Joseph Spring 2017 Menswear

For Spring, Joseph’s Louise Trotter and Mark Thomas went, in Thomas’s words, for an aesthetic that combined “workwear, military, and a kind of painter’s garb”. Yet, where the utility generally inherent in those garments might skew towards bulky (pockets, straps, etc.), the designers focused on a different sort of pragmatism: one of everyday ease.

This meant whittling down the details. A white canvas coat was long and straight—topstitching and subtle metal rivets nodded to Trotter and Thomas’s jumping-off point. A lightweight cotton shirt-jacket in deep indigo featured smart contrast tabs (Thomas’s favorite), quietly referencing bars on officers’ coats. There was also an eye-catching zipper detail on a few pieces. The fastenings arced down the front part of the shoulders to about a third of the way down the arm—see a boiled-wool jumper in periwinkle, or an olive-dyed bomber.

One thing worth noting here: Trotter highlighted her and Thomas’s continued focus on color, on an exact, albeit purposely “off” palette. “It’s because—when you’re working with pieces that are quite simple, really, how do you make them into must-haves?” When you’re selling stuff with this much general appeal, it’s true—the differentiation has to be addressed in the fundamentals, and, for the most part, the Joseph team did just that today.