Best of Week 47 in Shopping: A Contrast Collar Crash Course
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Fashion has a tendency to lean into certain motifs with such enthusiasm, it eventually becomes difficult to trace their design back to a source. Contrast collars, as seen on barn coats, field and chore jackets; the pilot bomber or denim sherpas; even knits now, are one such motif. And, as far as we're concerned, all of current outerwear's better because of it.
Trend-endurant and abundantly luxurified, the many modern mutations of what used to be a humble farmer's or blue-collar uniform are nothing short of perverse, if pleasantly so. The device that is the contrast collar, in particular, is what has spread across runways at the speed of airborne disease, with everyone from Auralee to Acne Studios infected. It's the only cold we wanna catch this time of year and pass onto others. Believe it, your wardrobe will be healthier for it.
Acne Studios
Crisper days ahead, these frost-accustomed Swedes dialed up the drama (and thermometer) with a fluffy shearling neckpiece that provides that same visual counterpoint to the coat’s body, but'll also keep chin-to-sternum extra warm. It's the ultimate high-browing of a formerly lowest-brow clothing item and its key characteristics, packaged in the brand's early-era Scandi minimalism.
Auralee
Only the Japanese can rival the Nordics’ penchant for elegant restraint. In classic Auralee fashion, designer Ryota Iwai kneeled into the more military-leaning corner of the moodboard, for another (and another) preciously plush situation that sees our farmer go aerial, in a divine suede aviator jacket that costs as much (but is as worth an investment) as a pilot license. Well, -ish.
Bottega Veneta
But let's come back down to earth, physically speaking at least. Originally for the sake of comfort and movement, the often coarse and rugged barn coat would come with a collar made of softer fabric, like corduroy or leather. Not only has this practical feature persisted for decades within the workwear category, it's also among the details most co-opted by designers, thankfully so. Bottega Veneta, for instance, put forth a handsomely down-puffer’d Intrecciato version of the style.
Universal Works
But this jacket's warmth mustn't come wholly from within, or radiate off a furry collum. In the case of Universal Works’ absolute banger-for-a-buck wool piece, the exterior fabric easily envelopes body heat, appropriately reflected in its deep crimson red which is, in itself, a welcome anomaly to the onslaught of neutral, earthy category highlights, within here and beyond.
Kaptain Sunshine
Akin to the hue of ashes left by the former's shade of flames, Kaptain Sunshine's monochromatic contender circles back 'round to the notion that contrast collars mustn't, in fact, pertain to contrasts in color. The inky cotton-hemp textile emulates this design's near-grimily vintage hunting wear template perfectly, with its Japanese makers having carefully up-luxed and re-tailored it to a T.
Carhartt WIP
Even Carhartt, credited with introducing the foundational look in the first place, would have its contemporary WIP line get experimental with this signature utilitarian two-tonedness.
So, while once symbolic of common and precarious labor, barn coat-y contrast collars are no longer a humble workwear trope, but luxury's favorite new fixation. As such, they've become an expression of what's actually quite opposite to the manual drudgery that inspired them. Guess it's "work hard, play harder" then, after all.
Now Collar Up Already!
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