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Barrett's City-Dweller Cool
By Godfrey Deeny
Photos by Gruber-FWD
MILAN, Jan 17, 2003 /FWD/ --- If they ever remake "From Hell" in this decade, this is the
collection Johnny Depp should wear playing a laudanum-enjoying detective on the hunt for
Jack the Ripper.
In another Anglo-Saxon moment in Milan, the fashion herd finally got the chance to see a
real Englishman present a men's collection, and he didn't disappoint with a series of
inventive looks for contemporary Dickensian city dwellers.
And with retailing a blood bath and designers playing safe, it was great to see a
young designer take a few chances with novel forms.
Take the Neil Barrett top coat, the best of which came in waterproofed cottons with
displaced chunky zips, with a formal structure that made them wearable uptown and down.
Barrett's knits were also accomplished. There are few harder looks to pull off than a
successful cable sweater, which in most stylists' hands ends up ballooning its wearer
into a Michelin man.
Barrett's crated cable cardigans and pullovers were impeccable - slim, contemporary and
convincing.
Barrett sent out two female models but attired them in men's clothes, open-neck shirts
and boyish pinstripes with suspenders off the shoulders.
The designer is also a savvy stage manager.
He presented the collection in a glass-covered courtyard opposite La Borsa, the stock
exchange of Italy, but realizing that the cold tile floor lacked atmosphere covered
it with a mixture of tiny metal chips and sawdust the better to evoke the streets of London.
It did get a little dusty, but the atmosphere was impressive.
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