For this season's collection, Simon Spurr was thinking, he said, of English estate dressing : togs for fox-hunting and riding. There was a wartime cast to the collection, too : you saw it in the taped patterns that approximated strategy maps, and the suit patterned with "dazzle" -the WWI camouflage that prevents an enemy from discerning whether a ship is coming or going. The designer also played with mesh as a layering piece, putting open-weave tanks with suits for a new take on the 3-piece. Sometimes they took the place of shirts. The line Simon Spurr walks has always been between approachability and boundary-pushing. Recent seasons have seen him uptick the fashion quotient of his collections, and it was here that the collection made the occasional stumble. More successful were several tailored pieces that played up contrast : the raincoat with leather sleeves, the blazer with laminate lapels. They were cool in that old sure-handed Spurr way. In everything but temperature, that is. This wasn't exactly Spring lightness -in texture or color- but a tick in the box for 'Buy now, wear now' when the collection hit stores.
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