As it enters the world of tailoring, French label Eden Park tackles the ...

This month opened with the kick-off of the 2014 RBS Six Nations fixtures, the best-attended

rugby tournament in the world with more than one million people

expected to be in the stadiums for the 15 matches. And

fittingly during this competition dedicated to international

sportsmanship, when the English national rugby union squad attend

events and photo shoots they will be suited and booted by the old

enemy France, in the shape of French label Eden Park – which also

works with the Welsh, Irish, French and Italian national teams. And

while Eden Park is perhaps best known for its rugby-inspired

casualwear it is increasingly being taken seriously on the

tailoring pitch.

As any rugby (or, indeed, cricket) fan will tell you, Eden Park is the name of New Zealand’s

largest stadium situated in the heart of Auckland. It has one of

the greatest sporting heritages of any of the world’s great venues.

Indeed, the first rugby international at Eden Park was held in

front of a crowd of 40,000 on 27 August 1921 – though the Kiwis may

wish to gloss over the fact that this saw the Springboks beat the
All Blacks 9-5. It is also where the French

lost in the final of the Rugby World Cup in 1987 and

2011. 

Eden Park founder Franck Mesnel is a former French rugby union

fly-half who was famous as a dapper dresser during his career, and

was playing for his country in Auckland in that match in 1987. It

was around this time that he was thinking of starting a new

venture, toying with such French standards as wine and

champagne, but it was in New Zealand that he and his potential

partners had their eureka moment. Originally an architect with

a passion for flying, on his rugby tours around South Africa,

Australia and New Zealand he had seen many people wearing

rugby jerseys for leisure purposes, something that was

completely unheard of in France at the time. So, knowing all

about rugby jerseys, he and his colleagues realised they had hit

upon the new business opportunity they were looking for.

The now-famous Eden Park pink bow-tie logo comes from

his days playing for Racing Club de France, based in the Bois

de Boulogne. In Mesnel’s days the team was known by its fans as “Le

Show Bizz” thanks to the stunts played by its members, such as

coming on at the beginning of the match in fancy dress and

toasting themselves with champagne at half-time. They were also

famous for sporting berets and pink bow ties – a French take on

James Bond style – with their strip for big matches. 

The fashion for big labels to dress sporting squads goes

back years. Giorgio Armani has dressed the England

Football team, as well as the Italian Olympic and Paralympic

squads. Versace has recently announced that it will dress Real

Madrid while Milan fans Dolce Gabbana have designed their

favourite team’s official uniforms. Hugo Boss dresses the McLaren

Formula One team while in the past Paul Smith has provided suits

for Manchester United.

But dressing Olympic athletes and footballers is a walk in the

park compared to trying to fit out rugby players. Whereas their

soccer friends are more or less the same shape, the variations in

size in the rugby scrum alone, not to mention fly-halves and

full-backs, are enormous. The old image of the beer-bellied

flankers propping up the bar at their local club while singing “The

Ball Of Kirriemuir” may have been consigned to history (well, up to

a point) but many rugby players are still big blokes in almost

every direction, from the neck down. England prop David Wilson, for

example, has a 20in neck and second row Courtney Lawes us 6ft 7in

tall, while fellow second row David Attwood has size 15 shoes and

the Vunipola brothers – Mako plays prop while Billy is No8 – both

have a truly muscular 52in chest.

When I visited the team on their training session at the

Weetwood Hotel just north of the Yorkshire rugby (and cricket)

ground Headingley, the squad were being fitted with their

Eden  Park suits – and it was pretty obvious pretty quickly

that to be able to fit such a wide range of human forms was a

testament to the tailoring expertise that had gone into the

pieces.

Tailor Angela Venn from Cardiff has been working with both the

English and Welsh rugby union squads for several years, and is on

hand to make the alterations that ensure a perfect fit. The speed

and talent that goes into her work is impressive and it is apparent

that this is no easy task. Extremely broad shoulders are coupled

with thighs that require trousers with waist sizes several times

larger than the actual size simply to accommodate all that muscle.

Making these boys look good is as skilful as a try scored from the

other end of the pitch. Let’s hope the team play as well as they

look. RJ 

Gilet, £152. Jumper, £85. Shirt, £105. Chinos, £120. All by

Eden Park. uk.eden-park.com. Trainers by Nike, £62. At JD

Sports. jdsports.co.uk

Originally published in the March 2014 issue of

British GQ.

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Robert Johnston

Robert Johnston is Associate Editor of GQ, as well as GQ’s Style Shrink. Follow him on Twitter at @Realstyleshrink

Article source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-union/25121033

As it enters the world of tailoring, French label Eden Park tackles the ...