“With each season, I think about what feels right to amplify from the one before—and what feels relevant. And it’s always about looking at Britishness in a different way, with a kind of abstraction and duality,” said Dunhill’s Mark Weston early this morning at a preview of his Fall collection. (It would later be shown in the evening, where Rami Malek sat front row.) Weston also mentioned measured evolutions (as opposed to possibly client-alienating revolutions) every six months, and his latest effort made a convincing case for patience.
Weston’s progress led Fall into a funkier zone—an amalgam of casual ’80s vibes that had been elevated with formal fixings (anyone thrilled by menswear’s newly returned sense of elegance, now cemented in the zeitgeist by the headliner, Kim Jones at Dior, should no doubt be considering Dunhill). Weston’s “multifaceted” blend was intentional—he looked at high-polish walnut dashboards in old cars, Range Rover upholstery, Bryan Ferry, deerstalker caps, and even Chesterfield sofas for an oh-so eccentrically English jumble (the latter reference was cleverly manifested in puffa-esque scarves, “almost like cravats”).
Split-cuff trousers were back in force, giving a casual lean to certain instances of suiting. The walnut marbling mentioned above was darkened and turned into a print on a mock-neck shirt, which would look smart under a blazer. On the subject of blazers, one of the strongest items in the lineup was a super-spiffy double-breasted navy option—big bonus points for its gold buttons, which were textured with a similar surface treatment to that seen on Dunhill’s famous lighters. Contrast top-stitching on leather echoed the seats in those vintage Rovers, while proportion play also came through, as on a longer, dressier sport coat done in a technical windowpane tweed.
The lineup closed with bolts of color—most successfully on an aubergine leather jacket and a malachite moiré parka. As Weston concluded: “I wanted to put in a lot but keep some restraint—to the point where it was just enough.” Ready and steady: Dunhill looked good.
