THE JOURNAL
Our second collaboration, The Art Of The Everyday, injects a little luxury into the ritual of getting dressed.
It is a strange quirk of human nature that the things we treasure the most somehow turn out to be the things we use the least. Think of the scented candles we received as gifts last December that we are still yet to burn, or the family silver that we keep in storage in anticipation of a visit from a head of state, which has, as yet, never seen the light of day (and needs a good polish). What is it that motivates us to save certain things for special occasions? Is it not possible for every day to be a special occasion?
These were the fanciful musings that led, ultimately, to the creation of our second exclusive capsule collection with COS in as many years – The Art Of The Everyday. Now available on MR PORTER and at selected COS stores, the collection has been created with two goals in mind – the first being to fulfil the practical requirements of everyday life. In that respect, it retains the strong emphasis on utility that marked out last year’s inaugural, travel-focused capsule collection, The Modern Traveller. The 35-piece collection is designed to be easy to wear and endlessly versatile, and the simple colour palette of dusty pink, charcoal grey and navy blue was chosen so that everything in the collection works well together, taking a great deal of stress out of the process of piecing together a look in the morning.
The second, and perhaps most important, goal of the collection was to introduce a little luxury into everyday life. This isn’t the gaudy, ostentatious luxury you might find in the marble lobby of a seven-star hotel or on the face of a diamond-encrusted watch, but luxury in the more refined sense of the word. It’s the sort of luxury that appeals to a man of taste, who finds pleasure in the small details that make up his daily routine. There are no statement pieces here, nor anything designed to draw the attention of easily impressed passers-by – just beautifully constructed garments infused with a low-key luxury, such as the shirts and T-shirts adorned with a hand-drawn check pattern, soft-shouldered overcoats, double-breasted cardigans in boiled wool and pleated trousers cut in a generous, contemporary silhouette. These are clothes that slip seamlessly into your weekday rotation, while still giving you a buzz each time that you slip them on.
It might seem strange to think that there is inspiration or enjoyment to be drawn from something we do as routinely and unthinkingly as getting dressed in the morning, especially when that morning might happen to fall in the middle of a working week. But when you chew that thought over, it seems a shame. It’s these small moments, after all – our daily routines and habits – that make up the great bulk of our lives. Why shouldn’t they be as special as they can be? With our second collaboration with COS, we hope we’ve gone some way towards making that possible.