Simon Holloway is finding a good balance at Dunhill, delving into the style of its most devoted client, the Duke of Windsor, and his “English drape” suits in the 1930s, but asking internet sensation Lucky Blue Smith to close his very suave show on Saturday night in Milan.
This smooth display, backed by a live string quartet, also featured a range of characters: some with Old Hollywood panache, some more rakish and some bookish in their high-waisted corduroy pants, tortoise shell glasses and tattersall blazers.
Guest poured into the grandiose Società del Giardino, a private members club established in 1783, set up with little café tables laden with Champagne and cucumber sandwiches. It felt like some secret society of handsome, well-dressed men, the likes of actor Regé-Jean Page roaming the tables in a cognac-colored suede coat.
It’s not easy to hold attention with clothes this classic, but Holloway managed, slipping a houndstooth shirt under a houndstooth jacket; layering up speckled tweeds from head to toe, and adding jaunty, windblown silk scarves to many looks, even the formalwear.
There were handsome Loden coats and blazers, which are trending in Milan, and frisky versions of the car coat, a Dunhill icon.
A six-minute briefing backstage with Holloway is tantamount to a crash course in upscale men’s fashion. For example, who knew camel coats came in very rare pale blonde shades? Or about blade cutting to achieve the “sporting, natural shoulder” of the English drape, with no padding.
“These are resolutely classic clothes, but with a lot of invisible innovation in terms of the fabric development,” he said, noting that “all of the tailoring fabrics are half the weight that you would expect them to be.…The real joy of the clothing is in the wearing.”
Seeing them was a treat, too.
