THE EDGE

THE REVIEW: SPRING 2011

SIMON SPURR

Booking the best-looking and most wanted male models to play for your team is a story...But creating a 40 plus collection with the most minimal of style hickups is a novel.

Simon Spurr's most elegant collection to date races its way up on the top of my best collections list for Spring 2011. Aside from the all-star casting (Sean O'pry, Noah Mills, Simon Nessman, Ryan Kennedy, Vladimir Ivanov, etc.) and the severely apt venue, the collection just overflowed with perfect clothes, undeniably a modern classic season for Spurr.

Often times, based on my perspective, it's impossible to find a collection that's brilliant from start to finish. In between there are those looks that turn you sleepy and looks that drive you to a few seconds of boredom. For Spurr, there was little of that. If I were good at math, I'd calculate the percentage of this collection's "low" as opposed to its spectacular "high".

Living up to its reputation as being the young Savile Row, tailoring is undeniably on the dot. There are visually zero flaws at how jackets' lapels are cut and how the shoulders are tailored. Varying styles of jackets were all fantastically made. Close-cut sweaters fit the models well. So well in fact, that models with handsome builts look even better. The trousers look sharp and well-tailored that it creates the impression of longer legs.

Then again, the fighting form in all Spurr's designs would be the painful attention to the smallest of details: his shirts are Spurr shirts, trousers Spurr trousers, suits Spurr suits...items that are made by an engineer's mind and talent. And that's what you pay for when you grab anything by Simon Spurr, items that are clean, perfectly tailored and are built to last.

Of course, superb tailoring ought to go hand-in-hand with design and a wonderful color story. I am all for color and this collection nails it. It starts with clean whites mixed with creams and dove grays on a white suit, gray t-shirt and a buttery scarf. Then more attention goes into cream, giving Fall's favorite camel a return on the runways in a dapper suit, a perfectly wrinkled jacket and trousers. Complimenting the easy warmth of cream is the bright shot of yellow treated softly in a high-collared jacket and sweater. Then it's off to a lilac ensemble accentuated by deep brown accessories like tortoise shell glasses and suede lace-ups. Pink makes its appearance on a shirt paired with a blood red jacket, pale pink jeans and dark gray sneakers. After comes the gray looks, in a light, round-neck sweater, a long, trim parka and amazing jackets in varying shades of gray. My favorite look has to be the modern double-black biker jacket: its leather sleeves punches life into the serious flap of the piece. Another treated leather jacket paired with an all-black look is sophisticated without getting too stiff. The latter part of the collection gave way to more formal and seasoned looks playing around two classic neutrals on peaked lapel suits.

Spurr had taken all the best qualities of menswear and had pieced it together in this very cohesive, masculine collection. There were no ground-breaking trends here but he champions with second-skin fits and the visually delicious color palette that makes this collection a set apart.

The Simon Spurr 2011 collection is for the discerning dresser, one who appreciates the finer things in life and one who believes that what one spends, one must definitely get. Buying anything from any Simon Spurr collection goes beyond investment and actually should be taken as a curatorship of new sensible clothes for the man who knows his style and his worth.

One of the finest collections I've seen in ages.

source: GQ

-Gerard