Neil Barrett
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MILAN, January 14, 2012
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Is the man of mode ready for a cape? Come Fall, his resolve will be tested. Designers all over Milan have been draping cloaks over their models. In his way, Neil Barrett did, too, though you could've missed them with a quick look. The standout outerwear pieces at Barrett's renewedly strong show ("return to form" was on the lips of more than one editor) weren't technically capes, rather military-inspired greatcoats, some with leather-taped seams. But with their A-line cuts and high pockets, they formed gentle bells around their marching soldiers, artfully suggesting the incipient trend while remaining steadfastly approachable, even for a more timid soul than the editors crowding the spectators' bench.Slipping the sartorial mickey is a Barrett specialty. He is devoted to his particular enthusiasms—ultra-precise tailoring, for one—but he works them into an idiom that goes down easier than big-F fashion often does. You had to peer closely (often more closely than a runway walk allowed) to see the way he melted suiting patterns into one another down the length of a pant or a jacket, merging houndstooth into chevron and Prince of Wales to tweed. From afar, they just looked gray. The proverbial Man in the Flannel Suit is in for a surprise when he gets his home.
There were cropped trousers in multiple variations, many cut so tight they required ankle zips. (More forgiving versions had banded sweatpants cuffs.) If the high-water theme was hammered home a time or two too many, it was easy to forgive: the easier to see Barrett's covetable ankle boots.
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