Eudon Choi mixes smart with slouchy for menswear-inspired AW17 style

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 18, 2017

Eudon Choi drew on his menswear background to offer up a vision of tailoring that skirted the traditional and felt fresh and new at London Fashion Week on Friday.

Building on a palette of grey, white, black, petrol, chartreuse and burnt orange, the designer focused on a wider silhouette. But it was also a more relaxed one than some of the structured volume silhouettes we have seen elsewhere in recent seasons.

It was soft and fluid, despite the use of suiting woollens and the collection's feature detail - gold buttons that added a smarter touch to coats, shirts, pants and jackets.

The slouch pant was a key piece. Whether it can cross over into the mainstream as so many designers seem to have been hoping in recent seasons is open to question in a world still wedded to the second-skin-jean or slightly-slouchy-jogger. But here, at least, it worked.

With a deep waistband, it came paired with shirts in traditional Wall Street materials, although the extra-deep cuffs and waterfall ruffles at the front were as far from Wall Street conservative dressing as you could get.

Clinical shirtings with a defined shoulder line and those gold buttons (again) worked well in white cotton or chartreuse silk. Neat and precise, they came with a scarf-tie neckline. Meanwhile some commercial soft blouses with concealed zip fastenings plus rouleax neckline, along with the collection’s baggy fisherman’s rib knits, took us back to the soft side.

Skirts took a back seat as wide cropped pants and cropped and cuffed leather pants completed the trio of key bottoms for the season. For the former, think elongated culottes that were another concession to super-smart-made-super-casual. For the latter, in black or orange leather, the mood was more sporty.

Outerwear was a prominent feature of the collection from the casual coats looking like puffers without the stuffing, to oversized pea coats that came solo or as part of a suit, or the coverall coats in gabardine. Worn belted or loose, the look for those coats was “I put this on and didn’t have to think too hard about it”.

And those optional belts were key to that ‘too cool to care’ look throughout. From the thin tie belts that held up those slouch pants to the self belts that were tied or secured with D rings on a variety of pieces, they trailed and fluttered and added to the soft effect.

Overall, it was a laid back approach to city dressing. Eudon Choi was probably at least a little tense backstage (who can chill when their new season's vision is being premiered to the world?) but he certainly wants his customers to relax come autumn/winter.