Ernest W. Baker behind the scenes

One brain; four hands 

He could be a Manhattan banker, a Dashiell Hammett detective, or a John le Carré secret agent. We picture him during the Cold War, meeting his first love in East Berlin, with his dark overcoats, his impeccable suits in caviar black and desert colours, his chocolate leather accents. And then there are the rings, the travel bags made of real fake mink, and everything else that gives style to a name. “One brain and four hands,” they say with modesty.  The label Ernest W. Baker was created five years ago by Reid Baker, American, and Ines Amorim, Portuguese. From this four-handed game, a world has emerged: a way of reinterpreting the past between Mad Men-style tailoring, European chic and the great western spaces. It is enough to see them dusting these patent leather boots like formal derbies or handling a Davy Crockett-esque shirt cut in an impeccable sand-coloured gabardine to appreciate a passion undoubtedly linked to their double heritage – which includes an elegant grandfather in Detroit. To understand what seduced Corso Como in Milan, Dover Street Market, SSENSE and United Arrows. The sense of detail – the al dente embroidery, the knitted waistcoats with strands of knitwear finished individually by hand – reveal a perfect fabrication made in Portugal. And they recreate a bouquet of sensations where red, camel and black are paramount. One studied in Milan at the Domus Academy, worked in London at Wooyoungmi; the other at Haider Ackermann. The world lies within their hands.