Hackett Launch "Mayfair" Range.

The image above is Hacketts campaign photo for their new range, the "Mayfair" range, so called as according to the bumpf, it espouses the most stylish, elegant and refined principles of design adn tailoring, as well as offering luxury from top to toe, with sleek streamlined contemporary city styles that apparently are inspired by the denizens of Mayfair.

This all seems a little confused, in fact, when you think about it, Hackett as a brand all seems pretty confusing.  We have criticised Hackett in the past, primarily for its attempts to appear a brand with staunchly traditional roots, while in fact having only been established some 20 years ago in its current form, with humble origins of being a second hand clothing retailer in the Portobello market, it is what we here like to call a "psuedo brand" when demand outstripped supply of second hand clothing, they started producing vintage style clothing to cater to the market needs, and this has become their foundation, a style, but in our humble opinion one lacking substance.

Our other criticism is based on the quality of Hackett's kit, it is in general quite poor, made as cheaply as possibly, it apes the style of the type of vintage tailored clothing that can last a lifetime and end up being sold on the Portobello road for years to come, but lacks the - pardon the pun - fibre to hold said garments together.

And here our Vitriol of Hackett ends, as they have by producing the Mayfair range, redeemed themselves, slightly, these garments are far closer to what you would expect of a genuine retailer of luxury clothing, a close look at the stitching on the shits, the composition of the jackets, the elegant cut of the off the peg clothing, even dare we say it, the suiting, displays a level of quality which far surpasses the standard Hackett dross.

Not only that, the collection produces som startlingly original touches from Hacket, again surprising, gone is the tired adherence to the code of "what-second-hand-garments-can-we-reproduce-today", and instead a collection of clothing and accessories with  which you might find yourself saying "thats nice I haven't seen anything like that before".

Finally, by giving this offshoot a separate label, they ave clearly set it apart, giving a consumer the feeling they are not just buying into "Hackett" but a different level of Hackett, a Higher priced (Shirts at £150, Jackets at £600, knitwear £180) and more appealing brand altogether.  A similar strategy was seen at Ralph Lauren, when the Polo brand became too mainstream and tired, he produced the Purple Label, and sold it alongside the Polo label at a well deserved exponentially higher price, this made the Ralph Lauren brand via Purple label something which can happily sit alongside the likes of Brioni and Kiton in a well dressed mans wardrobe, Hackett are not quite there yet, but if they keep going on the way they are, they may well do so.

Please enjoy the selection of images below of the Mayfair collection, or visit Hackett's online store for more information.