The Great Outdoors

Focusing on traditional mountaineering and outdoors clothing, I thought I would share these wonderful shots of the latest Spring pieces available at Portobello's The Garbstore. The styling for the shoot was absolutely fantastic, and it was especially nice to see such a coherent theme running through all the looks from the store, despite them stocking pieces from a variety of designers. I appreciated the fact that for the shoot they chose not to go for the obvious rural setting, rather choosing to create an accessible style in light of the urbanised lanscape with hints to the traditional, for example through the cobbled streets. The simple and rather muted natural colour scheme throughout, with khakis and camel browns coupled with soft reds and deep blues, also helped to create a clean vision and approach.

I think it is an unfortunate fact that in London it is quite easy to forget the allure of outdoors clothing, aside from perhaps seeing the frequent city worker lugging their mountain climbing packs onto the underground, creating quite the vivid contrast with their suit and buffed shoes. For me I suppose it is the rugged and practical simplicity of the aesthetic that I find so fascinating. Although one tends to think of outdoors wear as being, in its essence, casual, it is in actuality traditonally quite the opposite. Indeed looking back on the history of mountaineering or hunting clothing, it was always rather a formal affair, simply altered by the choice of fabrics and more practical approach to design. Indeed one notes the buttoned shirts and blazers in this specific shoot dispelling the 'casual myth', so to speak.

Currently playing: 8th Wonder - Sugar Hill Gang

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