Words by Tom Stubbs – a stylist and fashion journalist, who has written and edited for The Sunday Times Style, The Rake, the Financial Times' How To Spend It and British GQ.
With the turning season comes the most anticipated of announcements: a new Purdey collection perfect for colder days. The heroes of this year’s men’s lines have made a little creative homage to several definitive, dyed-in-the-wool outerwear designs. Enter the brand’s take on the classic parka, pea and duffle coats; historically distinct but laden with the refined, painstaking design nuance expected of Purdey.
As are the Purdey riffs on the traditional pea coat: a handsome Town & Country Coat, in a soft camel hair/wool blend; and the more modern Hyde Coat in an earthy twill with a jacquard lining. Both shapes fit for the bridge, but the cloth reflecting country culture. These pieces have equal impact when worn in town; removed from their natural habitat, the incongruity adds to their charm.
Next, take a closer look at the Purdey Field Parka. Pastoral leverage comes via a fine Merino wool herringbone, finessed with chocolate deerskin throat tab and zip pullers. The inner detailing, too, is superb: cinched-waist cord (affording the look a little intrepid attitude) worked with deerskin inlays, taped performance seams, and a rustic tattersall lining.
Available from late September
Finally, the duffle. The familiar silhouette – reimagined here as the Felgate Coat – is now realised with a distinct, rustically-hued Shetland, double-faced wool in a hefty check, but with the addition of suede shoulder patches drawn from shooting staples. The result is a striking take on a maritime classic.
Available from mid-September
While the pieces Purdey creates are informed by shooting style and practicality – via gun patches and cartridge pocket tabs – the execution isn’t slavish. Proper functionality of shooting specifications are essential given the clued-in audience, but the application is honed into contemporary expressions.
Traditional Fabrics, Technical Features
The marque’s rich history lends itself to combining traditional British fabrics with technical capabilities, creating outerwear in the highest echelons of form and function. Other all-time players in the outerwear field have referenced arctic exploration, special forces equipment, aviation gravity suits, and legendary open-top car racing jackets – the ultimate style pay-off for which comes with wearing them in your own environment. In the case of Purdey, this means plotting a seamless journey from countryside to town. Outerwear is key to the style-enthused man.There’s an unwritten code of connection between true garment enthusiasts. This cache matters. And this new Purdey connection provides that cache in droves.
I’ve been excited about ‘DB’ for years. Not double-barrelled guns or otherwise – but double-breasted. The Purdey Duke double-breasted jacket, in a sophisticated windowpane check, Merino/cashmere blend, is compelling for its elegant cut and decent length, as well as its acutely pointed lapels and informal patch pockets. Skimpy lengths are a bugbear in much contemporary tailoring; a generous cut is often neglected even by established dedicated sartorial houses. The herringbone Hacking Jacket in cashmere, with Norfolk back and tab closure on the lapel, has no such issue – designed in thrall to the correct country codes, with a resolutely unstuffy fabrication and cut.
Available from early October
Crossover Appeal
Whatever the intended setting, a piece of Purdey clothing is undeniably refined – and its new padded gilets do ace the trend for dressing down in higher-end and more traditionally rugged items. As do its elevated takes on panelled overshirts, in cashmere flannel checks. Right now, as an ageing street-style observer, the prospect of taking country sport styles and channelling them in an urban setting is thrilling.
The delightfully hued Purdey cashmere Fair Isle funnel-neck sweater has also caught my attention, and reminds me of another surreal shooting occasion. I somehow fluked ‘best gun’ while sporting a funnel-neck Highland knit, check flat cap, and genuine Purdey tweed gilet and matching plus fours – all of which certainly distracted from my lack of experience and helped me get my eye in.
Whether ambling through town or taking to the field, make sure to steal your style with integrity – and Purdey has the new pieces with which to do just that.