Years in the making – Lou Dalton X Jaeger

imageimageLeading light of British Designer Menswear, Lou Dalton has teamed her expertise with Premium British clothing brand Jaeger to create an exciting collection of outerwear pieces. These two stylish entities have come together to combine their practical philosophy and sense of adventure to produce a collection that puts functionality at the forefront. Taking inspiration from and revolutionising Jaeger’s enviable heritage, including design features from the archive collection, and items worn by Adventurer extraordinaire, Ernest Shackleton and his team for their 1914 Endurance Expedition to Antarctica, and combining it with Lou Dalton’s signature aesthetic for contemporary classicism and refined yet contemporary tailoring.

In keeping with Shackelton’s careful selection of Jaeger to supply his protective kit over a century ago, the new collection has been meticulously curated by Dalton and the design team, led by James Jee, at Jaeger. This premier collection launching for Autumn consists of, non-surprisingly, outerwear essentials for the contemporary urban adventurer.

imageKey pieces within the range include a nylon trench with a removable flannel gilet, a shower-proof stretch nylon hooded jacket, a mixed-gauge wool sweater, as well as a balaclava, gloves and all important snood.

The colour palette is natural influenced by the natural environment. Ink navy, camel and charcoal grey are juxtaposed with rust and pale blue to imitate both rural and industrial environments.

Reflecting Lou’s signature line, this collection has a heavy focus on performance-wear, the collection is engineered to be worn on-the-go and is specifically designed for the wearer to embrace the natural elements. Fabrics have been chosen based on their technical abilities, including thermocool wool and stretch nylon to ensure maximum manoeuvrability. Handy, sneaky design features include pack-away zip hoods, natural contoured shapes, engineered to fit closely to the shape of the body and storm cuffs for a streamline effect.

imageJames Jee, Head of Menswear Product at Jaeger says of the collaboration, “It’s been fantastic to build upon her design skills and aesthetic, as well as bringing in some of our well-established principles as a brand. Jaeger was founded upon a pioneering premise around quality of fabrication, and even now, some 132 years later we are embracing this principle in new and exciting ways. The Lou Dalton for Jaeger collection is a great example of this”.

London Collections:Men – Show Review – Spring/Summer 2015 – Part I

The wise scholar, and sometime fashion raconteur, Mr Kanye West OBE, once said, ” Work it harder, make it better,
do it faster, makes us stronger”. 
Which sums up the latest  instalment of London Collections:Men for Spring/Summer 2015, I know Summer 2014 has barely shown us it’s beautiful face and I’m talking about 2015, well that’s Fashion for ya. Anyway, we are back in London and it’s a packed schedule from YMC to KTZ to DKNY, this gives Anthony very little TLC and it’s down to work. We give you the best overview, of what is becoming THE Fashion eventing the calendar. With international name like MOSCHINO, Tiger of Sweden and of course DKNY throwing that very sartorial hat into the ring, London’s becoming a Cosmopolitan hotbed of talent.

imageHowever, first up we have, the irrepressible but more importantly lovely Lou Dalton. For this season Ms Dalton has taken a bit of a risky change in direction, but boy did it pay off ! We saw a more mature, confident and stylish collection. The tailoring, Sportwear fusion was still present but everything felt, tighter (not physical), sharper and generally more impressive. Keep up the good work Dalton A*.

imageNext up, the first of many zig zagging around the capital, to Kent and Curwen, the second season for the brand to be showing as part of LC:M. It has come a long way since launching as a modest collection of ties and cricket sweaters and has grown into one of the most sought after sporting brands in the country. The Brand further fused their take on English dress codes with that juxtaposition of graphic patterns, which mixed with their casting gave a feeling of David Bowie’s thin white Duke.

imageHardy Amies, (above) like its Savile Row neighbour, Gieves & Hawkes (below) showed a blinder of a Masterclass in Great British Tailoring, cool, contemporary but above all wearable. Exquisite ! Plus with the likes of Richard James, E.Tautz and Hackett. It doesn’t take a genius to see why the UK, and London has regained it’s crown for being THE destination for suiting.

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imageFrom some of the oldest names in British style to one of the more newer ones in, Christopher Raeburn, who gave his very unique take on Military. Working with a traditional regimental colour palette, Raeburn worked in Fighter jets and missile prints and showed he improves and builds season upon season.

imageNot only was Jonathan Saunders showing us his signature collection but in the exhibition space we saw his GREAT Second season collaboration with Lyle & Scott,  which was based on the Shane Meadow’s film of the Stone Roses Reunion, Made of Stone. Additionally to this they also showed their other sterling collaborative effort with Universal Works. Plus to Cap off the collaboration craziness area was the BEAUITFUL  range by Barbour X White Mountaineering, (above) one to definitely keep an eye out for.

