Dunhill (Q2970)
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British luxury goods brand
- Alfred Dunhill, Ltd.
- Dunhill
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Dunhill |
British luxury goods brand |
|
Statements
“Quietly confident” was how Simon Holloway described his mood at a preview the day before his second collection for Dunhill, which unfolded in a Milanese garden on Sunday afternoon. Getting into the groove of his role, which he has now been in for just over a year, the 52-year-old designer has pulled back from the fashion-forward direction taken by his predecessor Mark Weston. Instead, Holloway’s Dunhill is about pursuing what he calls “radical classicism.”“This collection is really a sort of mirrored version of what we started with in fall, so it’s this quintessentially English wardrobe,” he said. The designer explored Dunhill’s extensive archive, whose ready-to-wear origins lie in creating sports tailoring for when the car was invented and driving was still a luxury pursuit, and so the collection began with a deliciously expensive-looking spread of butterscotch suede car coats and chocolate brown leather jackets. Then came tropical wool tailoring the color of clouds—sharply cut but with breezy movement—charming tennis garb with leather racket cases, and finally a set of tuxedos so immaculate that any of the models could have been shrunk down and convincingly plonked on top of a wedding cake.For Holloway, a Brit who worked for Virginie Viard at Chloé in Paris and as creative director for Agnona in Milan, and did stints at Ralph Lauren and Hogan in New York, there’s a sense that he feels very at home in the unapologetic, James Bond-esque Englishness of Dunhill (one particular detail he was pleased to show was a re-edition of a walking cane with a gadget lighter hidden in the handle). “For me, it’s very much about owning British style and finding huge joy in that,” he said.The timing feels good for Dunhill; there’s a growing hunger in menswear for a return to elegant, classic clothing (with rules!) that chimes well with Holloway’s talents. Erring on the side of traditional, occasion-driven menswear without veering into stuffy or dated territory isn’t easy, but Holloway has a knack for striking that balance. This collection felt fresh and cohesive, with a lightness that belied its rigor—and showed he’s the right man for the job.
16 June 2024
Ahead of his debut Dunhill show in London, Simon Holloway hosted Vogue Runway at a preview amid a frenzy of fittings. Despite the tense atmosphere at the brand’s Mayfair HQ, his pristine showroom was organized to a level of meticulousness that only a seasoned designer, along with a world class team behind him, could achieve during a gut-wrenchingly busy period. His ability to scrupulously delineate each garment rivaled the precision of his rails, leaving no detail overlooked. It felt like a lesson in menswear 101.Days later, the salon-inspired show unfolded at the National Portrait Gallery, transforming it into an elegant, cozy setting reminiscent of a chic Paris café, complete with curated table scapes, an array of canapés, champagne, and gin martinis. This lavish spread was a welcome indulgence after a series of back-to-back shows. As a swarm of handsome models emerged, the collection emanated a decidedly classic feel. This setting aptly matched the preppy mood that permeated the garments that felt quintessentially Dunhill. But with a closer look, a majority of pieces were lightweight, and the purposefully mismatched details within the prints and textures felt more modern than was first apparent.There were suits upon suits: two-piece cashmere wool sets here, fabulously cut Donegal tweed three-piece concoctions there. Reinventing the car coat, a nod to house founder Alfred Dunhill’s heritage, the outerwear range varied from camel hair with leather accents to premium double-faced wool. Sound artist Mimi Xu, responsible for the show tracks, revealed the inspiration behind the music: “It’s about repurposing classicism with the current. I aimed to echo the new Dunhill DNA.”When asked about his intentions in translating Dunhill’s 130-year legacy to a contemporary London audience, Holloway's response was assured: “There are menswear enthusiasts here, some of whom, particularly older generations, may know Dunhill from the past. But I do think there’s a younger audience obsessed with tailoring and proper menswear haberdashery—it’s a lovely thing to be able to connect with them here, too.” Is it all uphill for Dunhill? Let’s see what else Holloway has up his sleeve.
