Never trend led YMC’s summer collection looks back to the literature, film and styles of years gone by to create a hearty, vibrant utilitarian vision of the present.
In the fabrics -silk, light cotton, canvas – and the clothes – a re-imagining of the striped boating blazer, a unisex desert brogue, a light and colourful sweater, a suede penny loafer, and a truly gorgeous waxed duffle coat – we cannot help but recall an England pre Blackberry, iPod and Health and Safety, a more innocent but infinitely freer place where the summers really did seem to last forever.
The men’s and women’s shorts and striped tops and blazers allude to Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons; The crew neck jumper is lifted with the colours of spring, and a plain World War 1 military tunic is brightened and lightened, to turn it into the perfect summer jacket. All underscore YMC’s point that a child-like, active imagination can transform mundane reality.
For instance with their women’s collection YMC have taken the seemingly ultra feminine, almost ultra modest dresses, skirts and tops and lent them a tomboy tearaway twist.
Meanwhile the chinos, plimsolls and loafers take us from the Lake District and Home Counties to the Cote D’Azur of the Jean Paul Belmondo movies of the late 1960’s and the Italian Paninari of the early Eighties – the Milanese and Torinese scooter boys and girls who inspired everyone from football casuals to the Pet Shop Boys.
All this is done with YMC’s famed attention to detail and an economical ingenuity that quietly but forcefully suggests a cool, discerning independence of spirit and a tremendous sense of fun. It’s this imaginative consistency and inventiveness that appeals to anyone who knows YMC and favours the timeless over the faddish.
Summer never felt so sweet.
