GARMENTS
Knitwear, Sport Jackets, Duvet, Formal Jackets, Trousers
The polyester supremacy seems all but inevitable. Sportswear - real sportswear, not fashion sportswear - is almost entirely manufactured from synthetic petrochemical products. There might be the occasional exception made for cotton jersey, but as sportswear has contaminated into streetwear the products we wear everywhere are increasingly artificial too. Yet the analogue organic garment is not over. And as a medium for pattern and texture - not to mention as a insulator - there are few forms of fashion that beat knitwear. The survey of new-season knits on this page demonstrates the torso-warming versatility of the sweater. It can be totally traditional or radically reimagined: a vessel for conformity, a gentle advert for wealth or an unmissibly eye-catching signal of subversive intent. Knitwear can
combine traditional patterns which were once functioning hieroglyphics in the societies that produced them, or be a canvas for the entirely new. There is some competition in Scotland, it’s true, but Italy remains the world’s pre-eminent producer of premium knitwear and boasts a diverse ecosystem of companies that have developed their own specialisms, techniques and styles. From dyed-in- the-wool luxury traditionalists that specialise in the lowest-micron iterations of cashmere and vicuna, to creative patternists who revel in the potential of intarsia interventions, Italy is it when it comes to knits. In fact the one thing that can’t be said for certain about his thriving, exports-up segment of our fashion industry is exactly what innovations it will come up with next.
The leather jacket’s popularity today is a function of the rapid advances in transport technology that changed the world a century ago. The first cars and aeroplanes were open-topped and demanded insulation that was both protective and tough. As too, of course, did the motorcycle. Nine decades after the invention of the Perfecto, an icon of its kind which nonetheless drew on many designs that came before it, the leather jacket has become steeped in meaning and symbolism. The examples on this page reference biker jackets, flight jackets, work jackets, western jackets and even baseball jackets: today, however, the only accurate way to define them is as ‘everything-jackets’. They are do-it-all garments that are fit for almost any purpose the 21st century might throw at you.
The piumino is a category that keeps the fashion industry warm. Driven by the innovation of Moncler - it has to be said - but underscored by the more functionally protective appeal of brands including Canada Goose and The North Face, the quilted, down-filled jacket has evolved from a mountaineer’s accessory into an object of high desire on the street. The puffer jackets selected here show how open to interpretation the garment is. Mixed materials, different quilting patterns, and touches such as a dyed collar or a stitched in silhouette can make it coolly restrained or expressively outgoing. The puffer jacket can look geek, chic, or sleek - it’s a blank page of a piece that is as open to interpretation as it is insulating from the elements.
The traditionally structured jacket is a highly-refined thing of beauty. Evolved from the equestrian attire of 19th century England, the jacket is an exquisite exercise in proportion designed to frame the man wearing it as perfectly as da Vinci drafted his Vetruvian ideal. However the long-maintained primacy of the formal jacket is today challenged as never before. The times they are changing - and men are changing their jackets. And yet, as Sarah Mower points out so persuasively in this issue, what was once hot but is now not will surely become the in-thing again. The formal jacket and the tradition of tailoring that lies behind it will never entirely be cast asunder. And there will come a spark that leads a new generation to rediscover it and claim it as their own.
No garment carries more weight in the ebb and flow of gender relations than trousers. Women have fought for the right to wear them and men have sometimes defined their masculinity by wearing them. Today trousers remain subject to tension as the tug of sportswear pulls tailoring into a new more casual context. Recent changes to trouser-shape have seen the re-assertion of the pleat, a widening of the leg, and a heightening of the hem. Turn-ups are turning up again. The most astute observers of social change with trousers businesses to run are keeping abreast of these changes with luxurious fabrications that emulate the loose, free feel of sportswear yet which retain the appearance of structure and a knowing formality. Wear the right trousers and you can have it all - whatever your gender.