17 February 2024
“I’d like to explore a more rugged, casual side of Dunhill and embrace its Britishness—in terms of pattern, color, and texture—but in a lighter way.” So said freshly appointed Dunhill creative director Simon Holloway about his vision for the brand. “I don’t want to do fussy, old, heavy English clothes because I don’t think they’re relevant—I’m about embracing a kind of handsome, masculine sensibility with a sensitive approach.”Holloway took on the leading role earlier this year, and the brand’s in-house team primarily designed the spring collection, but key elements align with his creative vision. With years of experience at Agnona, Hogan, and Ralph Lauren, Holloway has a sophisticated aesthetic that leans minimal. In keeping with that, this season’s color palette was mostly neutrals, with suede jackets (including a standout field-jacket style), cashmere knitwear, cotton button-downs, and leather separates appearing in browns and navies.The tailoring, a Dunhill cornerstone, was cut in soft, relaxed silhouettes and ranged from full micro-check wool-cashmere suits to half-lined Belgravia wool jackets and cotton-silk pleated pants. Other notable moments included an impeccably crafted unlined brown suede blouson, offering a more lightweight outerwear choice for warmer months. Elsewhere, a navy wool shirt jacket cleverly incorporated cigar pockets as an homage to the brand’s founder, Alfred Dunhill, who opened a small tobacconist’s shop on Duke Street in London back in 1907.Holloway’s official debut is scheduled for next February in London, marking a departure from the brand’s usual show venue in Paris.
14 June 2023
Under its new-ish CEO Laurent Malecaze, Alfred Dunhill Ltd. has parted ways with Mark Weston following his five entertaining years at the creative helm. This collection marked a moment of considered hiatus as the house transitions towards a fresh phase of menswear expression. And it is worth taking that moment, because there are many directions in which a new hand could steer it.After all, Dunhill is a marque that started out switching from saddlery to become a provider of “Motorities,” high-quality luggage accessories and clothing for early-adopters of the newly-invented automobile (a bit like Hermès but not for horsemen). It then changed lanes into creation of incredible watches, clocks, and bijoux gadgets (not so unlike Cartier, once upon a time). It also found a powerful niche in the creation of pipes, cigarettes, lighters, and other sundries related to Jean Nicot’s addictive import (although it is no longer in the business of manufacturing tobacco products). Dunhill also has strong associations with golf. It expanded fully into partner-produced menswear in the 1970s before taking on its first ever creative director—a certain Kim Jones—in 2008. Jones was spirited away to Paris barely three years later.So what next? Dunhill seems to possess two core characteristics in its DNA; masculinity and the capacity for creatively opportunistic adaptation. At this juncture, there are three obvious routes for Malecaze to choose from; keep pushing the fashion message (via a new messenger), focus more on an expression of male-identifying style and savoir faire (the angle successfully chosen of late by Berluti and Brioni), or to creatively adapt afresh in Alfred Dunhill’s founding spirit of constant experimental reinvention.The middle road is probably the safest—via some R&D-fulled diversions in the third direction—and with this collection of 20 looks, Dunhill's in-house team handsomely demonstrated its capacity to chart that course. A hopsack dark blue blazer cut from a new block was a paragon of the form. Other pieces you could well imagine the brand’s hedge fundy Bourdon House regulars happily dropping wedge on included a monochrome dogtooth puffa, a black leather car coat, a superlight Crombie-esque coat in herringbone, a pared-back camel duffle, and a fine gray cashmere shacket. Bridle-inspired bags and a molded-sole brogue boot (which would have benefited from a heel to toe drop) completed the compact offer.
After so many twists in its historic plotline, Dunhill awaits a new act. This, however, made for an engaging intermission.
30 January 2023
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.
