Neil Barrett’s elevator pitch for this collection was The Duke of Devonshire meets The Thin White Duke. He said: “It’s about a character who is modern and fully engaged with the contemporary, but who also has an understanding and respect for what came before: heritage and tradition.” The result was a clothing collection that, through subtle modernizations of cut, details and fabrics, allowed you to dress with an old soul but a young spirit.
Beautiful crombie style wool coats, old school, with atypical diagonal pockets on the hip, allowing a more free stance within the apparently formal. Quilted jackets and super-soft blousons and custom country jackets were cut either in water-repellent ‘techno-tweed’ or a shiny soft avatar of Harris Tweed (but Made In Italy). Long wool trousers were fastened at the ankle with Velcro closures and snaps, an idea taken from hunters’ plus fours, but just as handy when you want to show off your latest shoe grail.
A truly great piece was the updated duffle coat in brown or black, made in voluminous but ultra-lightweight quilted nylon. It came with the attachments of rope and walrus tusks (note: that’s just the traditional name – no walruses were hurt) attached to inserted pads that looked like bits of engine protection. This was a mix of several parts that resulted in something distinctive and seemingly lovely to wear.
There were other details that were less related to that central push and pull between traditional and rad, but were also highly sought after: meticulously tapered corduroy in off-white or plum (always a great color combination with cords) was fitted with excellently adapted tool pockets for carpenters southeast of the right gluteal muscle. As Barrett noted, that style of pants is currently closest to the coin, after a long period of languishing in the wilderness. Elbow patches were pulled forward on the forearm, while knits consisted of a patchwork of traditional patterns, fragmented and then pieced together.
Dancing between the north and south of old and new, the contrast between formal and informal – which is so last century, yet so categorically ingrained – seemed barely present. Instead, Barrett created space to let attitude, not genre, define his clients’ style.