Oliver Spencer, continues with his successful formula of producing wearable, timeless, pieces that form part an impeccable wardrobe. Last season we had Idris Elba providing the entertainment on the decks. This season Olie followed suit and as the eyes of the world focuses of Brazil he had the UK’s foremost Brazilian percussion group supply the entertainment, complete with Carnival dancing girls ! Somewhat a highlight of the day.image

In first place in the Fashion stakes is Team GB – The Harvey Nichols/LC:M Tour

Screen Shot
2013-08-03 at 14.17.10Firstly, I have an apology
to make I really did intend to post this, particularly interesting
story, last week in time for the first event in its Tour, but all I
can say is due to circumstances beyond my control I couldn’t
unfortunately and apologises to readers in Scotland, foremost
Edinburgh and anyone who was in Edinburgh and would liked to have
attended this event, sorry ! OK, swiftly moving on, if you find
yourself in either of our Northern Bastion cities of style this
week, I am of course, as if I need to explain further, talking
about Leeds and Manchester, please pay particular attention to your
state of dress. Another UK style icon, known the world over as an
Embassy of sheer sartorial taste, Harvey
Nichols
, has gathered together the cream of the UK
crop in design talent and has whisked them off on a magical mystery
tour to some of their stores. Edinburgh was last week, sorry again
and now its the turn of the Leeds store on 7th August and
Manchester* on 8th.

Harvey Nichols will showcase their
buyers’ edit of the most important new British menswear brands from
London Collections: Men Spring/Summer 14. The evening will showcase
the exceptional design, impeccable tailoring and exciting new
visions for the future of men’s fashion, with the opportunity to
meet the designers behind these rising stars of mens’s fashion.
Designers involved include Bernstock
Speirs, Casely-Hayford, Christopher Shannon, James
Long, Katie Eary, Lou Dalton
and last by
no means least Mr Hare. The
evening will offer customers the opportunity to shop the latest
collections, while sipping on complimentary drinks, always a bonus,
whoop, plus the chance to be styled by the designers themselves
!!!! Harvey Nichols has embarked on the tour to emphasise the
changing nature of our Menswear business and demonstrating their
ability to spot and nurture the very best of young British fashion
talent, with an emphasis on both the creative and commercial
aspects of the collections. Remember that RSVP is essential. Stay
updated and join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag
#HNLCMTour *Please note
that the Manchester date will not be taking place instore, but
instead will be located at 2022NQ, Basement, 20 Dale Street,
Manchester, M1 1EZ

London Collections:MEN Autumn/Winter2013 part I


Following on from the stella success of London Collections:Men‘s launch back in June last year, eveything went quite, in a ohhh God how can we top that kinda way. Well Gawd bless the BFC and it has to be said GQ’s Dylan Jones they’ve only gone and done it ! London Collections:MEN (sorry just cant get use to that name) has bounced back for Autumn/Winter 2013 bigger, better, faster, stronger with a schudule that includes such names as Hackett, Richard James and Rake, keeping the side up for the formal side of Great British Tailoring and Lou Dalton, Richard Nicholl and Christopher Shannon, no surprises there, yeah OK, OK. But, the BFC etc have been on a charm overdrive offensive and have been working their little socks off as they have enticed,drum roll please, Alexander McQueen, Bally and no other then get ready for it Mr Tom Ford to showcase their menwear wares !!!!

Lou Dalton A\W 2013

Lou Dalton A\W 2013

So to kick the proceedings off it fell on the first lady of British mens style, MsLou Dalton, to show the lads how it should be done. She graced us with a much more grown up collection for Dalton, as always, her suiting is impeccably cut, my personal favourites were the tweed numbers. Lou seems to be evolving into a confident and contemporary designer, but more importantly isn’t losing her sense of fun and humour, which Fashion so often lacks at times. Olympian and Strictly come Dancing contestant Victoria Pendleton sat front row flanked by the beautiful Catherine Hayward of British Esquire and fresh from spending his royalty cheque thanks to John Lewis, was 80’s pop icon, Frankie goes to Hollywood front man Holly Johnson.

From this great start I pulled on my hiking boots and headed over to for the launch of luxury brand, Bally, they were conducting their first capsule collection to cememorate the Sixtieth anniversary of the scaling of Mount Everest. Present at this soiree was a mixed bag of celebs which included TV presenter Rick Edwards, Merlin actor Alexander Vlahos, Libertines front man Karl Borat, Swimmer Marc Forster and fonejacker comedine Kayvan Novak , all out to celebrate both this feet of mankind’s conquering of nature’s elements and an unsurprisingly luxourious range by Bally.