13 June 2022
Mark Weston doubled-down on the house’s heritage of tailoring for this Dunhill collection, expressed via suiting cut in cutting-edge fabrics and silhouetted in a manner pitched at the younger man. The word he kept returning to was “rigor,” and it does take rigor to stick to this course when all around you are succumbing to the allure of the cashmere/camelhair/corduroy workjacket/shacket/overshirt as a 21st century successor to 20th (and 19th) century suiting. The key jacket shape of the season was a narrowly wrapped jacket held by a hidden button. This created a fuss-free facade in a bonded houndstooth jacket over dark slit-cuff trousers or a city boy suit in dark wool, plain or pinstripe.A camel “kimono sleeve” coat, slightly pumped at the thorax, was placed with surgical precision above a collar framed landscape of jacket edge and removable-collar shirt and tie. Cut a little looser was a papery cotton draped mac and a shearling hooded parka with Weston’s favored moire finish. A storm shouldered jacket presented a superheroic silhouette not seen on Jermyn Street since the pomp of Driza-bone, but it was no less impressive for that. The quilting at the back of a handsome check puffer was attractively contoured to echo the upholstery of a vintage driving seat. A black epauletted shirt (based on an archive piece) and luxury submariner’s sweater, plus a killer black leather trench, injected some special ops swagger. Injected-sole chelsea boots, and satisfyingly untraditional backpacks and totes whose leather was shaped to ape the beautiful barleycorn finish of the house’s Rollagas lighters were among the attractive accessories. Dunhill is sailing against the winds of current menswear convention, but winds do change.
26 January 2022
From Felix Howard in a Buffalo stance to Prince Charles in Norton & Sons pants, a broad pantheon of British masculine archetypes jostled for space on Mark Weston’s Dunhill mood board for spring. Entitled “Identities,” the collection comprised a studious consideration and remix of many Brit clothing characteristics and was thus in keeping with Dunhill’s own London soul.These were clothes that combined the irreverent expression of Mr. Fish with the establishment precision of Mr. Chips, sprinkled with a salting of design innovation and a vinegar shake of humor. Weston’s modular and versatile Compendium outerwear template was applied high-low to trad macs in Ventile and functional gilets with high-visibility markings. Collarless tailoring, black and sleek, was lent an eccentric twist via an almost dowdy pointelle cardigan/shawl. A hoodie in crown-jewel sapphire, irreverent and brash, was worn north of cleanly cut paper nylon pants with a split hem and a pair of powerfully riveted loafers. A similar hoodie, this one pink, was paired with an updated ’70s cardigan jacket in brown rib knit in a seamless blend of dad and rad. An extra filter was added via the inclusion of the color-saturated abstract imagery of the lens-based artist Ellen Carey, which was reproduced in duchesse on structured canoe tops, ravey bucket hats, house Lock bags, and macs.This was another highly accomplished collection from Weston, who, as the design brain at Dunhill, is almost duty bound to explore that British theme. But does he ever wonder whether Britishness is a template with enduring global appeal, given the nation’s ongoing series of face-palm acts of misguided exceptionalism? Said Weston: “It’s an interesting one! And I do think the value has changed…which is why what we translate and reflect here at Dunhill has to feel right in the wider world.” It was a response as elegantly diplomatic as this collection was elegantly fashionable.
27 June 2021
If last season was a force restart—turn it off, cross your fingers, turn it on again, see what fires up—then this one sees designers adapt their creative coding to reality’s altered hardware. At Dunhill (caps down is the house style), Mark Weston went last season for a rigorous inside-out rebuild of the tailoring tropes that are common to this and many other houses. This season he pushed more into the automotive and masculine-accessory backstory of the label, and introduced a personal touch that few past Dunhill collections have featured.That authorial flourish came via the knits that were directly drawn from Weston’s mother outfitting him and his brothers in what they termed a “Doctor Who scarf.” That was a reference back to Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play the role, whose haphazardly paneled scarves were the touchstone of a late-’70s preface of steampunk, future-Edwardian costume. Weston said he included these different-weave patchwork pieces partly to evoke his mother’s “sense that waste was something that was just not done” and also because of the jaunty, fun irregularity they offered within the collection as a whole. More fun came in the form of fanny packs made in pleated pieces of reverse silk jacquard—also used in regal shirting—that were constructed to masquerade as cummerbunds. The silks came from Weston’s contemplation of interior design in old country houses, and the reversing of them emphasized the unintended consequence of the hand.An old-school Dunhill piece called the Compendium—an accessory that contained everything one desk jockey could need, including cigarette compartment, penknife, lighter holder, and pen tray—inspired a piece of outerwear named in its honor. Just as versatile, but far healthier, this new Compendium was an attractive parka, designed to be splittable by zipper into long or short variants. The outer came in superlight technical nylon, while three liners—each wearable on their own or under the shell—were delivered in quilted down, double-faced logo-lined cashmere, or a version in sheared wool woven into a fabric that was a sheepskin alternative, both organic and cruelty free. Weston said more mix-and-matchable variations would be offered in seasons to come.
