October 22, 2026 |
If there was one thing to take away from the AW26 shows, it’s that brands are betting big on tailoring. Suits were everywhere. In plenty of different shades and guises, yes, but the overarching mood was to smarten things up. We thought it would be a good time, then, to ask some of menswear’s brightest talents to pose for 10 in their own suits – some chose looks of their own design, while others rooted through their wardrobes to find their beloved formal gear from other brands. Aren’t they a dapper bunch?
LUKE DERRICK, founder and creative director of Derrick
Luke Derrick is a maestro of the London look. His muse is always the lad on the street; that glimmer of a great outfit parading down Bethnal Green Road. He cleverly cuts suit trousers from tracksuit material and pairs tailored cord jackets with techy windbreakers and dressed-down shirting – it’s perfect for those who want a decent fit and something smart to wear, without committing to something too prim and proper.
Tell us about your suit.
I am usually always in some variation of this uniform of combats, a low-slung shoe that sits cleanly under it, and a suit jacket. Whatever is under the jacket might flit between open shirts, base layers and scarves, but I’m in a version of this most of the time. Also, I’m a massive Hideo Kojima-head, and basically my entire personal style is ripped from [the character] Drebin 893 from Metal Gear Solid 4. Here I am wearing one of my Derrick jackets over an early Helmut Lang show invite T-shirt, with ’80s US Army desert combats and Derrick x Oliver Sweeney Oxford Runners.
How did you come to own it?
Things collected, designed, discarded. It’s been a process. I also often test wearing vintage pieces as I research things for Derrick collections.
Why do you like wearing it?
This ‘suit’ is an evolution of nearly 20 years of wearing them, from school uniforms and cadet army uniforms as a teenager to going full Savile Row mode with ties every day pre-Covid. I realised very rapidly that wearing ties in my bedroom during lockdown was anachronistic, so it’s been six years of trying to find a more modern answer to that realisation. It’s about taking the archetype and making it work for you in the real world.
Where do you wear the suit?
On the tube, in the studio, out and about, on a Zoom, around the house, at an opening… it goes wherever I go. The reality of this age is that we’re often never exactly where we want to be at any given time; my answer to that is that it’s no bad thing to always be slightly overdressed, just, make it functionally so.
How should a great suit make you feel?
Most of it is gestural or postural.It’s about stepping into a version of yourself that stands a little straighter, has their life a little more together and is able to store the things you need on you at any time. With regards to posture, I’m 6ft 6in, and for me it’s almost corrective physiotherapy to keep my spine where it should be. A great suit is for other people to notice, but not the wearer – it needs to be an unfussy extension of yourself, otherwise it’s an affectation, and the whole thing is over before it even walked out the door.
Photography by Bella Macgregor. Taken from 10 Men Issue 64 – FUTURE, LEGACY, HERITAGE – out NOW. Order your copy here.
