This is the second season in a row that Dunhill’s Simon Holloway has name-checked blue-eyed man-about-town Lord Snowdon as an inspiration.
“Because I just don’t view these moods as disposable,” the designer said during a walk-through on Friday. “I feel like they’re timeless… I’ve just added to the references this time.”
Hence, Roger Moore, looking spiffy in a white turtleneck and a blue blazer, joined the late British photographer on the spring 2027 mood board along with Lucian Freud, whose artful method of tying scarves over his unbuttoned shirts “looks really simple, but it’s really hard, so we had to teach ourselves how,” Holloway confessed, demonstrating the trick with aplomb. “You go up and over, and it almost creates like a little tie knot. Isn’t that nice?”
As studied and luxurious as it is — the double-breasted tailoring rendered in rare Escorial wool, Dupioni silk or worsted cashmere panama — the collection conveyed an effortless chic, whether in highly codified archetypes, or slightly looser interpretations of English style for summer’s social swing, such as a handkerchief linen shirt that gently flared out at the back.
The blazer remained the anchor of most looks in various shades of blue, and several degrees of formality. A looser, longer number in navy fell somewhere between a sport coat and a pea coat.
Holloway still hasn’t tired of gray, the main leitmotif of his fall effort, and he whorled up some monochromatic ensembles with a whiff of the ’80s.
But the spring offering was more generous in color and mood, from a suede car coat in a drab, olive shade to blazers and chinos in sky blues.
There were touches of eccentricity, including a playing-card motif he scattered on dressing gowns and waistcoats. Holloway discovered an enamel lighter in the archive with the spade, diamond, club and heart patterns, and these also migrated to evening slippers, which came in black or cream.
For the look book images, photographed by Ethan James Green, Holloway decided to finish off one of his evening ensembles with one white shoe and one black.
“You know, we’re English. We like a touch of eccentricity, so why not go a bit bananas on the footwear?” he shrugged.
Still, Holloway’s fashion formula veers to understatement and finesse, so “you really see the person, the character, the man,” he said. “Maybe you notice him because he appears to be well dressed. I mean, that’s really the aim of this.”
