“They’re clothes for adventure,” Stella Tennant said with a smile as she and fellow true Brit Isabella Cawdor led a tour of their spring collection for Holland & Holland. “It’s not about high heels and a handbag.”
Indeed, Cawdor tested a twill Norfolk jacket for riding and gardening over the rainy Scotland summer, and she found it to be thorn-proof and waterproof — so much so that the pockets ballooned with water. “We need to put some holes in so it can drain,” she mused.
In their second season designing for the historic hunting brand, founded in 1835 and owned by Chanel, the two women put function first, but never at the expense of style. They said they choose the pieces they want to wear, and then selected the best fabrics: lightweight tweeds for pants and jackets; crisp cottons for mannish shirts, and cashmere from Chanel-owned Barrie for crew necks and cardigans.
“Delicious and luxurious, but not overly fluffy,” is how Tennant described the latter, done up in small graphic patterns. As robust as it is classic, the collection is not without humor, such as a lightweight down jacket printed to look like rabbit fur.
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The men’s collection closely echoes the women’s in color and fabrication, with extra pieces including chic, generously cut polo shirts that one could imagine the late Gianni Agnelli wearing with great panache.
Downstairs from the presentation, on the Rue Duphot, Holland & Holland debuted a pop-up shop showcasing the fall collection and a film of Tennant in her native Scotland, bundled up amidst the scraggy rocks, sheep, owls, wind and bare trees.
With its charred wooden walls and painted aspenite floors, the boutique is meant to resemble a Scottish bothy — a basic but robust shelter that is windproof and waterproof, much like the Holland & Holland clothes.