John Smedley A\W 2013

John Smedley A\W 2013

Then onto a great colourful presentation laid on by the Forefather of fine gauge knits John Smedley, who have been proudly producing their wonderful knitwear in the UK since 1784 and did you know we have to be grateful to Mr Smedley for the invention on the Long Johns thermal underwear, you learn something new….

From here it was a well earned pit stop at the Bloggers suite care of The St Martins Lane Hotel. The perfect and most luxe way to file copy, check ones email and refill, before out into the breach again. Onwards & upwards !

TopMan Design A\W 2013

TopMan Design A\W 2013

Next up was TopMan Design and what a difference a season makes, no reference to surfers or surfing for this collection, as we saw with their last offering. No it was full on luxury explorer and his sherpa companion travelling and making their way through some urban comtemporary landscape. The first section of the show was very East 17’s “Stay another day”, but in a good way, honest. Then came a full on colour explosion on the senses in Reds and Oranges and if we are to believe Gordon Richardson and his TopMan design team, the Parka IS the coat for next Winter and they offered us options in all shapes, sizes and lengths.

Mr Start A\W 2013

Mr Start A\W 2013

Mr Start was next on my schedule, the uber stylish boutique of East London, where Nick Grimshaw sat next to Designer Henry Holland both with matching haircuts. The fabulous Mr Hare came along and of course a show isn’t quite complete without the two book ends of LC:M Model David Gandy and Man about Town Mr Tenie Tempah. Start offered us a beautifully sophisticated Man of Mystery, drawing on such iconic figures as George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy and Mid Sean Connery in his Bond years, almost a modern day vintage super spy. The collection felt rather Miu miu Menswear with its 60’s silhouette.

I can’t finish day 1 of LC:M without mentioning the Hackett show, which had a setting which was equal to how beautiful the collection was, The Crypt of St Paul’s Catherdal no less ! The range was masterfully styled by William Gilchrist and once again illustrated how a true gentleman should dress for every occasion.

Catch up with us tomorrow for the second part of LC:M

 

Lou Dalton – the First lady of Menswear

Dame Lou Dalton, you mark my words, its on the cards.

Today’s subject of Textual conversations had the nightmare task of kicking off proceedings for the first London Collections:Men  last week, so no pressure then !!! However, in the words of Gary Barlow, X-Factor circa 2011, “Wow! what a way to open to the show.” Lou Dalton totally rose to the occasion and took it all in her lady like stride. Dalton has established herself within Menswear with a signature aesthetic that showcases contemporary classicism and refined tailoring that is defined by her working-class roots and her dapper Teddy Boy father. She has the ability to develop exceptional well crafted garments that are both considered & at the same time functional. She has honed her craft by working with amongst others Stone Island, Crucianni Knitwear and tailor extraordinaire Charlie Allen. Now you would have thought this lady was too busy for interviews, but she made time to answer the questions of Clothes-make-the-man.com  

In your words, describe your SS13 collection ?

Light wool mohair tailoring mixed with M.O.D mesh. Harness inserts in contrast fabrics mixed with classic shirting. Oversized shirts worn with slim jersey sweatshorts.

  What was the inspiration for it ?

Obssession & restraint. Also the male leads in films such as Breaking Away, Eraser Head & Taxi Driver.

 

SS13

    What are the key pieces in it ?

The mesh inserted single breasted jackets, strap shoulder sweatshirts, harness cut shirts 

    What is you most memorable moment?

Seeing the boys lining up back stage about to walk out, the realisation that I actually got to this stage, also having key heavy weight press pop back stage to congratulate me on what they saw as a great show, very moved by that. Also meeting & chatting with Prince Charles.

    Who would do you ideal diner guest and why ?

At this moment in time the love of my life Justin Haigh, we haven’t been in each others company for a while due to the show. Within the public eye, from the past Princess Margaret, from the present David Hockney, both colourful souls with many a story to tell I’m sure.

    If you could give £1,000,000 to someone/something who would it be ?

I would split it between close family & friends, in return for all their constant love & support, my nearest & dearest have sacrificed a great deal, for that I will be forever greatful.

    What piece of clothing would you relegate to Room 101 ?

A couple of seasons back one of the collections was heavily inspired by Napoleon, pretty much all of that collection can be put into room 101

    What track would always get you on the dance floor ?

Raze, Break for Love

What piece of clothing should everyman have in his wardrobe ? 

A good crisp white shirt, preferbly one by Lou Dalton

Tell us something no one else knows ?

I was once on Alan Car’s tv quiz where I won a colourful rosette, this sits proudly upon my Christmas tree now, year in year out.

If you could only wear one brand/Designer, other then your own, for the rest of your life who would it be ? Why ?

Dries Van Noten, relevant when I was a student & still relevant today, considered & beautifully executed. Love, love, love

www.loudalton.com

Lou Dalton A/W12 Collection

Preview of SS13 Collection