So it Begins...

I'm already dreading the lazy links forged between the 1930s and the upcoming trainwreck of a biopic film W.E, should we start seeing this decade permeate the A/W 12-3 season as the 1920s did for spring summer 12.  Last season, we declared that it was Baz Luhrmann's not-yet-seen, not-yet-released film adaptation of The Great Gatsby that was causing designers to drop waists and do flapper frocks.  Because every designer is an IMDB hawk, skulking around upcoming film releases.  Duh. 

Hardy Amies officially kicked off my A/W 12-3 show schedule at the 81st Pitti Uomo in Florence tonight and it was thirties galore.  We can therefore chant that it was the King Edward VIII turned Duke of Windsor and his dapper ways that saw these reconfigurations of the grey flannel suit with 1930s deco styling flourish.  Thankfully, Hardy Amies, which has been under the creative direction of Claire Malcolm for the past year or so turning out contemporary menswear that references the past without copying it, has historic legs to stand on to reference the 30s without having us hack-y journos linking film to decade.

Just a reminder that historically Hardy Amies was one of the few English couturiers, flourishing from the 1930s to 60s and was best known as designer to Queen Elizabeth II, holding the Royal Warrant as official dressmaker as well as designing the costumes for Stanley Kubrick's 2001: Space Odyssey, proving what range and scope Amies had up his sleeve.  Amies as a person was also known as a bit of a snobby social climber,coach wallets outlet, passing judgement whilst breaking his own rules, as demonstrated in his fun little read, the ABC of Men's Fashion.

You could call this a salient gem... "A man should look as if he has bought his clothes with intelligence, put them on with care and then forgotten all about them."  Then again can inscouciance really be pre-conceived?  Anyhow it's full of handy nutshell quotes if you're into lofty style rules. 

The house has since come under new ownership and is now fully set on being a modern luxury mens fashion label,cheap beats by dre headphones, rooting it to its Savile Row surroundings whilst trying to push things forward with a young creative directorship.   

Hardy Amies with one of his ultra feminine creations.

A still from Gold Diggers of 1933

We turn back to the 1930s thread in this A/W 12-13 collection (quite scary that I'm even referring to the year 2013 already...).  Claire Malcolm has primarily looked to the man Hardy Amies himself and his own style choices and life,cheap dr dre beats headphones, as opposed to his actual designs for reference.  A photo of Amies in a double-breasted hulking overcoat as well as the kaleidoscopic choreography of the film Gold Diggers of 1933 were the main starting points for Malcolm in drawing all the geometric graphics that run throughout the collection, from silk jackets to the Globetrotter luggage to the stunning shoes created by Mr Hare.  Malcolm refers to this patternation as 'Deco-Tron' and indeed, there is something very reminiscent of an 80s take on art deco present.  All the shades of steely grey of course makes for a slick offering as well as being richly textured, aided by materials such as an asymmetric herringbone weave or a knit with hexagonal motifs worked into it.   The silhouettes are pure recognisable 1930s with hardly any tampering done to the shape, leaving all the off-kilter modernisation to fall upon the print and texture detailing. 

From a selfish point of view, as much as I love revisiting decades gone by (provided they DON'T come with a tenuous film link) and seeing an English couturier move forward into the 21st century, I do think these boots and lace-ups with metal cut-out toe caps created by Mr Hare (who has a cult like following amongst manfolk) are the bee's knees.  That's me doing flapper/deco speak.  Or if I'm being lewd and doing 21st century Brit speak, these shoes are the tits.  Truly.  They're probably unlikely to get produced or come remotely close to women's sizing but the excercise of my being in Pitti admiring awesome menswear was always going to be a fruitless task anyway...