Although he stepped away from the runway this season, Neil Barrett was still thinking about it. The Milan-based English designer rendered his look book to resemble a live but hallucinatory show that had been shot in a hall of mirrors. “The world feels a bit upside down at the moment,” he said in a release. “I wanted to mirror that so that our catwalk is upside down.”
The clothes were gently manipulated too. A wide-neck sweater, sort of minimalist Guernsey, featured an inset collar and came in either gray wool or a purple mohair mix. It was worn above pants whose flipped waistband revealed an inbuilt belt. A pale navy woolen overcoat featured swashbuckling zhuzhed lapels. Buttonholes were covered on high-lapeled gray flannel jackets worn with schoolboy shorts.
A loungy cardigan patterned with a flaked-paint jacquard and produced in pink and purple was extremely eye-catching, yet the hottest garments here (arguably) were also among the most restrained: Minimalist wool or jersey casual jackets in black, gray, or navy looked like paragon blousons. This was a uniform that transcended wider uniformity—a classic example of Barrett’s exceptional refinement.
