The defining element of Neil Barrett s fall collection was something that looked like the rear section of a tailcoat attached to a cummerbund. Aside from offering an effortless way to dress up any old pair of pants, there was a mildly subversive aspect to this item. It was like a bespoke version of the "bum-flap" Vivienne Westwood used to hang off her bondage trousers.
In fact, mild subversion seemed to be a theme of Barrett s collection. His collision of army fatigues and elegant eveningwear sounds arch and contrived on paper, but on the catwalk, it made for a surprisingly compatible and chic effect. Military uniforms are, after all, the root of all men s tailoring, and Barrett has already proved his expertise in that arena, as evidenced here by the superb cut of an epauletted overcoat. His particular conceit this time round meant that a field jacket showed with tails, while an army-brown blazer had lapels trimmed with satin, just like a proper tux. A tie was camouflage-patterned, shirts bore a lieutenant general s three stars, olive-drab trousers were satin-striped—again, just like a tux.
Antony Price once cooked up this kind of idea for Bryan Ferry in the heyday of Roxy Music, but Barrett aligned himself to the leaner, meaner present with a blast of Franz Ferdinand. The U.K. s favorite art rockers would surely have been seduced by a streamlined outfit that encompassed shirt, trousers, bow tie, and those omnipresent cummerbund tails, all in a pleasantly sinister black.
