Hybrid is probably the most efficient and effective word to describe this season's collection. Coming from a long line of naval tailors, Neil Barrett has the cut in his blood. There is always a military precision in the way he creates new hybrids from his influences. This season, for instance, he blended army fatigues, biker leathers, and the natty houndstooths and herringbones of the 2 Tone ska revival. Then he shrunk and cropped the whole lot to his own signature proportions and sat it on top of chunky cyber-bovver sandals. There were Teddy boy and ska influenced designs. Tailored check trousers landing above the ankle were given low slung metal fighting chains, as were turned up school boy shorts. Greaser style biker jackets traded leather sleeves for cotton arms with extra zips for good measure. A sleeveless double breasted army officer’s coat channeled the demob ethos. Chalk-esque pinstripes and check marked suits. Painterly prints were applied to navy blazers and tapered trousers. Classic utility trenches melded with Italian motorcycle jackets and leather bombers amalgamated with dinner jackets. A garment that can only be described as the love child of the waistcoat and blazer pattern was born and placed over shirts. Some of the combinations looked completely natural, like the tan trench or wool blazer hybridized with a motocross jacket, or the biker vest with the army green cotton back. They were the most convincing. Other pairings were less so. True, within the mandate of the collection, a leather-patched aviator jacket over houndstooth shorts was logical enough. Likewise, the herringbone blouson with the cropped pants. But at some point, Neil Barrett's signature has become a formula. It may have made him the go-to guy for composite iterations of youth cults we have known and loved, but it's boxed him into a corner. Oddly enough, as his hybrids whizzed past to one of his typically fabulous soundtracks, the thought occurred that help may be at hand in the form of Mr Barrett's genetic legacy. Gallingly conventional though it would probably seem to him, a purely sartorial collection -minus the crop and the shrink- would highlight his skill, his taste, and his instinct for what makes a man look hot. Or cool. Or maybe just good. Place your bets.
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