London Top 5 - NYTimes.com The second London Collections: Men just concluded in Britain, previewing the Fall/Winter 2013 season and proving to be a rewarding first stop on the European menswear show tour. Prime Minister David Cameron turned an opening reception at 10 Downing Street into a pep rally for the English clothing business, repeatedly asserting the country's leadership and innovation in the rapidly growing industry. Designer Tom Ford and Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen both returned home after showing in Milan for years, adding much appreciated heft to the schedule. The England-based designers embraced their homeland's traditions in woolens, tweeds and tailoring to create exciting collections that were, well, so very utterly English. The sartorial history of Hardy Amies, long a Savile Row stalwart, was made runway ready by the house's creative director Claire Malcolm. Using the glamour of 1930s society as the collection's setting, she envisioned Amies hobnobbing with the likes of Josef Albers and other artists of the time, and created a beautifully graphic "Bauhaus check" wool for a three-piece suit that was shockingly and elegantly contemporary. Sarah Burton celebrated the new home of the Alexander McQueen menswear collection -- a shop on Savile Row -- by taking classic tailoring skills to a jaw-dropping level of complication and intricacy. Models with marcelled hair and shadowed eyes wore differently scaled pinstripes that clashed and collided all over coats and jackets featuring dramatic, pagoda shoulders. Velvet in varied hues of scarlet was pieced and patchworked together into a stunning evening jacket -- an instant museum piece. Patrick Grant at E. Tautz took his slightly sardonic view of the Scottish Isles, "the awfulness of the gift shops and their find-a-family-tartan, Bonnie Prince Shortbread and dress-like-a-highlander outfits," and turned it into a loving postcard. Greyscape colors were woven into the overscaled tartan of a voluminous, A-line double breasted coat that was beautifully suited to brave the elements. Back in his London headquarters hosting a salon-style presentation, Tom Ford emphasized sportswear. A duffel coat he called the "male version of Ali MacGraw," Fair Isle sweaters he hadn't done "since the '80s," and a hefty group of après ski looks set for St. Moritz, joined the lineup of red carpet-ready evening wear that is a house signature. The smart tailored collection was inspired by Cary Grant movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the slim, shorter-cut trousers of the day where "you could always see his socks." Ford emphasized the "cleanliness of the rollneck," showing the sweater underneath a checked three-piece suit for a sleek, sexy look. Jonathan Saunders, the current darling of London's fashion scene, created a colorful tableau for his menswear presentation, inviting the viewer to wander among static models on colorblocked backgrounds, while encouraging editors to rifle through the racks of extra pieces offstage. It was an effective and engaging way to examine the line's subtle detailing and fabrication, which might otherwise be missed during the rush of a runway. Jonathan went for a more unbuttoned casual feel, adding that he "couldn't help piling on the jackets." The palette of natural colors, a first for him and a nod to Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, was jacquarded (or woven) in wide swaths of moss green and oak brown into the fabric of a coat that could blend into the most beautiful of landscapes.