WWD Digital Daily

Kent & Curwen

- — Samantha Conti

This collection has been evolving rapidly, and in multiple directions, under creative director Daniel Kearns, who has a knack for balancing the sporty with the sophistica­ted. For fall, he took the collection into more sartorial territory — and sent out female models for the first time — in a show that took place at an Arts and Crafts mansion overlookin­g the Thames.

Kearns described his collection as “sartorial streetwear,” and said he looked to the male and female cofounders, Eric Kent and Dorothy Curwen, who founded Kent & Curwen in 1926, as his muses.

His aim, he said, was to make the pieces accessible and wearable across genders and to respond to the women posting pictures of themselves wearing Kent & Curwen clothing.

The result was a mix of military tailoring and loose-fitting, colorful knits and sporty references, all done with Kearns’ light touch. He also played around with the brand’s rose logo, turning it into a Velcro patch on a sweater, spinning it from gold bullion or creating it as a tone-on-tone detail.

Star pieces included the languid, lightweigh­t knitted rugby shirt worn by one of the women models and the long and short military coats in olive, navy and gray-blue with shiny gold buttons. A fuzzy, electric blue mohair coat with a blurry check pattern did much to brighten up Sunday’s gray skies.

Boxy sweaters, some with trompe l’oeil patches and others with magnified argyle patterns also stood out, as did the zipfront jackets with jockey-style diamond motifs large and small.

Kearns also showed off the Kent & Curwen collaborat­ion with the BBC TV crime drama “Peaky Blinders,” a collection he filled with Twenties-inspired silhouette­s such as a featherwei­ght gray frock coat and Kent & Curwen’s signature peg trousers, which should suit ruffians and gentlemen alike.

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