery and music talking in in notes and you know crescendo and and uh and it's like a sort of piece of music the way a fragrance will open out and take you on a bit of a journey yeah i like that yeah it's a beautiful analogy a symphony yeah a symphony of symphony and i think that just like with music there's several different genres and notes and notes and i think that um you know a proper uh wardrobe has several different fragrances which i guess is a little uh non-traditional because traditionally correct me if i'm wrong i mean part of coming of age was having your own fragrance made and then you would that am i wrong and that that would kind of be your fragrance quite often yeah that that was so traditionally the way things tended to be you'd have just have your fragrance that would be your signature your signature and a bit of an extension to your personality and to your character which lots of our from chatting to lots of our customers some people do you know they've found their fragrance that's the one and that's the one they always will wear and their friends know them by that so you know you know you do so it's a very evocative whereas um i think um more recently it's become more popular to have a wardrobe of fragrances that you have for different occasions different times of year even different times of day so you can have an evening fragrance compared to it because some sense have the capacity to warm you up yeah you know just by seeing the kind of sense of warming up yeah vanilla tobacco those sorts of things absolutely and they tend to be quite comforting in the in the winter yeah um yeah a bit stifling in the summer even sometimes yeah it can do that yeah well there's certain uh you know like the leather ode i mean that's a fragrance that to me is an evening time yep fragrance and i wouldn't necessarily put it on in the morning no exactly but then you've got the german street or the jf or um you know some of the other ones that um like centaur that are you know great kind of daytime fragrances and day fragrances definitely yeah i do wear the german street quite a lot because that's that seems it's got the freshness to you can wear it in the summer and the winter but it's it's also got the that lovely better there note that runs through it and gives it a real sort of warmth and depth so it's a good sort of all-rounder i think yeah now a question referring to our left if somebody were to come in and say i'd like what the king had could that be replicated to today because you have these amazing ledgers over here that detail what was ordered by great sort of individuals of the past could somebody say what king george six had could we wouldn't be able to say what they they wouldn't be able to dis uh disclose that to the customer you know even you know even you know a king of 100 years ago still would we still would guard that privacy yeah we would could you make it up without saying what's in it uh yes we could i suppose yeah so they just just arrived saying this this is what it was yeah this is this is what it was we'll keep it unlabeled unmarked i think that maybe do you say that that's probably the best way of doing it the perfect that sounds yeah ideal i could there's something i know make sure i get a bottle in the mail whenever you know yeah king uh you know you know king george's fragrances uh and go and and and another audience of the queen later yes yes she maybe could smell us and get great members of her yeah i think it's a great idea let's do it too good idea yeah they've got all sorts of well-known names in there they're great winston churchill no coward as well we've just um there's an uh exhibition actually it's just opened in uh guild hall in the city they um they borrowed one of our antique bottles of the fragrance that he used to wear so that's yeah it's a great great exhibition actually i was able to have a look the other day so i know lots of um a bit of a who's who of the of the time in in history i mean yeah i mean again i mean one of the things that's not lost on me is you know here we are sitting at this desk in this room and flores has so much heritage and continuity to it having been here since the beginning that you know just think of the countless other people that you know preceded us that have sat at this desk with the member of the bodenham family you know to you know discover fragrance yeah absolutely exciting it reminds me of lob with the striking anvil that you know kind of marks the uh their outsoles i mean that hammer has struck the bottom of kings princesses titans of industry you know criminal i mean it's like you name it politicians you know politics single thread two of the same yeah you know but that single thread you know really i feel like if you're here in london and you have the privilege of transacting with these businesses really kind of connect you to that threat of history yeah and the culture because whether people like it or not this places like this feed into the culture of who we are as englishmen yes uh or as brits very important um and that's why you come over here that's right well it's great thank you thank you so much for coming in to see me yeah [Music] well what a brilliant day i mean i can't tell you how great it feels to be back but it wouldn't be a proper trip to london if we didn't go have a cigar so that's quite right how about ending it with that absolutely let's do it after you oh thank you [Music] you

Channel: Kirby Allison

Views: 709,180

Keywords: kirby allison, mens fashion, hanger project, london, gentlemen, day out, bespoke, savile row, tailors, shoemakers, truefitt, truefitt and hill, wet shave, proper shave, the rake magazine, tom chamberlin, mens style, the rake, mens style 2022, hand made, style advice, bespoke suit, gaziano & girling, Floris, perfume

Id: NIwK7DuPzI8

Length: 62min 7sec (3727 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 19 2022