Gentleman’s Necessities
Every style-astute man knows the benefit of beginning an outfit with a solid foundation. However, for most gents, underwear is an often-neglected building block in their sartorial regime – a seldom seen after thought, instead of a key closet component. However, recent patterns in consumer trends seem to be bucking the trend, with London department store Selfridges reporting a 28% rise in menswear underwear sales since the start of the year, with the retailer having expanded its men’s offering to cater for this notable rise in demand. But away from the run-of-the mill Calvin Klein’s and substandard 3-pack cottons from the high street, what are our alternative choices? Luxury underwear label Burtonwode certainly lives up to its brand moniker as a purveyor of ‘Gentleman’s Necessities’, with its stylish range of boxer shorts and boxer briefs, making mundane base layers a thoroughly sartorial affair. Founder and director David Huglin, drew inspiration to launch his undergarment crusade from a particularly smart sketch of a set of men’s pyjamas that he happened to chance across. Huglin says of his brand: “we started because we wanted to give fashionable men a proper choice of woven boxershorts… hopefully we have achieved this”. Patriotic to the core, Burtonwode manufactures all its apparel in Britain. The high grade, twice-softened cotton fabric receives its natty prints in a Carlisle mill that has been producing specialist patterns since the 1800s. After the printing process, the cloth is sent to London, where it is carefully cut and stitched in the docklands district of Canning Town. Each piece comes in its own artfully made ‘book box’, which is the signature packaging of the brand. With its unique manufacturing techniques and considered credentials, Burtonwode certainly brings a new definition to luxury essentials; and having donned a pair myself, I can vouch the brand’s precision attention to detail has certainly paid off. A range of quality boxer shorts is available now from burtonwode.com, priced at £26.
Burtonwode Boxers
