Dunhill is on the move. Next year will mark the 130th anniversary of a house that was founded in London to provide equestrian accessories. It then began a pattern of pivoting, a shifting of gears to stay abreast of each generation’s masculine preoccupations that continues today.
Before that January ’23 jamboree, Mark Weston showed this last all-digital presentation as a dynamically shot look book and film produced on location at the architectural time machine—a mixture of façades old and new—that is the Woolwich Arsenal in London.
Weston integrated tradition and innovation by refiguring totemic Dunhill pieces afresh. An archive Umbrella Coat made for open-top drivers in the 1900s was upgraded into an ultralight water-resistant and creaseless kimono-sleeve coverall that rippled as its wearer walked.
Suiting was deconstructed and pared down into acutely angled minimalist blazers and monochromatic shirt-tie-pant combinations in superlight wool-silk blends. Short parkas and boxy bombers in technical fabrics or light double-face leathers featured hidden mesh panels under the armpits and action backs. Their full volumes echoed the often tobacco-hued menswear outerwear of Dunhill’s 1980s pomp but remixed that association into a convincingly contemporary innovation. A boldly white parka was delivered in a delicate yet tough cotton-nylon ripstop above matching slouchy off-white silk-organza pants.
A series of new body bags and totes that Weston said were built to acquire patina through use were crafted in pebble-grain leather and framed by a bridle-inspired double strap that harked back to Dunhill’s original raison d’être. From horse and carriage to e-scooter, as humankind’s way of getting from A to B continues to evolve, Dunhill continues to adapt: It will be interesting to see how Weston pushes on come that big birthday moment.