Other highlight outerwear pieces included a double-faced cocoon coat in houndstooth, a padded leather overcoat that only required walnut buttons to complete the vintage-car-interior-inspired image, and a three-material moto jacket Weston pitched as an alternative to your trusty field jacket.
23 February 2021
“I don’t like artifice for artifice’s sake,” said Mark Weston down a Zoom this morning from Dunhill’s London studio. “But when you start to look at processes, and you look at the abstraction in them before they are fully formed, that in itself has a beauty. To show that transmits a sense of craft and a sense of identity.” Before it was a menswear marque or anything else, this brand started life as a maker of motoring accessories. In this collection Weston popped Dunhill’s hood to show the mechanics of the house’s expertise that would usually be hidden under impeccable finishing.Fabrics conventionally used in the innards of a jacket—Silesian cotton, collar canvas, horsehair, Holland linen—were given their moment in the sun in a series of six semi-constructed jackets whose apparently unfinished state made them this season’s finished article. Explaining his yen for inside out, Weston cited the high-tech architecture of Richard Rogers—the Centre Pompidou in Paris, or Lloyd’s building in London—that expressed the vital organs of the building as its exterior ornament. Wrap jackets, shirts, and reverse-pleated peg-leg trousers also hinted at a Japanese sensibility and looked good against an otherwise mostly monochrome collection when expressed in a print based on layered resprays of paint on metal paneling.There were more conventionally complete pieces, such as a boxy-shoulder evening jacket in silk ottoman with covered buttons, but this collection looked freshest when Weston excavated the space between menswear’s genres, as in “sartorial-utility” tailoring-detail bombers. You don’t have to be a fashion shrink to work out why the notion of a collection whose parts were presented as unfinished, as if frozen in time at the point of some great interruption, ended up being the product: After all, this was a season interrupted as never before. It also gave the impression that hiatus had presented hitherto unseen territories for Weston to explore at Dunhill.
28 September 2020
Outside the Grand Paiais the Sunday crowd was being divided into two queues, those here to see the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition and those here to see Dunhill. The Toulouse-Lautrec-ers probably didn’t walk away disappointed, but the Dunhill minority were well-served too: this was Mark Weston’s strongest collection since joining the brand in 2017.Why? Much of it was thanks to what he and his team had stripped away. The styling felt less self-conscious. The overt and unappetizing branding was largely cut. There was also less reliance on ironic ugliness to channel daddy Dunhill’s old school style—all hard-shouldered plaid jackets, moustaches, gold lighters, brown cars and dolly birds. Today the incorporation of that old to express this version of new was executed with much more nuance and lightness of touch.That’s not to say that there weren’tde tropmoments here, but when they happened they worked. The shiny-cuffed trousers and trenches in black, red and teal—as a well as the gloves—were all made from strips of eel skin. Whatever your feelings about eels (delicious in Japanese cuisine) these were extravagantly fashioned pieces. The results, however, like much in here, swam closer to the depths of sophisticated restraint rather than the frothy shallows of excess.This was a very dark and tailored collection but—with the exception of a few ‘put a strap on it’ overcoats that already seem anachronistically 2019—the sartorial pieces were often cleverly deformalized by the garments they were partnered with. There were some highly clever and attractive details such as the chisel toed loafers featuring hardware that riffed on steel linked watch bracelet closures—catnip to a certain flavor of geezer—and the updating of old school accessory codes to encompass contemporary soon-to-be-obsolescence’s such as EarPods. Dunhill has been quitemehfor years now, but tonight there was a hint of a spark—like a desperately struck Rollagas hitting unlikely flint on a windy night—of something potentially hot.
