Hunter Original S/S 2015

For his first collection at Hunter Original, creative director Alasdhair Willis got the quintessentially British wellie brand up to speed with fashion. This season he set out 'dazzle'. And by dazzle he meant the disruptive form of camouflage painting that the English Navy used during WW1 that made it difficult for enemy U-boats to calculate their course. This dazzle treatment, identifiable by its jagged monochrome stripes, was first invented by marine painter Norman Wilkinson, and more recently revisited by German artist Tobias Rehberger, whose dazzled HMS President is currently docked on London's River Thames. Willis clearly did some sightseeing over the summer, and so we jumped onboard, as all manner of underwater motifs floated across the sides of a digital 'over ground pool', stationed in the middle of Seymour Leisure Centre and conceived by visual artist Mat Maitland. As a Hunter submarine surfaced, the catwalk show opened with khaki striped shorts and boxy, button-through jackets, complete with Steve Zissou-style patch pocket shout-outs. However, it wasn't long before Willis threw pixelated prints into battle, dazzling his utility separates, which were peeping out from under clear plastic anoraks. As for those iconic wellies? The all-weather footwear reinvented itself as two-tone lace-ups, white rubber platforms and of course, Hunter-branded pool slides for summer.