Over the last few seasons, Tim Soar has designed collections that are both warm and familiar yet undeniably modern. They have have many overlapping memories and echoes from the past but still manage to look forward and feel fresh. Soar has offered his take on the greatest hits of menswear and the results have provided collections fit for any modern day gentleman. Timeless elegance. For Soar, each season is not about the exploration of a unique silhouette and then moving on but rather it is about taking different elements and putting them together in a way that is a coherent whole. The themes, riffs and references are there to be seen and are developed each season. My most recent Soar piece encapsulates these points wonderfully...
Silk shirt by Tim Soar worn with suit by Comme des Garçons Ganryu and King Tubby's by Mr Hare.
Now, regular readers should recall how enamoured I was by Soar's AW10 collection and that I added two key items to my wardrobe as a result. I was particularly taken with Soar's silk dress shirts. They were fascinating and represented a good part of the inspiration behind the entire collection because they were from the 70s but they felt Victorian at the same time. There were equal influences within them, two periods. The length and the volume of the shirt means that is caught somewhere between loose and fitted. As an aesthetic going forward, I think an area between loose and fitted is a good place to be and I've enjoyed experimenting with volume and silhouette much more since owning my shirt.
For SS11, Soar was drawn to the wardrobe of David Bowie in Nicholas Roeg’s film ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’. As Thomas Newton, Bowie's wardrobe explores the moment where the excesses of Seventies style culture (the big flares, the wide lapels and long lines) are about to mutate into the New Wave utilitarian aesthetic. It is a wonderful mix of formal men’s tailoring with technical undergarments and sportswear. And this, for Soar, is the very essence of modern menswear. His silk printed dress shirt is the perfect example. Here he took the silhouette, the mood and softness of them and took them one stage further by adding an abstract, colourful digital print. It makes them slightly trickier, it takes them out of themselves and adds an element of surprise. I could not resist in adding this evolved item to my wardrobe...
The abstract, colourful and bold digital print certainly adds an element of surprise.
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