The Cork --- An English Cut Publication Zero Issue | Page 48

season

OF CHANGE
WORDS

TEO VAN DEN BROEKE
PHOTOGRAPHS

JONATHAN PRYCE DANIEL & WILLIAM YAN

Editor Teo van den Broeke dissects next season’s
suit trends and highlights the deconstructed,
yet elegant sports-inspired tailoring seen on the
AW16 catwalks in London, Milan and Paris

Men’s fashion weeks are funny things. Firstly, they rarely last a week.

designers led by the likes of Craig Green and Bobby Abley, who grab

Instead they tend to span three or four days, incorporating back-to-back

headlines with their envelope-pushing creations (think baseball caps

fashion shows, presentations and cocktail parties, hosted by countless

complete with Mickey Mouse ears and high-fashion dental dams).

brands clamouring to fly their shirts, trousers and jackets above the

On the other hand, there are the tailors — London’s historic houses

menswear parapet.

that, season after season produce modern, luxurious clothing to rival

What’s more, where women’s fashion weeks come injected with all
the drama and fabulousness you’d expect, the men’s equivalents tend

At Gieves & Hawkes Jason Basmajian showed his final collection

but full to bursting with more trussed-up peacocks than you can shake

for the label before his defection to Cerruti 1881. A sumptuous swan

a tail feather at.

song, Basmajian’s collection riffed on themes set out in previous seasons.

The Autumn Winter 2016 menswear collections, shown in London,

Though sharp tailoring with a modern shoulder and slim leg sits at the

Paris and Milan back in January were a case in point. Putting aside the

heart of Basmajian’s aesthetic, interest came in his clever use of texture.

fact that the shows kicked off a mere week after the Christmas break,

In addition to classic flannels and poplins, flecked wool crew necks,

which means all the editors and buyers tend to be a bit grumpy from the

textured overcoats and spongy shearlings were dotted throughout.
The general mood in menswear right now is one that craves com-

For my money, though, that wasn’t really a bad thing. In the world

fort and understatement. After a decade dominated by tie bars, double

of menswear — a place where subtleties such as stitch details, fabric

Windsors and fussy pocket squares, subdued elegance is the order of the

weights and tonal contrasts really matter — ‘subdued’ can actually

day. This was as palpable in Basmajian’s collection as it was in Carlo

translate to ‘confident’. The clothes on show felt wearable, grown up,

Brandelli’s for Kilgour. Famed for his academic approach to tailoring,

less tricksy than in previous seasons and, in all, very wearable indeed.

Brandelli showed suits that featured conceptual lapels — inverted and

The first stop on the menswear merry-go-round was London.
Famously the slightly wonky corner of the fashion triumvirate, London

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in my opinion, that the best clothing comes.

to exist as more sober affairs — populated by fewer birds of paradise,

get go, the mood was rather more subdued than usual.

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the stuff seen in Florence and Milan. It’s from these seasoned cutters,

shawl — cut from fabrics more commonly associated with casual wear,
such as jersey and perforated suede.

Collections Men (as London men’s fashion week is known) consists of

Similarly, dotted among the perfectly cut double and single-breasted

two very distinct factions. First there is the group of young, avant-garde

suits at Dunhill, it was (departing) creative director John Ray’s more

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