Kingsman at Huntsman -
A FITTING TRIBUTE
Huntsman is pleased to have served as the inspiration for Matthew Vaughn’s new action movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Huntsman is pleased to have served as the inspiration for Matthew Vaughn’s new action movie, Kingsman: The Secret Service. The action packed and hilarious spy caper plays tongue in cheek homage to other “secret service” films but stands head and shoulders above the others in its close attention to sartorial elegance. James Bond may have cut a dash, but Colin Firth in his role as dapper Harry Hart and his protégé Eggsy, really up the ante in the style stakes.
Vaughn was first inspired with the idea of Kingsman being set within a tailors during a fitting at Huntsman. Distracted by the walls and history surrounding him during an appointment with his cutter, he imagined moving beyond the walls of the fitting room, with the tailor shop at 11 Savile Row acting as a smoke screen for his team of spies, the Kingsmen.
Vaughn has a long established relationship with Huntsman, having first visited our hallowed turf at just eighteen years old. Having reached this milestone age, his mother brought him in for his first bespoke suit, an experience that was to make a lasting impression on him and build an enduring sartorial rapport that has led him get to know the Huntsman team over the years.
Viewers of the film will recognise our shop front, iconic stag heads and fitting room with its familiar wood panelling, coat hooks and three ways mirror. In celebration of our involvement with the film, we have closed the gap between reality and fiction by redecorating our second fitting room, reinstating the green textured walls, ensuring that anyone trying on a garment feels like a Kingsman themselves! Colin Hammick, the revered head cutter and namesake of fitting room one would surely have approved of the design scheme.
A small “lab” wall, not dissimilar to that used by Colin Firth in the film has recently been erected in the shop and for a limited time, plays host to some of the accessories created for Kingsman, the movie’s spin-off retail brand, a first of its kind. Created by Mr Porter with some of the best heritage brands in Britain, the Kingsman line includes pens, keyrings, nightwear and shoes as well a range of tailoring.
One of the quirkiest pieces in the new Kingsman collection is the Chalk Striped Siren Suit. This was inspired by Winston Churchill’s very own bespoke siren suit, commissioned by the Prime Minister to be worn during the night’s spent in the Cabinet War Rooms, ensuring that were he caught unawares at any hour, he would still cut a composed and sartorial dash. The Siren suit puts a onesie to shame and comes with an unbeatable back story! The Siren Suit is brought to life in the Kingsman movie by the team of Kingsman students, each one clad in a suit of a different classic cloth design. It has been made by limited edition as a ready to wear garment by the team at Mr Porter, but is of course, available bespoke, right here at Huntsman where not only Mr Churchill, but a raft of fantastic Kingsman-like characters also graced our shop floor.
