Feb 2015

FASHION INTERVIEW
Modern
HISTORY
His first job was at Gucci, he founded Prada’s
boundary-pushing menswear, and he subsequently
launched his own label. Quite some past for designer
Neil Barrett, whose future is looking just as bright
BY
ASHION ASSISTANT
SIMON LIPMAN
ABOVE Neil Barrett;
OPPOSITE PAGE
Neil Barrett jacket
£2,025, T-shirt £170
and trousers £350
Quizzing wildly successful people on what they’d
want to do if they weren’t doing what made them wildly
successful is an interview staple. And there’s a reason
for that: the answers are sometimes revealing and
usually involve interesting anecdotes. Lanvin’s Alber
Elbaz once took a sabbatical from fashion with the aim
of enrolling in medical school. Giles Deacon dreamed
of opening a petting zoo. Perhaps most incongruously,
Miuccia Prada devoted five years to studying to be
a mime artist. However, as the scion of a tailoring
dynasty that stretches back to the 19th century, designer
Neil Barrett’s fate in the sartorial arts was sealed at an
early age. So did he ever get even the slightest chance
to consider an alternative job “Maybe… a furniture
designer” he ventures.
At this point I’m tempted to suggest that, had he
pursued a career in trend prediction, or even as a
consultant in the shadowy art of futurology, he would
surely have made a killing. After all, being several light
years ahead of everyone else is something of a natural
state for Barrett. While you might not immediately
recognise his name, if you’re a man with even a passing
interest in fashion, then your wardrobe will almost
certainly have felt his influence.
The smartened-up sportswear that’s currently
dominating the catwalk That’s been Barrett’s calling
card since the 1980s. The trend for minimal tailoring
in hi-tech fabrics Look back to the first Prada menswear
collection that he created, back in the ’90s, for a
masterclass in the concept. Shirts and ties in matching
fabrics Waxed denim Bonded jersey sweatshirts
emblazoned with lightning bolts or Bauhaus-style motifs
All owe their origins – or at least their popularity – to the
uncannily prescient Barrett.
“I feel like I’ve been doing my signatures since school,”
shrugs Barrett, an unassuming but stylish Brit who
launched his eponymous Milan-based label in 1999. “It’s
only in the last 10 years that those things have become
popular, and maybe in the last two or three that they’ve
become super on-trend. I’ve always followed my instinct
over trends. I don’t design my clothes to look crazy on the
catwalk. I’d rather see them being worn in real life.”
It’s true that Barrett’s designs don’t immediately seem
radical or pioneering. Take a closer look, however, and
you’ll see that the seemingly purist Savile Row-style
tailoring has been slightly subverted – perhaps by shrunken
proportions, clever construction or high-performance
fabrics. The result is clothes that, as architect Zaha Hadid
– a friend and frequent collaborator – explains, “explore
structure, material and proportion while expressing
remarkable integrity and the greatest attention to detail”.
Barrett’s resolutely modern take on classic menswear
codes has made his design label the go-to brand for a
certain type of discerning man: someone who cares about
craftsmanship and wants his clothes to look cool without
being avant-garde, and edgy but still refined. This type of
man is rather neatly illustrated by Barrett’s loyal clientele,
with a roll call that includes Brad Pitt, Justin Timberlake,
Orlando Bloom, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ewan McGregor and
Lenny Kravitz.
The references that Barrett reinterprets with such
success (namely old-fashioned tailoring, sportswear and X
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HARRODS MAGAZINE