An innate ability to interpret tradition with spontaneity is the key to new elegance. Self-expression is paramount, permitting moments of unbridled opulence and psychedelia within the everyday. Clare Waight Keller liberates the Men’s Fall – Winter 2020-21 collection with an intimate ode to the modern man, adorned. The tenets of the New Age drifter imply a penchant for collecting, embellishment and artifice.
The subcontinental style of the 14th Maharajah of Indore (1908 – 1961) is a key visual cue for the season’s symbiotic relationship between clothing and jewellery. In the 1930s, he travelled to Los Angeles from India, where he fell in love. The fearless aristocrat embraced Modernism and elements of the West throughout his life and spent his days draped in pearls, gemstones, and precious metals. His influence immerses the collection in a lavish hedonism, juxtaposed by the fetish remix of a sleek future wardrobe.
Elegant hardware evolves the silhouette of slimline Givenchy tailoring, as double-breasted blazers and nipped coats fasten with brooches, kilt pins, and fob chains spinning with charms. Wrapped shirts and gilets mimic their formality, whilst a contrasting suit lapel, jewel-toned latex layers and a zipped cummerbund subvert classic proportions. Horology and lapidary sketches become totemic prints on stretch tulle and jersey tops, informing flourishes of bullion thread and crystal embroideries on Haute Couture topcoats. Injecting toughness, glossed leather trousers, oversized patchwork knits and boxy shirt jackets echo the sleek nocturnal attitude of chrome-capped, square toe boots worn under a bootcut pant. In hand, the giant Antigona Soft carry-all is crafted in polished calfskin with woven toile or rich shearling panels.