Kilgour A/W 2016

View of the Kilgour ‘All the Work’ installation featuring a dark suit jacket on a half mannequin hanging from a black bar behind glass. Beside it is three rails of paper drafting patterns on hangers

(Image credit: Jason Lloyd-Evans)

last updated 21 July 2022

Stage setting: A tailor’s pattern is surely his blueprint for success, and in recognition of his craft’s humble backbone Kilgour freelance creative director Carlo Brandelli showcased an installation fitting titled ‘All the Work’ alongside his latest A/W 2016 collection. The dynamic in-store installation, which features hundreds of hand-cut, translucent drafting patterns, provided a physical representation of each and every piece in the collection.

Style bite: ‘I’ve been thinking about and working with the craft elements of Savile Row for a long time now,’ explained Brandelli. ‘I’ve worked with the thread and this idea of layers and I’ve presented the pattern piece conceptually within the design of the space,’ referencing the brand’s Savile Row store. ‘But when I started to think about the collection I thought, what would be the literal presentation of that idea of the paper pattern? Of course it’s the paper pattern alongside the final collection.’

Best in show: While the collection’s foundations may have been laid out on paper, the workmanship of each garment was another illusion of reveal and conceal. It’s easy to say that no one on Savile Row has done as much to innovate the collar as Brandelli has over the past two years and this season he almost did away with it entirely. ‘This is an inverted representation of the collar,’ he explains of his new reversed dinner jacket that builds upon last season’s shawl collar. The designer took a similarly measured approach to his latest pocket treatment – a hybrid between a besom and flap pocket that he says took some serious engineering to perfect. Another gentleman’s classic offered a Brandelli tweak was winter’s silk turtleneck, which sits to the perfect height negating the need for a potentially messy fold. ‘I call it the high collar roll, rather than the roll collar,’ he says with a smile. ‘Very high so it’s clean on the neck.’ Brandelli is, after all, a man concerned with distilling his craft to its purist core whenever possible.

A male model wearing two looks from Kilgour's collection. The first look features a black turtle neck jumper and dark blue jacket. And the second look features a grey coat and dark trousers

A male model wearing two looks from Kilgour's collection. The first look features a black turtle neck jumper, black trousers and a grey coat. And the second look features a light grey jacket with contrasting piece underneath and dark trousers

A male model wearing two looks from Kilgour's collection. The first look features a black turtle neck jumper, dark blue jacket and dark blue pants. And the second look features a brown grey coloured jacket with dark piece underneath and dark trousers

A male model wearing two looks from Kilgour's collection. The first look features a black shirt and dark blue suit. And the second look also features a dark blue suit in a different style and black turtle neck jumper

INFORMATION

Photography: Jason Lloyd-Evans

TOPICS

London UK Carlo Brandelli