THE JOURNAL
Modern, Understated Elegance – Dunhill’s Nostalgic New Collection Makes You Feel Things
There is something about these images of Dunhill’s new SS24 collection. They stir the same unmistakable feelings that are conjured when you look at slightly faded, decades-old print photographs of inexplicably stylish relatives. Images of bold, effortless cuts and colours that we might like to copy, but belong to another era, an ungraspable time. They feel nostalgic for a moment we have never actually known, but that we would like to experience.
That Dunhill might capture such feelings with an aspirational sense of understated elegance is no surprise. A rich history of British style and craftsmanship runs through the brand, which dates back to 1893, when the house was founded in Westminster. To this day, Dunhill is still based here, where it also owns and operates a leather workshop. And while many storied brands like to highlight a sense of history and age until it becomes their entire personality, Dunhill wears these characteristics and leans on its considerable experience lightly. Its roots inform its classic clothing, rather than completely defining it.
You can see the influences of the tangible British sensibility in these eight looks put together by the MR PORTER stylists, where tailoring is a focus and excellent craftsmanship is an overwhelming theme. Case in point: the fine midnight wool barathea evening jacket, styled with a turtleneck sweater and beige chinos. Or the traditional tailoring cloths, sourced and crafted with the backing of centuries-old knowledge and skill.
The brand’s understated elegance is also evident in the effortless way textures and tones are combined. The result is something both familiar and classic, but also enticingly aspirational. Soft suede jackets are paired with duck egg-blue shirts and white trousers. Leather and cashmere get to know one another alongside typically “Dunhillian” eveningwear. Tonal hues and rich earthiness are introduced to classic British navys, blacks and English patterns such as the heritage striped tie, which might have been plucked straight from a boating club uniform, with the stripe sloping from the wearer’s left shoulder down to the right as is the English custom.
If tradition is the bedrock of Dunhill’s clothing, we can expect to see icons from its archive. Welcome, then, the Car Coat, a piece of clothing that first emerged in the 1900s as outerwear for open-top automobiles. Here it is in 2024 as a reversible, double navy, puppytooth worsted-wool contemporary jacket fit for spring weather (and its occasional showers), whether you own a car with a retractable roof or not.
We paired it with Dunhill’s leather penny loafers, which nod to the fashion house’s very beginnings as a saddlery business on London’s Euston Road. They’re part of Dunhill’s dedicate leather-goods arm, the “1893 Harness” collection, which references the year Mr Alfred Dunhill inherited the business from his father.
Tailoring is very much the focus here. Dunhill has a history of custom and bespoke suits, and the brand has made a conscious effort to return to those roots in recent years. Tailoring has classic, traditional connotations, of course. But in 2024, there’s a sense of subversiveness, too. Few occasions require such attire these days, and if you did not grow up wearing tailoring, to do so now may feel like an act of rebellion. Good news, then, that Dunhill does it like no one else.
These looks show three different ways to wear a suit – black-tie formalities here, a more relaxed navy-blue affair there. Each are lightweight, and nod to the hand that goes into building a bespoke suit – beautiful stitch work, for example, and considered details, such as the pockets on a perfectly cut cigar jacket.
At this time of year, we think about transition. The transition to a new season, a fresh mindset and a renewed sense of style. It is fitting, then, that transition is at the very core of this collection. Dunhill’s SS24 looks are the finale in a series of studio collections delivered by the in-house team, who are laying the groundwork ahead of Mr Simon Holloway’s debut as creative director. All change, then. The same goes for the season, and our wardrobes, too.