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" When we approached Andy Spade a few years ago and asked him to describe the accessories brand he helped create, Jack Spade, he likened it to a drop of mercury: &amp;quot;You can never put your finger on it. You can never figure it out.&amp;quot; A neat little description, really, and fine for a label that focused mainly on $400 duffel bags and witty key chains, but when the company started planning its first-ever line of men&amp;#039;s wear, it went searching for a designer who could bring Jack Spade to life a little less mercury, a little more flesh and blood.  The designer, oddly enough, found them. Cuan Hanly hails from Ireland, and after nearly a decade of working for Paul Smith in the UK and a few years running his own tailoring-based label in Dublin, he immigrated to the U. S. in 2006 and would often stop by the Jack Spade store in New York City. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d walk in and my mind would start racing because I&amp;#039;d get a sense that there were so many stories behind the products. &amp;#039;What&amp;#039;s the deal with that? Why is this juxtaposed with that?&amp;#039; I felt the brand had huge potential for men&amp;#039;s wear, so I found out who was running the company, and I reached out with my ideas.&amp;quot; The company&amp;#039;s managers, meanwhile, had already sensed that very same potential, and after a few meetings with Hanly, they hired him.   For his first collection, Hanly and his design team used what he calls the &amp;quot;Jack filter&amp;quot; to create a mix of classic tailoring and all-American sportswear. &amp;quot;Jack&amp;quot; became shorthand for the brand&amp;#039;s sensibilities, and whenever it came up in conversation e.g., &amp;quot;Jack wouldn&amp;#039;t wear that&amp;quot; a composite sketch of an actual man emerged. In Hanly&amp;#039;s mind, &amp;quot;Jack&amp;#039;s got a sense of humor, obviously. He probably lives in a city, and he&amp;#039;s got a rebellious quality that comes out in his clothing. There&amp;#039;s also a duality to his personality he&amp;#039;s both put together and a little disheveled and he&amp;#039;s a bit of a mystery, frankly, even to his friends.&amp;quot; So maybe Andy Spade was right all along: Jack Spade, the brand and the fictional man, will always be a bit of a mystery. And for Hanly and the customers he&amp;#039;s hoping to attract, the mystery is most of the fun.  For more on the new collection, visit jackspade.com.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/a6226/jack-spade-designer-cuan-hanly-0909/>