19 January 2020
Steven Berkoff in his metal-gray double-breasted as Victor Maitland; Joseph Wiseman in his off-white Nehru as Dr. No—plus Prince Charles in a roomy blazer and one arm in a sling, looking nautically Dr. Evil—were all references in this Mark Weston collection of lair-wear for Dunhill. The models strode purposefully out from a fog of blue smoke as if they’d just capped some hapless sidekick after allowing him a final cigarette. Many carried lizard-detailed old-school briefcases you suspected were packed with greenbacks or diamonds.This play on the sensuality of villainy was an effectively ironic strategy for bypassing the problems inherent in creating alpha-male representations at a time when the very notion of an alpha male seems defunct—or at least due a complete recalibration to meet utterly different criteria. That radical shift in the value systems at play was reflected in the lurching glitch effect on printed garments featuring images of Dunhill’s Jermyn Street store and the house logo. The tailored jacket was treated like a wrap dress via a cut that saw it single-buttoned on the front of the right hip—a very clever and lovely shape.Loose silk and sateen pants, sometimes layered under shorts, were worn with lizard hotel slippers or shoes with gold toe taps that you could see on the mirrored runway. The louche and radical formalwear was matched by strongly masculine informality; a black tracksuit in leather with patches of caramel and tobacco on the shoulder and upper arm, double-layered raw-cut silk tanks, and a poncho in that print and black leather. This show about baddies was a goodie.
23 June 2019
“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.
20 January 2019
Great as this gig is, the last show of a season always feels end-of-school amazing. Apart from that, what I really loved about this Dunhill show were the around-the-neck Rollagas lighter holders worn by at least one model on-runway and in great evidence backstage. This company’s recent fashion-incarnation insistence on denial of its tobacco-fumed history is stupid: today came a hint of a more adult position. Along with the first look’s blue blazer—such a defining-ly Dunhill piece—Mark Weston also used vintage Dunhill lighters clad in marble as the inspiration for the attractively patterned green nylon parkas. Vintage graphics were blown up on the attractive bags. History was being acknowledged.This was Weston’s second full show for the car accessory brand turned tobacco titan turned luxury goods specialist—along with Jimmy Choo and Ralph & Russo one of only three bona fide luxury fashion companies founded in London—and it felt much more authored and assertive than last season. A bit like Paul Smith shortly beforehand, Weston was looking at large-volumed tailoring shapes from the early ’80s. Smith was there the first time round, Weston was not: The man from Dunhill focused on minimizing the form via a hidden-button one-and-half-breasted construction in moire voile silks and leather. Pants were wide, structured, and slashed casual-style with popper-ed slits at the hem: when un-popped, as often here, this compromised the happy break of a long wide pant, but you could see why Weston wanted his men to have a clean silhouette. There was a bit of fiddly playing with lengths and layering with high-waisted leather blousons over long-waisted shirts, and a totally un-fiddly and fine field jacket that would look magnificent accessorized with a snakeskin Rollagas holder. Shoes featured geezer-ishly heavy buckling, and reminded me a little of what in retrospect was the single standout show of this season, Martine Rose way back in London. A green trench in olive MA1 nylon, a moire silk T-shirt, and black leather trench were other pieces that looked likely to ignite customer desire and inspire a long, languorous pull on their credit cards.
