With Belstaff dating back to 1924 and having a rich heritage which was focused on motorcycles, Belstaff is now a global British Luxury lifestyle brand. Steeped in its own heritage and spirit of adventure, this season’s Belstaff AW16 Menswear collection also introduces the iconic Moto-inspired zip through biker. With the Belstaff riding jacket originally based on a traditional motorcycling style from the fifties.
For this collection entitled ‘Heading North’ Belstaff took over the dilapidated Victorian red-brick arches of Southwark’s Ewer Street. It provided a bleak backdrop to set the scene for this collection based on cold adventure set amongst tough terrains, snowy mountains, and icy glaciers. Almost like a scene from a James Bond Movie that takes you on a journey involving comfort and style. Refreshments were not shaken or stirred but came in the form of spicy ‘Bloody Mary’s’ served with a sprig of celery – the perfect drink to accompany this arctic adventure.
The Belstaff event included appearances from brand ambassadors such as Levison Wood contemporary adventurer, artist Labrinth, VIP guests and industry professionals also attended.
The inspiration for this collection comes from the pioneers of endurance such as Sir Ranulph Fiennes. The legendary polar pioneer and arguably the greatest living explorer, he also stars in it’s latest menswear campaign ‘worship the ground’ shot by Rankin -launches on the 25th of January 2016- and ambassador Levison Wood contemporary adventurer.
The collection consisted of Belstaff’s iconic waxed cotton styles insulated for winter with detachable fur and shearling trims. We saw four pockets and fishtail mountain parka styles and for the more extreme conditions – arctic duck down filled all-in-one exploration suits, arctic duck down four pocket parkas and a new interpretation of the camouflage print on a variety of technical and traditional fabrics. All these were complemented with a fleece and knitwear range. Accessories include bags -which come in six key shapes- card cases, travel wallets and motorcycling scarves in cashmere and merino.
Along with the many styles that are very popular for the coming Autumn Winter 2016 collections, Belstaff have embraced the use of shearling complemented with leather and include aviator-style jackets and a three in one shearling parka.
Belstaff was chosen as a sole partner to celebrate the new ‘Zoolander 2’ film during London Collections Men with the creation of a bespoke Ciroc cocktail conjuring up both the cold and Zoolanders classic pose ‘Blue Steel’.
All in all a very impressive collection and for those of you who cannot wait this is also the first time Belstaff is offering an advance pre-order service on select pieces from this new collection.
