Hardy Amies FW11 - the preview

I would be lying if I said that Hardy Amies wasn't the house showing at London Fashion Week I was most excited about. Funnily enough, it was also the show I was meant to miss because I had been anticipating it for such a long time. The turn up was so great not everyone could be welcomed to the upstairs salon. Luckily for me, I had visited Saville Row two weeks before for a preview of the full FW11 collection. I would like firstly to thank Don for being so welcoming. This post wouldn't have been possible without his kindness.
After last season's debut at ready-to-wear, Hardy Amies surely had something big coming. Not only the speed but the quality in which the house has been brought into contemporary menswear are astounding. You can see the fingerprint of the finest tailors in every piece —from the classic blazers to the down jackets. And it is precisely that marriage between tradition and modernity that I find most genius about HA. Take, for instance, the impeccably cut single-breasted blazers but add to them a fine wool and an ombré checked print and you get both a classic piece a seasonal must have.

My absolute favourite from the collection, in addition to the blazers, was the outerwear. From a trench lined with fur to a classic peacoat to a two-piece tailored down jacket to a sportswear take on the blazer made of raw wool, everything is extremely desirable. One puts on these jackets and instantly feels like a 21st-century dandy, a Chuck Bass. There is quality and design but most importantly, coolness, which is something the Row had been lacking for a while and that has not been injected in big doses by Hardy Amies. Claire Malcom, the house's creative director, has shown an incredibly profound knowledge of tailoring and has brought that young and hip element (Kanye West has been played a lot in the studio) that will take Amies back into its golden age.

[Pictures: Iñaki C.]