A photographer primarily, Karl-Edwin Guerre’s own personal stylistic tendencies has rallied a like-minded legion of
discerning gentlemen to follow suit. With a spirit that encapsulates an eclectic take on timeless style, he’s the
utopian attorney to sport The Rake Tailored Garments.
Guerre is the “King of men’s street style” in New York. Never seen without a hat, it is thought he hasn’t rushed out
of his house once in ten years without sporting a chapeau. With a real sense of adventure, Guerre looks to create
his own rules when it comes to his personal style, which is why we couldn’t think of anyone more pertinent to don a
selection of The Rake Tailored Garments. His style approach has real symbiosis with the way The Rake has curated
their collection. Guerre’s outlook on style is that he believes feelings and emotions should be infused with a taste
acquired with experience and knowledge of self, thus hailing freedom and expression of which The Rake Tailored
Garments certainly encourages.
One of the most recognisable of all patterns is the Prince of Wales check. It also happens that Miles Davis, the
inspiration behind our very own POW sports jacket is also the superlative icon with whom Guerre most admires. Davis
had the ability to turn commonplace clothing items to artistic expressions in their own right. It is with this in
mind that we see Guerre wearing the Prince of Wales check double-breasted jacket from The Rake Tailored Garments.
Underneath the jacket is a deep-red rollneck jumper, which perfectly marries the impeccably tailored jacket with a
rebellious spirit of jazz – a combination that Guerre is known to fully encapsulate. Now to do this with the
character that Guerre does, isn’t quite so straightforward if the tailoring you're wearing is restrictive in nature.
Inspired by the British Drape as well Neapolitan and French tailoring, we’ve sought innovative ways to remove the
stiff, restrictive padding and layers of horsehair that impede freedom of movement. Guerre has shown here with more
than a hint of nonchalant elegance the pioneering virtues of a jacket stemming from intelligently fused tailoring
techniques. Guerre’s wide-brimmed fedora caps off a cool and effortless ode to jazz.
Guerre is a size 38 chest and a 32-waist trouser. He manages to beautifully pair a rollneck with a cream suit.
Perhaps this is where Guerre finds himself with own style today. As a younger gentleman he favoured a cool hip-hop
aesthetic, but then reversed to a more serious style, incorporating a more Wall street grey. Now he finds himself
somewhere in the middle using beautiful tailoring, but with accompaniments evoking a sense of casual cool. As the
suit is flannel there is no reason to use the cream shade as an excuse as it has been tailored with the intention
for you to make your own interpretations of how you would like to wear the suit, according to your style. This is
exactly what Guerre has done, by intelligently using the cream shade as a beautiful juxtaposition to his brown
rollneck and brown trilby hat, which is downright cool. With a swaggering silhouette and armed with flexibility due
to the strategically applied VBC cloth, this suit can be worn all-year-round and just like Guerre has shown can be
worn in more artistic ways than one, whilst keeping its core of originality.
Andy Poupart
Andy Poupart didn’t engender the sudden magnitude of his sartorial following. A software engineer in global tech hub,
Silicon Valley – he decided later in life to cross the Atlantic back to his British roots to have a couple of suits
made on Savile Row. Enthralled by the experience, he gradually paid much more attention into his dressing. Not
seeking anything other than the comfort and joy that fine tailoring brought him, he posted a photograph on
Instagram. Forthwith came a cult like following of people in search of extraordinary style on normal people. He and
is equally stylish wife, Michèle Free are now regular attendees at Pitti Uomo in Florence and provide a refreshing
contribution to the show. Andy is often seen in cream or ivory – regularly combining the shades with deeper reds and
purples. With this in mind we were delighted when Andy decided to don the cream flannel double-breasted suit. By
using a fusion of English, Italian and French tailoring techniques we have sought ways to eliminate the restrictive
nature that some tailoring can encompass. Whilst retaining all of the credentials of sharp styling, the added drape
from the strategically applied cloth and Parisian button stance has meant the jacket has the scope to be worn in the
way you want to. Emphasizing, The Rake Tailored Garments propensity for comfort, Andy wears a light blue pyjama
shirt from Budd Shirtmakers underneath the jacket, which looks just as cool when worn open or buttoned up. There is
a nice contrast to the shorter collar of the pyjama shirt overlapping the wider than usual peak lapel. There really
is an open ending on how creative you can be with The Rake Tailored Garments.
Fabio Attanasio
Jislain Duval
Will of The Dons Club
Richard Biedul
Freddie Foulkes
Max Foulkes
