Signature Apparel Group

Artful Dodger

Creates His Own Individual Look

VISION

“Our philosophy for the collection is to speak to the demands of an untapped segment in the men’s market – the street sophisticate. By mixing sportswear with tailoring we have created a contemporary line inspired by blending British flair with American sensibility. Focusing on attention to detail, innovative twists on traditional tailoring, impeccable fit and premium quality. Our man is contemporary man, a peacock, who creates his own individual look and style, with an eye for the newest trends. Our customer is not afraid to take risks.”

HISTORY

Spring 2005 marked the debut of Scott Langton. The lifestyle collection is a full realization of the designer’s creative vision of identifying the need for more sophisticated streetwear in the men’s market. Scott’s signature touch is defined by quirky and offbeat details such as contrast piping, unfinished hems and whimsical printed linings. On each piece there is a signature devil icon, whether on the outside, or hidden inside, the devil conveys the brand’s tagline: “The devil in the details”. In 1995, upon his graduation from the Royal College of Art in London with a Masters degree in tailoring, Scott Langton was recruited from his graduating fashion show to work as Head Designer of Phat Farm. Sean John later recruited him in 1997 as Head Designer responsible for the launch of the company. In 2004, it was under Scott’s tutelage as Design Director of Sean John that the brand famously took home the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/ Perry Ellis award for Menswear Designer of the year. Scott’s Saville Row roots and a flair for exciting, innovative design combined with his wide-ranging, hands-on experience in the US has made him one of the most sought after talents in the men’s sportswear market. However, after nearly a decade of top design positions, Scott Langton has decided to realize his creative vision with this, his self-titled signature line of men’s sportswear. The line is the perfect mix of premium denim with tailored sportswear featuring luxury fabrics, unique trims, embroideries, and artwork.

HERITAGE

In 1816, Magistrate William Fielding was asked about the ‘enormous associations in the Metropolis that went by the name of the “Cutter lads” ’. Throughout this period references were made to the ‘swell-mob’ – boys and young men in their late teens and early twenties. Hewitt, awaiting transportation on the Euryalus in the mid 1830’s, told an interviewer that the swell-mob would often visit lodging-houses in order to recruit ‘go-alongs ’, for thieving expeditions: ‘boys are delighted [they] think it’s an honour to go with a swell-mob’. Generally, such affiliations tended to be associated with older youths. Nevertheless, these gangs were explicitly male, and contemporary commentators saw them as providing an example of the male juvenile’s progression into crime. Another boy on the Euryalus (c.1836), William Johnson, described the appearance of the swell-mob members, in their ‘flash-dress’, with ‘unruly hair, blue frock coat to the knees, blue trousers tight to the knees… velvet collar waistcoat, low riding fancy worked shoes… hat, generally tilted on one side… [as they] go about with a cigar in their mouth’. The swell-mob epitomised the rewards of a life of crime: a boy who had gained membership of the swell-mob, had arrived. Walker a youth of the “cutter Lads” described how boys gambled with the swell-mob, and learnt from them, an association of which they were ‘rather proud’.

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