London Fashion Week Men’s: John Smedley AW17

Menswear and womenswear was unified under a pursuit for premium raw materials in John Smedley’s Autumn/Winter ’17 collection. Comprising luxury knitwear in merino wool, natural alpaca, wild bouclé and—for the first time in the brand’s history—British black sheep’s wool, the British knitwear brand’s latest collection celebrates the unique journey of each of the brand’s raw materials from the natural landscape to the mills of Britain’s finest knitwear label.

Inspired by the sparse, silent landscapes from which the brand’s materials are sourced, the John Smedley AW17 collection featured abstract knitted patterns and original textures that reimagine these very landscapes. This season’s earthy colour palette rises from this natural landscape, with the collection’s key shades including organic shades of Flare Orange, Lumsdale and Kielder Green.

The season’s palette and shapes spanned across both men.s and womenswear, with classic ribbed and chunky knits showcased alongside more fluid, silk silhouettes. The collection’s hero pieces, Kilbreck and Moss, feature this new, fluid shape in menswear in natural alpaca and wild bouclé fabrics, while the season’s womenswear also explores elegant silhouettes in silks with fringed details across boxy sweaters and tee shapes.

The collection’s crowning glory comes in the way of the new Black Sheep by John Smedley signature range, which makes a fibre once widely overlooked by the industry its focal point. Designed to celebrate the raw beauty of the natural black fibre of British black sheep’s wool, this new fabric is used to create pieces that envelop the wearer in a nod towards the cosy knits of rural workers of old.