Simon Holloway wows Milan with Duke of Windsor renaissance, explains plans for Dunhill

Simon Holloway wowed Milan on Sunday night with a collection inspired by the Duke of Windsor, staged inside of the city’s toniest clubs.

Winning a hearty shower of applause as he took his tour around the Società del Giardino, founded back in 1783 back when Milan was controlled by Habsburg Austria. After a collection that climaxed with some bravura tartans – a fetish fabric for the duke – and a brilliant display of classic tailoring based on the English drape, a softer jacket style invented by the former king’s famed tailor Frederick Scholte.

 
Though this collection was far from being retro, precisely because Holloway revolutionized the look by lightening every fabric and ripping out any bulky construction from coats and jackets.
 
His rather unique career path, as we discuss below, meant Simon had the needed expertise to rethink Dunhill, even as he recentered the brand on British classicism.

Other standouts in the collection included brilliant lightweight cashmere versions of Donegal tweed worn with velvet; a raffish French lambskin spy coat with bonded tartan interior; regimental peacoats; and almost feathery light flannel chalk-stripe suits. 
 
After a peripatetic career, Simon now lives in Kennington, in south London near the Oval cricket ground. In an old Victoria school building, where supposedly Charlie Chaplin went to school, made into apartments in early 90s.

Though we first meet for coffee in Paris in December, and this weekend at a pre-show brief Milan, when he revealed that his bible is the two-volume blue catalogue for Christie’s sale of the contents of the Duke’s home in Paris. 

 
In Paris at the Chateau Voltaire, Simon dressed in a wool and cashmere flannel suit. In Milan, sporting a freshly clipped moustache, he took his bow looking like the long-disappeared son of David Niven.
 
Dunhill, which is owned by luxury giant. Richemont, boasts annual sales hovering under £45 million.
 
The Milan show marked Dunhill’s second in Italy, and the fourth by Holloway. And his most complete expression of Dunhill. A good moment to hear his plans for this 132-year-old British luxury institution. 
 
FashionNetwork: Where do you want to take Dunhill?
Simon Holloway: For me, Dunhill is the pre-eminent British menswear house. So, the idea is to restate that and make it more renowned to a modern audience. Not necessarily about age, but people who knew the name but never shopped there, our younger people who have just discovered it.

FN: What are your plans in more detail?
SH: People come to London particularly in the spring and summer to enjoy the British social calendar, whether it’s just a party or a wedding. But the Brits do it with a very codified way of dressing and a little pomp and circumstance. Latched on the idea of the royal family and aristocracy – everything from the Chelsea Flower Show or Royal Ascot to Glyndebourne to Goodwood and Wimbledon, these are events where people dress up.
 
Last year, we had the inaugural Alfred Dunhill Paddle Classic held out at the Hurlingham Club where the players were all in white and the observers were all in navy blazers or windowpane check suits. We didn’t dress them because we didn’t have the wardrobe then but that’s what they turned up in anyway.

And if you look at Wimbledon, David Beckham was there in a pinstripe suit, and Tom Cruise and Bradley Cooper drop in, as do Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch. All dressed to the nines, and that’s what my last show in Milan was about. A pinnacle version of that but made in lighter and finer fabrics and in a more modern expression.
 
FN: What key changes are you keen to bring about?
SH: Make things lighter. We have been really working with the heritage mills of Biella and the mills of Somerset, Yorkshire and Scotland to direct translations of our archival clothes – mixing wool and linen, mohair, wool and silk. A more contemporary fabric.

And our construction of the tailoring is much lighter – lighter weight canvas, no shoulder pads, a suggestion of rope but nothing in there. Going back to the Duke of Windsor, and how he and his tailor Frederick Scholte did something called the English drape. What I loved was it had a natural shoulder, not that built-up Savile Row shoulder. Which I love and appreciate but it’s not something I would personally wear. 
 
FN: Define the DNA of Dunhill?
SH: Dunhill was born in three elements, all around the dawn of the age of motoring. Alfred Dunhill inherited his business, outfitting horse drawn carriages.  And decided to go all in on the car in 1893 at the age of 25. Creating an emporium to dress the interior and exterior of the car, and then dress the driver themselves. His catalogues were the size of an old phone book. Headlamps to trunks to dashboards, which laid the groundwork for the hard luxury of Dunhill. The original car coats in tweeds, and in summer, made in linen. Some of the earliest pieces date to 1908, and what they call Alfred Dunhill Motorities (a blend of motorist and priorities).

That idea of hard luxury came from metal instruments; useful leather trunks and tweed coats that’s the origin of Dunhill – a very rich beginning. 
 
FN: What attracted you to Dunhill?
SH: It has the allure of the British gent with a light international swagger. When I looked and learned more it turned out to be true. They opened in New York and in Paris in the 1920s, and in Paris interestingly by that point he was a tobacconist and pipe maker. But he was denied a tobacco license in Paris! We still make handmade briarwood pipes in Walthamstow. Our business is principally menswear, secondarily accessories, but with a very strong resurgence in hard luxury at the moment. Specifically lighters, and gifts – from games to cigar cutters. 
 
FN: What are your plans for your Davies Street club?
SH: It’s two buildings in one – the members club and our store. Accessories and tailoring, with a full team of bespoke tailors and cutters, Savile Row trained. With customers in New York, the West Coast China and Japan. And I work with that team to make the pre-collection, using fabrics and ideas exclusive to Dunhill.
 
FN: You have worked at Chloé, Ralph Lauren, Jimmy Choo and Agnona. What was the most formative experience?
SH: I lived in the States for quite a long time – working twice for Narciso Rodriguez and for a long time with Ralph. He was definitely a mentor. He had a great cinematic vision, and an understanding of lifestyle, which he practically invented; who has had a consistency and aspiration of quality in his entire career that was entirely admirable. He’s also a very nice man and very respectful of his team. And I hope I learned that from him.

With Agnona, the experience was very driven by textile development – to consider fabric designs before we cut the cloth.
 
FN: Do you want Dunhill to be known for ‘quiet luxury’?
FN: Dunhill is timeless luxury, not ‘quiet’. There is not really anything quiet about a coral red suit with a big striped shirt. We can have quiet moments for sure. What I have tried to do is built a rugged, masculine, casual expression along with its refined tailoring. Reaching back to the Truman Capote for the Black and White Ball of the 1960s. 
 
FN: Where will the business grow in next five years?
SH: We have made an intentional pivot, primarily back to the UK. Putting a lot of energy into our London flagship at Bourdon House. We opened in Selfridges, right where we should be nestled alongside Loro Piana and Zegna. Though we have a different look, more Anglified. A future flagship is also planned for London.

We have an exclusive relationship with Neiman Marcus in the U.S., with shop-in-shops in Beverly Hills, San Francisco and Chicago. And there an immediate understanding by them that we are this timeless idea of Britishness.