Written by Menswear Style in New Collections on the 23rd April 2015

Founded in 1851, Aquascutum’s heritage is rooted in the excellence of British tailoring and to this day delivers a stylish and luxurious elegance. With a focus on craftsmanship, quality and design, this AW15 season Aquascutum goes international with a multi-category offering, and is back at LC:M for the first time in years. The product for this collection is timeless and classic, and Thomas Harvey, Head of Menswear design is keen to state that this season’s offering is not "trend-led." There is a real focus on fabric innovation, with an obvious hark back to the brand’s heritage.

Inspiration

The focus is on innovation. With a modern take on exploration, Edmund Hillary’s ascent of Everest was the starting point, and the brand’s involvement in creating the fabric for this monumental event. Mountaineering inspires lots of the outerwear pieces, which have expedition "details", in the fabrics used, and trim details featured, with pull cords, leather trims and fur accessories complimenting the theme.

Outerwear/Rainwear

The collection comprises of high-end product, with down-filled jackets, seam-sealed coats, rubberised leather bombers and of course showerproof core trench coats. From the outerwear category, key products include the Medway down-filled seam-sealed shirt jacket, and the Chesterton parka, which is a showerproof flannel with a raccoon fur collar and seam-sealed goose down lining, a truly indulgent yet functional winter staple piece. 

The carnaby rubberised leather bomber comes in black with horn buttons, offering an off-duty stylish look, whilst the ‘Jake’ is an updated version of the M65 jacket seen in previous seasons, but this time in a lightweight printed nylon, with a pack-away feature. A special piece for the season is reversible ‘Ashtead’, which is a boucle navy buttoned car coat which can also be worn as a raincoat, with beautiful horn buttons. Also reversible is the ‘Hale’, a leather green bomber with the other side a nylon fabric. Made from technical fabric, the ‘Henley’ has a faded check print, a modern interpretation of the classic Aquascutum check.

Tailoring

More modern fabrics are used, with silk, wool, cashmere and tweed, with the majority coming from Portugal, and a slimmer fit is introduced this season. 

Fabrics

Fabrics throughout the collection include: technical fabrics, wool flannel, suede, seam-sealed, alpaca wools, silk, cashmere, leather and tweed texture and mohair for tailoring. Luxury cottons and flannels are used for the shirts, and jersey cashmere in the blazers. Most of the fabrics are made in Italy, Portugal and the UK.

Accessories

Timeless accessories draw inspiration from several different eras, with slightly bolder prints on ties feature geometric shapes in an art deco style, tie and money clips drawing inspiration from old Victorian style cigarette lighters, and dress studs and cufflinks in unusual materials, such as onyx and mother of pearl. There are hand-made ties from England, and exclusive print scarves from Como in Italy. 

Colours

The colour palette of the new collection includes classic shades of navy, subtle greys, browns and military green.

A first look at the men's casualwear and formalwear Aquascutum Autumn/Winter 2015 Collections.