24 June 2018
Unlike Mark Weston’s first collection in London last season—static presentation, pretty damned good clothes—this runway-displayed sophomore outing had the whiff of serious corporate investment behind it. We were in Paris for a start, in the Lycée Carnot, where Chloé, Valentino, Paul Smith, and a zillion others had trod before. Some of the crossover crowd drifting fresh—damn them—into town for couture were here to check it out, too. What would we see?Weston pulled on the hand brake, burned some rubber, and squealed Dunhill fresh into a new (but not entirely) era following the considered, delicate reign of John Ray. Dunhill started as a motoring accessories brand, and in the late ’70s and early ’80s was a prime exemplar of shades of brown masculinity: the Rollagas lighters, the big lapelled luxury tailoring, and the fragrances—ah, Edition.Tonight Weston tried to echo but update that alpha male vibe. His triumph was the outerwear, which, given his long spell at Burberry, was probably not a surprise. Boldly silhouetted drill and moleskin topcoats were a little bit harder and in-your-face than the soft-shouldered check Italian numbers everyone has been wearing at the shows, but they looked deeply put-on-able: fresh. Personally, I thought the delicately kicked leather pants were way too overemphasized for a luxury marque that deals primarily with businessmen—just check out the gents at Bourdon House in London—but they did nicely preface the very beautiful webbed bags in bordeaux and black, and the oversize leather zipped blousons. The narrowly quilted leather jacket inspired by ’70s car upholstery was awesome. And the Dunhill selvage strips run into the arms and legs of a cool check track top and pant in the first look made for a really excellent mishmash of then and now.This collection veered not entirely convincingly hither and thither in search of a new Dunhill man, as if guided by a satnav with only periodic connection. Yet enough of the direction seemed positive that one could remain hopeful that the destination will justify any misdirected kinks en route. Let’s see how those pants do in store. The outerwear will doubtless deliver.
21 January 2018
Unlike at certain other great British institutions—okay, unlike Britain itself—a mandate for change at Alfred Dunhill has led to completely new government. CEO Andrew Maag and creative director Mark Weston (both formerly of Burberry) have been voted in by Richemont, and this evening saw their first significant policy statement.Neither root and branch reform nor as-you-were water treading, this Spring collection was instead a realpolitik recalibration of the template laid by Weston’s predecessor John Ray. What remained was a core structure of upscale suiting, eveningwear, and outerwear, including a fine fur-lined navy car coat drawn from the Dunhill archive. What was jettisoned was a sense that the archive, and Dunhill’s undoubtedly rich and marvelous history, would overwhelmingly define its future. There was a broader array of attractive contemporary outerwear on show here than since the days of Kim Jones; especially fine were an olive sateen field jacket, a black suede blouson, and a black quilted commuter jacket that any young-and-thrusting London banker (should any remain) will want to wear on the Jubilee line. Both Weston and Maag separately pointed to one piece in particular as they sketched their Dunhill manifesto: It was a reversible bomber shown with a Fox Brothers boating stripe worn outside, but which could be flipped to a more contemporary khaki synthetic. Weston said, “The trap you can fall into is when you start to become too nostalgic. So here, for me, it’s not about having a club blazer with a crest on it, but something like this, which is more relevant.” New sneakers, a new mid-narrow jean, and a new casual deportment in the unfussy styling added to the sense of a Dunhill more—at least, apparently—at ease. Strong and stable stuff.
9 June 2017
“We don’t want change,” saidDunhill’s creative director, John Ray, this evening. “When a brand stops doing what you know will fit, I think men . . . kind of get a bit annoyed.” Truer words, at least to the style-aware gent, were never spoken. And at Dunhill, the story is one of minute evolution as opposed to revolution—no changes here.For Fall, Ray and company broke down the collection into five pillars, with each given a name: Country Weekend, Blazers, Formal Attire, Eveningwear, and something called Motorities (more on this in a second). Country Weekend was the most memorable because, while it kept all the traditional elements of posh and sportive English day-off dress (tweeds, Shetlands, and a room filled with paintings of hounds surrounding Eton-esque models, even a staffers’s pet bulldog acting as a prop), it also tiptoed toward a fashionable conceit: Shoulders in jackets were “more natural” and made to “look like a cardigan.” On top of that, they were rendered in the plushest of cashmeres and alpacas, cunningly customized to mimic (and soften) “scratchy English fabrics.”Motorities, essentially the outerwear section, was also strong, if predictable. It was in the unseen details that Ray shone, such as the cashmere lining inside a goatskin car coat. Tuxedos were varied, from the classic black tie to a shawl-collared jacket in “salmon” velvet, treated to look slightly aged (this was the only piece that registered as somewhat irregular). All in all, though, and especially when seen together, the Dunhill effect was beautiful, and deep-pocketed men worldwide will crave it.
