A cool breeze wafted through this collection, which was all about fusing the elegant with the sporty and creating dynamic clothes made for moving.
Dunhill creative director Mark Weston has a challenge on his hands: How does he make this brand, which is synonymous with snappy dinner jackets and suiting for city slickers, feel modern at a time when men have cast off their ties and formal shirts and are spending more time out-of-office?
His solution this season was to lighten up the tailoring — literally — and create “fluid, comfortable clothes that are made to be lived-in. I didn’t want anything to feel too precious,” he said.
Fabrics were fluid, as in a wool-silk trench that billowed behind a model’s back when he walked; a taupe leather coat with hidden micro-perforations under the arms for breathe-ability, and a classic navy wool blazer with natural stretch.
Other wool-silk tailored pieces were crease-resistant and meant to be worn straight out of a suitcase.
Some coats and jackets were made from whisper-thin leather, while a white parkas looked like it was fashioned from seersucker. But because Weston was in a sportier mood, he actually made the parka from cotton and nylon with a puckered finish.
Other jackets were finished with fly fronts, or military-grade rip-stop fastenings. Some trousers had sporty, contrasting stripes on the sides, giving the collection a neat, athletic edge.
Weston even loosened up the styling, slipping T-shirts or lightweight silk knits under blazers or double-breasted jackets. He kept the palette urban and neutral, working with a range of gray tones, black, white and stone.
Accessories, too, were unfussy as in a multi-functional, soft pebble-grain leather bag and a grab-and-go square pouch, which Weston said is a big seller in Japan.
