E. Tautz Spring/Summer 2020 London “I like to think the mood of this collection was upbeat, like early Barry Manilow,” said Grant, whose clothes were polished and laid-back.
Usually, the soundtrack at London shows draws from decades of British talent – punk, pop, reggae, hip hop and techno – but Patrick Grant of E. Tautz was having none of it. For the close of his romantic spring show, he picked Barry Manilow’s 1973 track, “Mandy.”
“I like to think the mood of this collection was upbeat, like early Barry Manilow,” said Grant, who built his polished, laid-back collection on his favorite Seventies and Eighties silhouettes, mixing and layering tailored and casual clothing, denim and streetwear with aplomb.
Colors and patterns evoked Seventies interiors, spanning lavender, brown, orange-pink, rust and robin egg blue. They were inspired by the wallpaper and upholstery in the images of Tish Murtha, a documentary photographer who focused on Britain’s unemployed youths in that decade.
Silhouettes were languid. Breezy, billowy shirts came in light blue with windowpane checks while others had flowers or angled pockets at the front. They were paired with baggy denim or cotton trousers, more fitted pleat-front ones or even shorts.
Tailored jackets in sage or rust rubbed shoulders with bright, roomy knitwear and sweatshirts that had a polished edge thanks to snappy geometric patterns across the front.
Grant, who also owns the Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons, swerved questions about the return of tailoring after a deluge of streetwear on the catwalks.
“Tailoring looks great when it’s allowed to be normal, to be clothes – and not ‘a thing.’ You can wear tailoring with jeans, shorts, tailored and untailored trousers. This season we even made ‘suits’ out of shorts and baseball shirts,” said the designer.