British Vogue recently ran a piece online in which the fashion team decreed that an £8,000 cashmere belted number from LA luxury brand The Row constituted its collective “dream coat”. The “dream” in the phrase denoting that though each member of the team was desperate to own it, the sum in question made the piece – we quote – “butt-clenchingly expensive”.
I – like our friends at Vogue – am desperate for a bit of what The Row has to offer, and if cash wasn’t in question I’d be all over it; no small statement when you consider that The Row is the brain child of teeny-bopper TV starlets-turned-high fashion pythonesses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Founded in 2006, the brand has since made its name with beautifully drapey and eye-blisteringly pricey wrap-around coats, billowing palazzo pants and shuffly slides in nappa leather and satin. The Row’s are the kind of clothes the apple-wielding one from Snow White would have worn had she grown up in Malibu. The kind of clothes Princess Jasmine would have spent her trust fund on had the Sultan ever actually popped his clogs: the kind of clothes I would wear if I wasn’t a 6’5” bloke on a journalist’s salary.
Now, for Autumn Winter ’18 the Olsen twins are finally introducing their first dedicated menswear line, and I couldn’t be more excited.
It stands to reason, after all. The brand’s name, The Row, was taken from London’s most famous tailoring street, Savile Row. What’s more, much of the womenswear the label produces has a masculine, minimal appeal.
Focusing on “the classic suit with updated modern details”, the first men’s collection is inspired by the minimal style of New York City in the 80s and 90s – think relaxed constructions in jackets, straight and wide proportions in the legs of trousers and high elegant rises in their waistbands. In addition to the tailoring pieces there will be a small selection of coats, shirts and knitwear pieces, each of which have been handmade in Japan for the brand.
Though the shape of the collection as a whole remains to be seen (the first glimpse we’ll get is when the brand drops with a few key wholesale partners in October), I’m holding out for just one thing...
Drapes!
Like this? Now read:
The biggest Autumn Winter 2018 trends for men
