We're not in Mayfair anymore, Dunhill. For as the latest collection was introduced with the gamma ray sound of a Tottenham warehouse rave (and with title cards that co-opted the font of garage night flyers found on lampposts in and around the North Circular), this marked a moment of levity for what is a very serious menswear brand. It was also a pre-emptive and prescient one as London draws up plans for its own Last Days of Rome party come June.
Released under the name 'Compendium', Dunhill's A/W '21 collection was "a playful gathering of objects featuring both provenance and purpose... at once homespun and urbane", or so said the short film's opening gambit, with creative director Mark Weston choosing to eschew the runway's fixation with broad thematic brushstrokes. "I wanted to focus on clothes rather than themes, on individual garments and accessories and what they stand for in their own right," he was quoted as having said in the official show notes. "This is something that seems more appropriate when a collection is looked at in detail rather than shown and seen at a distance."
It shows. Rather than conveying a general inspiration, or loosely interpreting the work of other creatives, Dunhill zeroed in on menswear that made sense for right now, and it also makes sense for Dunhill as a brand. Where polished waterproofs and gilets were fit for gorpcored 30-year-olds that are pining for the chill of a smoking area at 3am, tailoring and accessories, the very things that cement Dunhill as a luxury player, were effortless and of beau monde quality. Weston's insistence that these clothes ran the gamut of professionalism really did ring true, and it all melded together in a cohesive mixture of casual-formal-classic looks. Woollen overcoats and baseball dad caps and boxy double-breasted suits and cagoules shouldn't look this good together. And yet.
The palette of black, grey and navy is a tried-and-tested colour wheel for London's young professional set of multi-drop Uber riders, but what made Dunhill's turn all the more fun were pops of colour that genuinely gave things a little vibrancy, and more than a little optimism. One leather overcoat in a zing of steel blue was punctuated with a bright pink crossbody bag. Other crossbody bags came in prints of English country gardens in full bloom. A pair of trousers were bright red; another were coloured in punchy, memorable cobalt. And, while these pops were sporadic, it was a heady illustration of bubbling under excitement; the pieces that only get some airtime during a special occasion, and the latter half of 2021 is set to be very special indeed.
The collection was soundtracked by IG Culture: an esteemed producer of the broken beat movement, and a co-founder of the CoOp Club at Shoreditch's legendary (and now defunct) venue Plastic People. Jungle-tinged, Nintendoish wob wob wobs confirmed Dunhill's new Dionysian lease of life. With a resumé that includes Boiler Room and Dimensions Festival, the hiring of IG Culture (and the tone it set) was clearly no accident.
Because, ultimately, Dunhill ticked off all the essentials on the luxury London clubber's rider. Subtle cap to be thrown on when your hair grows a little tired. Functional outerwear, and fancier things to be worn underneath. Split-cuff trousers, to show you're a little bit ahead of the curve. All of these clothes are primed for the party, but more importantly, Dunhill's classic grounding gives them life beyond the next accidentally raucous, Four Tet-adjacent dinner party in N16.
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