SHOP THE RAKE TAILORED GARMENTS

More from: Stuart Husband

Style September 2020

NATURAL MYSTIC: Bob Marley

‘How many rivers do we have to cross,’ asked Robert Nesta Marley, ‘before we can talk to the boss?’ The king of reggae channelled a sense of righteous anger at colonial exploitation, and became an omnipotent symbol of peace and unity. And all before he was cut down in his prime…
Style August 2020

A GIFT FROM A GENEROUS GOD: Sammy Davis Jr.

Some people wanted Sammy Davis Jr. to fight; some wanted him to make peace. Such was the invidious position ‘Mr. Show Business’ found himself in as mid-century America wrestled with its race issues. ‘I didn’t ask to be a trailblazer,’ Davis Jr. said. ‘My passion was to entertain.’
Style April 2020

THE LOVELIEST JOKE: David Niven

In a legendary career that spanned 50 years and nearly 100 movies, David Niven had ample opportunity to become who he was: the Englishman abroad. Still, you got the impression that he couldn’t believe his luck.
Icons March 2020

Michelangelo and the yearning for tragedy

‘We lived in silence… He has only one way of expressing himself: his work.” So said Michelangelo Antonioni’s first wife, Letizia Balboni. It’s true, the Italian director was notorious for taking existential inquiry — and his own artistic purity — to another level. But what a legacy of film he left behind…
Icons February 2020

CROSS-STITCH

To celebrate International Women’s Day we’ve burrowed into the archives, specifically Rake 39 where Stuart Husband takes up the challenge of trying to pin down the ‘real’ Marlene Dietrich. At one time she was the world’s highest-paid entertainer despite being described as a cipher and an allegory. Goddess or strumpet, gay or ‘unstraight’, she is one of the most influential women of all time.
Back Issues February 2020

THE SUNLIT UPLAND

Monaco was once regarded as a seedy bolthole — “a sunny place full of shady people”, according to the writer Somerset Maugham. Enter Prince Rainier III, the stocky, pencil-moustached monarch who, from his palace on the Rock, had a plan to transform the world’s second smallest country… (Spoiler: he kept the climate.)
News December 2019

Anda and Tom's Call to Garms

For the second successive Christmas, the stylist Tom Stubbs and Anderson & Sheppard’s Anda Rowland are aiming to raise money for the homeless charity Crisis by creating the world’s most luxurious pop-up store on Savile Row.
Icons August 2019

John Cassavetes: Out of the Shadows

John Cassavetes was the godfather of American independent cinema. He was obsessed with intimacy and authenticity, and his style and sense of integrity were ahead of their time. In fact, today’s iPhone auteurs owe him a debt of gratitude…
Icons April 2019

Patrick Swayze: The Miracle Dude

Patrick Swayze combined macho swagger and fluid elegance in a unique way, and his acting style — a kind of artless sincerity — helped turn movies such as Dirty Dancing and Point Break into pop-culture classics. Yet what remains of Swayze’s life and work is more significant still: an unfashionable sense of joy.
Icons April 2019

AMELIA EARHART: A SYMBOL OF NEW WOMANHOOD

Amelia Earhart disarmed ideas about femininity in her manner and her attitude, and her legend is as strong today as it ever was.
Icons October 2018

John F. Kennedy: For One Brief Shining Moment

What might have been? What might have been had John F. Kennedy avoided Dallas in November ’63? Would he have remade the world? For as long as we yearn for the counterfactual, the legend of Camelot endures…
Icons May 2018

Serge Gainsbourg: Master Provocateur

Serge Gainsbourg was a Gallic colossus of the 20th century, writing songs for, and having affairs with, some of the era’s most beautiful women, and his gift for shocking the bourgeoisie was nonpareil.