Killer Cuts

Richard James served up the tailored elegance you would expect from a Savile Row house for AW16 with a demonstration of what can be achieved within the confines of classic cut and traditional taste. Jackets were well-shaped (no surprises there) and clean, whilst trousers came frequently pleated and a little wider, a little more period, than we have seen in recent years. They were cut from true British classics like heavy chalk stripe flannel or tactile delights like dove grey cord and paired with hefty boots in deep brown leather.

Timeless Drama

The timeless statement coat is something of a contradiction in terms but Richard James went some way to achieving such a thing with full length, half belted overcoats cut with handsomely peaked lapels in substantial green and camel wools. Their double breasted fronts were left open over perhaps the most directional pieces in the collection: hefty gauge rollnecks in luminous orange and, in dare we say a rather Raf move, a gradient effect print that wouldn’t look out of place in a more avant garde collection.

Blue Velvet

If there’s one problem to which tailoring has always had the best answer, it’s eveningwear. Cue some impossibly elegant velvet dinner jackets with matching trousers paired with velvet slippers for an old world vibe. It was a rakish and sophisticated end to a collection that knows what it is and sticks to it.