11 January 2016
"The formal clothing is so amazing, so striking—why not start with it?" John Ray asked backstage, post-show. This was Dunhill going for a knockout early in the match: Morning coats and top hats paraded out as soon as the audience had identified and smiled to the rave classic "Pacific State" by 808 State (albeit in the Jeremy Deller brass-band version).Several brands are currently jostling to own British-ness (which is ironic since Britain itself is under threat of disintegrating into English-ness, Scottish-ness, and so on). Why? Because British-ness is a valuable currency these days. Even though Dunhill's focus at the moment is Europe and the U.S., the brand has a huge Asian market, and the heritage of the British aristocratic aesthetic (because we are, after all, dealing with a well-heeled brand here) gives allure and relevance.To help own the Brit brand, Ray enlisted David Niven, Prince Charles, and Edward VIII as part of his inspiration, then mused on the club mentality of Jermyn Street, where men show allegiance through the pattern of a tie. The press release also noted that this is a nation where to dress down for the weekend means dressing up. Let's just say,that'sonly true in certain circles.The collection was thus nothing you didn't already know by heart, but it was done in a way that on the one hand didn't feel like a reimagining of the classics, and on the other hand didn't look at all costumey. Rather, the impression was akin to when a concert violinist performs the same classical piece that has been heard a thousand times before, and yet manages to make it his or her own.This was especially true of the trousers, which were slightly looser than expected, a kind of old man's pants that didn't look retro. Elsewhere, color-blocked shirts were elongated into tunics. Ray also singled out a moss green look, inspired by British race car driver Mike Hawthorn, who used to wear a boilersuit to protect his finery from oil and dirt—although Ray's version didn't come in a one-piece, but three.It didn't feel young, but it didn't feel particularly old either. Maybe with Dunhill, Ray has found that elusive quality so many are searching for: timelessness.
14 June 2015
It seems like a dangerous thing to say for a designer, but before the Dunhill show John Ray divulged that he was "more interested in the boy than what he's wearing. The clothes are almost secondary." But, given that his latest collection was based around strong personalities, his comment made sense. Ray found his starting point in 1950s and '60s Soho, where painters such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and David Hockney mingled and got drunk (mainly got drunk) alongside the aristocracy and the financial and political elite. By casting contemporary creative Londoners—like the artists Guy Gormley and Cosmo Macdonald, musician Gwilym Gold, and "flaneur" Otis Ferry—the designer sought to underscore a point about character and freedom. "The dressing is random, haphazard, but these artists all had the sophisticated touch. There's just the thing added that makes it work," he explained.The bulk of the show was built around a casual look, quite far from what has previously been associated with Dunhill. Pants were loose-fitting and often rolled up, while plush knits had an almost painterly, brushlike color effect. Corduroy, that fabric of the casually inclined, featured heavily. The silhouette had also been lifted from the more generous cuts seen in images of 1950s Soho. There was a dose of Richard Burton in the 1959 movieLook Back in Anger. The most fabulous moment of the collection was easily identifiable: the salmon pajamas and alpaca coat—a look so chilled out, you felt like immediately adopting it as a uniform; it was the perfect "just popping out to get the milk, darling" outfit. To hammer home the point, Ray sent out three more pajama looks, one with the model wearing a blanket with an old Alfred Dunhill ad turned into a print (blankets apparently being the new favorite item of luxury houses).This could easily have been a clichéd, retro-tinged collection—Hockney, especially, has been mined to the point of boredom—but the designer used proportion and color in a way that made the clothes look, if not contemporary, then certainly dynamic. Ray has said the essence of Dunhill is about escape, and it is now clear that escape can take different forms. Soho used to be where borders became fuzzy and sexuality more fluid, and in such a place it is perhaps true that the clothes are secondary. Frankly, you're too busy being alive to care too much.
