Artist & Architect | Turnbull & Asser

Turnbull & Asser is a truly unique brand on the luxury British menswear scene; few brands have witnessed such a rapid transformation from traditional Jermyn Street shirtmaker to a deliciously quirky luxury British lifestyle brand in recent years. This is down in no small measure to the bravery and inventiveness of the house's Head of Design, Dean Gomilsek-Cole, whose work has never seemed more impressive than it was two days ago. Indeed, the house's London Collections Men, A/W '16 show was about as snazzy as it gets; combining a superbly entertaining narrative with the most wonderfully bold tailoring, casualwear and accessories you could ever wish to discover. The story that inspires all this flamboyance is a mock-dystopian yarn, in which all the clothing is worn by either the 'architects' or the 'artists', both of whom do battle in the 1984-esque city state of 'Mundania' in the far future, pitting order against chaos, casual against formal, texture against colour. Intended to blend the lines between formal and casualwear, the vibrancy of the collection lends itself to tailored clothing which can be worn in a variety of environments and social situations; broken-apart and contrasted together. It's a confident, inventive approach to men's dressing, and richly patterned double-breasted suits, elegant graphic-checked over coats, vibrant silk jacquard neckties and even patterned pajamas all embody the house's original approach to sartorial menswear. Attention to quality is another signature for AW/16; suits are carefully cut and constructed in London, silks are woven in Suffolk and printed in Macclesfield, and the house's shirts are made in Gloucester, in the company's own dedicated workshop. The inventiveness of the artist inspired silk jacquard dinner jackets (particularly that inspired by Klimt) is stunning. Essentially, for original and innovative menswear, Turnbull & Asser is the place to be next winter.