We like our subtlety in menswear. Keep it simple. Don’t do anything too outrageous. Have tailors not designers. It’s simple that way. The suit is our armour and always has been. But every once in a while even our stayed rules must be broken.

Womenswear has had designers to the stars and glitterati since the birth of couture and Charles Worth. Us blokes? Well sure certain Savile Row tailors have come and gone some being given royal approval, others not. But there are very few names that leap from the history pages.

Of the few that do, few jump higher or shout louder than Tommy Nutter. So it was with great delight I left the office early the other and sauntered down to the Fashion and Textile museum in Bermondsey. The exhibition filled the whole gallery and was a complete retrospective of his work and some of his most famous clients.

If you were anyone in the 1960s Tommy Nutter was your tailor, from Elton John to Cilla Black, the Beatles to The Rolling Stones he was your first port of call. From the suits on show you can see exactly why. His eye was as out there as his shears were sharp, and his talent is still talked about on Savile Row today. Where they say his cutting skills were not the best, but admit he did more for menswear than the vast majority of designers before or since.

Ok so the trousers are huge! But these are the days of flares. The lapels equally massive but take a look at Tom Ford and tell me you don’t see something similar.  The pattern cutting is brilliant and as with all good cutting still relevant. The use of bold checks and not just contrasting but completely random fabrics, should be vile. No really it should! But somehow under his hand they work. Not for the faint hearted but you will be noticed and that was the whole point of it.

I mean check these out……

Bold and no doubt brilliant. I just wish more people knew this man’s name. So please spread the love about this exhibition, about this blog post. If you’re in London and have even a passing interest in suits check it out.

Most of the suits are on loan from their original owners who have cherished them down the years. With menswear becoming more adventurous and more interesting as barriers are broken down I hope we can see more such retrospectives happening.

As well as personal suits stage costumes from the likes of Neil Diamond and Elton John are also on display. As you walk round the upper gallery these leap at you with bold monochrome and colour. Fantastic, and to be fair looking at the work of the likes of Gareth Pugh not completely barmy.

Tommy Nutter was perhaps one of the last people to be truly daring with suits until menswear began clawing back the creativity horded by womenswear. I’ve no doubt other’s will have their own menswear champions but Tommy is definitely one of mine. In a time when every man wore a suit, and the brolly carrying, bowler hat toting, three piece suit wearing city guy was the uniform and not a comedy stereotype he bucked the trend and opened the door to a new kind of formal menswear. One that was bold and daring in both the good and bad senses!

The exhibition runs until the 22nd October at the Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey St.