Hunter Original took a surprising new direction for their SS16 collection.
The Lady Is For Turning
Usually known for kitting out the Sloaney-pony set with their wellies (whether for treading the paddock or stomping around Glastonbury), Hunter Original riffed on their muddy festival credentials in a fresh way this season with a tech-meets-sportswear focus. The line included an abundance of that festival stalwart, the anorak: it was presented in the translucent white plastic we know so well, but this time it appeared scrawled on with bold, marker pen motifs. Elsewhere, drawstrings cascaded down from waterproofs with bunched shoulders (as if those strings had been pulled tight).
Festival Riffs
Sticking, rather staunchly, with the festival concept, there was no shortage of military themed outerwear refracted through a hippie lens, including silvery MA-1 bombers with stitched on DIY peace patches and smiley yellow raver faces on them. A range of dresses and jackets made of a rubberized fabric that was somewhere between fragmented camouflage and a painter’s brushstrokes also appeared. Things plunged further into the 90s when models in oversized bombers rendered in shockingly bright colours (blue, silver and gold) walked down the runway. There were more fabric strips dangling off these but here Hunter were playing not with drawstrings, but with the very literal idea of guy ropes – the venue itself was, after all, a giant camping-tent.
A Montage of Homage
In fact, it’s testament to Hunter’s know-how that they managed to combine various very current design motifs to make one commercially viable collection: you can see Raf Simon’s iconic Parachute Bomber (now an archival piece adored by the Hip-Hop cognoscenti) echoed in those multi-pocketed bombers festooned with hanging fabric. Those dense, architecturally structured parkas, meanwhile, feel like the kind of thing that Alexander Wang cooks up in shadowy neoprene. As for those tall, beige suede sneakers on a white technical sole? They can’t help but remind you of Kanye’s recent Yeezy Boosts for Adidas. It was a luridly coloured – and kind of winning– homage to all that is current in the world of fashion-meets-streetwear mixed with a dose of British festival-style. And boy, was it unexpected.