11 January 2015
When John Ray left Gucci eight years ago, he returned to Scotland and a new chapter in a life that he fully intended would have nothing more to do with fashion. But the bug still bit, and when Dunhill came calling, Ray succumbed. "A challenge," he said the other day. "A chance to be Britishandinternational." It's scarcely a new notion—London's fashion renaissance is larded with heritage houses looking for a stake in the global future—but Ray has taken a distinctively different approach. While those other businesses attempt to update with "contemporary" cuts, he is more engaged by past glories. In an august old building on Horse Guards Avenue, Ray presented, to the stately strains of Benjamin Britten, his own elegant vision of a man, steeped in Victoriana and Edwardiana, with jackets elongated and full-skirted and high-waisted trousers hanging off suspenders. ("Liberating," he insisted.) He compounded his sartorial statement with featherlight silk suits inspired by the tailoring young men might have worn on their character-shaping Grand Tours of Europe in the 19th century."I like tradition," said Ray. "Men look their best when they're traditional." But what he mastered here was tradition that wasn't stuffy. If anything, it had an enchantingly light almost-feyness, exemplified in an outfit that matched a double-breasted jacket in creamy cotton-silk to high-waisted shorts in crispest white cotton, the accompanying footwear a Grecian slipper in crocodile. Ray said he was after insouciance—and he found it. Other appealing details included the turned-up cuffs on jackets; the Dunhill buttons; the botanical prints of fern and magnolia; the kit bags in rich, natural vegetable dyes.Ray identified the idea of escape as central to the Dunhill ethos. The entrepreneurial Alfred Dunhill built his business in the late 19th century on motoring accessories for drivers of the first cars. Imagine the escapist rush they must have felt. And maybe Ray felt the same when he fled Gucci almost a decade ago. Which promises—perhaps—a personal spin on the comeback of this particular old house.
15 June 2014
"There's been too much dishonesty in menswear," according to Dunhill's global marketing director Jason Beckley, and if ever there were a company to right that wrong and reinstate the rule of tried-and-true, his employer might be it. The English label has a hundred-plus years of history and heritage behind it. In the wake of removing its creative director, Kim Jones (who's since landed firmly on his feet at Vuitton), Dunhill repatriated its runway show to London (at Bourdon House, its Georgian mansion, no less) and set about making its claim for traditional English tailoring.The revival of interest in suiting codes is a boon for a label old enough to remember their very formation. What you lose, of course, is some of the shock of the new. But for a bit of a buzz, you only need take a close look at the offerings, an opportunity facilitated by the brand's return to presentation format after several seasons on the runway. The Camdeboo mohair suiting that, crinkle as much as you like, won't wrinkle—not a bad place to get your jollies. Likewise the outerwear: the double-breasted wool alpaca camel coat for city, the silk parka lined in beaver for country—farcountry (Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was an inspiration). Penguin suits for evening? Perish the thought. Think full-on debonair in Dunhill's preferred midnight blue.
21 February 2011
Kim Jones' kid-in-a-candy-store reign at Dunhill continues this season with his discovery in the archives of a cigarette lighter that Picasso engraved with a portrait of his mistress Dora Maar. The house's heritage is wayward enough that you'd imagine Jones indulging his own magpie sensibility to his heart's content, and there's certainly something of that in the accessories that were visible on the catwalk. The hip flasks the models were carrying, for instance. But magpie or not, Jones once again exhibited discipline and restraint in this tightly edited show. The focus was tailoring, with the key jacket a high-closing, one-button double-breasted that tracked back to male members of the Bloomsbury group, the English bohos who set the cultural tone of the country in the early twentieth century. That may sound retro, but the jacket had shapeandease, which made it timely.The collar-and-tie formality of the show was a reflection of Jones' commitment to the resuscitation of the English gentleman. A catwalk possibly wasn't the best place to appreciate the subtlety of his detailing, particularly the shirtings. On the other hand, the handful of sleek, modern outerwear pieces he showed—especially a couple of suede jackets with piped seams—made one yearn for the days when he was reconceptualizing English sportswear. The mere fact they were even in this collection suggests that the designer is working toward a reconciliation of the needs of Dunhill and the wants of Kim Jones. When that happens, this collection willreallylift off.
26 June 2010
Style.com did not review the Fall 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
22 January 2010
Style.com did not review the Spring 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
26 June 2009