CAMEL CHAMELEONS: THE TRUSTY COAT SHIFTS SHAPE
Can the camel coat - synonymous with middle age (and middle class?) make a comeback?
If you want a lesson in what’s cool, and what’s resoundingly Not Cool, spend time with a Parisian fashion tastemaker. Last week, in the exquisitely sparse atelier of Kris Van Assche, Dior Homme’s creative director, in Paris’s first arrondissement (it’s a tough life, I grant you), the designer was critiquing what seemed at first to be a standard issue camel coat swinging on the rails. “The camel coat is really the most bourgeois item in a man’s wardrobe,” he said. “Which is why we wanted to change it, give it a bit more life, make it relevant.” Van Assche, showing his autumn/ winter 2018-19 collection over the weekend, did just that – knifeedge sharp with white darts on the waist and shoulders to highlight its preciseness.
This humble and very British item certainly has noble beginnings;
Jaeger lays claim to have invented the first “true” camel coat by weaving a garment out of camel hair in the year that followed the First World War, going on to create outerwear for the military when war struck again; with wool in short supply, it was a durable alternative.
It’s interesting that Van Assche says “bourgeois”. In Britain it’s synonymous with Arthur Daley – that wheeler-dealer car salesman – the attire of captains of industry, city boys and clerks alike, and all too often gets a bad rep; it was the kind of coat your dad would advise you to invest in once you got your first proper job. And in Daley’s case, it was baggy and sack-like, bulked out all the more by wearing a suit underneath. But, as designers like Van Assche prove, alongside high street brands such as Cos, the much-maligned camel is due a second act.
Today, the term “camel” more often than not refers to the colour rather than the actual material, but the form remains the same; single-breasted with either a notch or peak lapel, occasionally in a contrasting shade. Contemporary styling (particularly on the street style stars that parade outside fashion shows) demonstrates that this item has traction way beyond business attire. A crisp white T-shirt and jeans looks great with a camel coat; it elevates the casual stance. Ditto it looks pin-sharp with a polo neck or ever a racer top; compliment the nuanced colour with a knit in a shade such as berry or saffron. A lot more Dior than Daley.