How Tiger of Sweden 'engineered' the perfect gender-inclusive suit

Lately, fashion has been erasing its gender lines. On the individual level, we find an anything-goes approach to dressing that subverts the traditional notions of male and female dress – men in sexy, strappy garments, women in relaxed suiting, and everything in between. Meanwhile, brands have begun to introduce unisex/gender-neutral/gender-inclusive offerings (they haven’t quite settled on the appropriate label, but their hearts are in the right place), which eliminate gender distinctions altogether.

Tiger of Sweden has a great name for it: 'All'. Released seasonally in 'volumes', the Swedish heritage brand’s All collection is a tightly-edited selection of essentials, meticulously tailored to fit any and every body. “You’ve got a fundamental challenge, which is the typical body shapes between men and women,” Tiger of Sweden creative director Bryan Conway tells me, noting that the most prevalent distinctions lie in the hips and the shoulders. “When brands are just jumping on the bandwagon, they don’t address that challenge at all. You make a massive oversized sweat, you make a big hoodie, or whatever, and you go, ‘Oh, that’s unisex'.”

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With a pedigree that includes design stints at Burberry and JW Anderson and nerd-level precision, Conway is more than qualified to take gender-inclusive tailoring to the next level. “If we approach it with more of a shape, in a classic way, then we can offer something that works for both,” he says. “It’s more understated. It’s more about quality and craft.” Earlier this season, Tiger introduced All Volume 1, including a classic single-button black suit. It will soon be joined by a double-breasted suit, a denim jacket and jeans and a classic biker jacket. To round out the looks, there are button-down shirts and jersey t-shirts.

The All concept was spurred by a single image. Conway describes a black and white Tiger campaign from the late 90s, shot by Swedish superstar photographer Mikael Jansson “before he was famous.” Entitled Swedish Minds, the campaign featured portraits of creative and cultural notables. “There was one in particular, of [Dutch-Swedish actress and writer] Amanda Ooms, she must have been in her thirties,” Conway says. “It’s almost like a Helmut Newton image. She’s just wearing a black suit, white shirt and heels. It’s incredible.”

At the time, Tiger had recently launched womenswear. “I don’t know whether it was laziness or whether they had an inkling that it would work, but they just picked the two or three best men's suit shapes and just sold them straight to women,” says Conway. “They didn’t make any allowance for the woman’s body whatsoever.” To be fair, the suits looked great… that is until the woman wearing one sat down and the trousers bunched in all sorts of unflattering ways. So Conway took this concept – the blurring of gender lines when it comes to Tiger suiting – and “did it right.”

Conway approaches the tailoring in his All collection as an “engineering challenge.” With the double-breasted suit, for instance, the waist is belted to fit a range of waist-to-hip ratios. The shoulders are tailored to “meet in the middle,” so to speak, with a softer silhouette on a broad-shouldered wearer and a stronger silhouette on a slim-shouldered wearer. Arm length is considered as well, measured just so as to never fall too long or too short. I told you Conway is a bit of a nerd when it comes to this sort of thing. His masterpiece is finished with a bespoke sizing system.

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To test the veracity of his creations, Conway simply ordered prototypes in three sizes to have members of his production team try them out. “We did a fitting with all different types of bodies, which is the first time I’ve ever done that,” he says. “Usually it’s just, ‘Here’s your fitting model with perfect specs'.” As for the denim: an ultra-flattering bootcut with similarly considered proportions.

And the best part? “This is also the most sustainable collection we’ve ever done,” says Conway. The wool is ZQ certified, the denim is made from 100 per cent recycled cotton. The biker jacket is certified gold by the Leather Working group. The price point is a little higher, but that doesn’t bug Conway. “I wish we could just sell less for higher prices in general,” he says.

Conway is quick to point out that the All collection is just a sliver of the Tiger of Sweden universe. Still, it’s one that makes a well-considered, perfectly-tailored statement. “We’re stopping this thinking about women and men – men must buy this and women must buy that,” he says. “This at least opens the door to a new way of thinking.”