PRINGLE OF SCOTLAND F/W 2015 MENSWEAR

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – Anything you can do, I can do knitted. That appeared to be the message at today’s Pringle of Scotland show, held to celebrate the label’s two hundred anniversary.

There was a part of back-to-roots simplicity regarding the gathering as an entire, with charcoal, black and white ribbed knits dominating the lineup. As ever, there was lots of interest within the fabrication, whether or not in panels of contrast-knit technique and texture, or on additional dramatic inversions like soft-structured coats wich sprouted chunky Aran detailing. There have been lots of subtler touches, too, from cloth patterns plain-woven from planes of different matt and gloss to greyscale interpretations of the house’s pastel-twee Argyll print. And thrown into the combo was a worn, pixilated carpet-floral knit that offered a sublime nod to the label’s long history — a history that has run from humble homespun roots through Victorian wealth, Fifties glamour, Eighties golf-pro naffness and provocative Noughties reinventions. There’s been lots of swerves in direction over the label’s two centuries. What was spectacular, viewing today’s show, was that Pringle had managed to unite such a large amount of disparate, radiating aspects of the label into something with confident, unforced coherence.