“We don’t want change,” said Dunhill’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.
