Early last year I wrote a mag feature on high performance classics. Menswear at its best has always taken its lead from sports or the military or workwear; even the most unlikely pieces within a standard wardrobe like a tweed jacket, a polo shirt or a trench coat started off as one of these three things.
Even the bowler hat began its life as a piece of workwear.
The article was about how designers are taking technical fabrications and applying them to clothes which at first glance look like well-made classics -
Errolson Hughs' Shadow Project for Stone Island, Casely Hayfords' British/ Japanese collection alongside brands like Arc´teryx Veilence and of course North Face Purple.
Car designers have long been heading that way of course - a ton of hi-tech hardware packed within slick but very familiar looking cars. They figured out long ago that we like our technology sugar-coated by reassuring elements of the past.
They have two stores in Japan and are now gracing the rails of Present London.
Even their knitwear is loaded with gear. Their patchwork vest, shawl collar cardigan and argyle cardigan are all thermally enhanced using Proartec Thermal Pro fabric.
They term their design approach 'utility sports'. The overall feel is a kind of tailored tech, well made, rugged and adaptable - qualities which make them incredibly true to their all but forgotten sports, work and military origins.
