AUTUMN WINTER 2015 - 'Exploration Fawcett'

RUNWAY SHOW

Rakish gentleman explorer Percy Fawcett was a man who cut a fine figure across Victorian society - always impeccably dressed in black frock coat, waistcoat, and top hat. His life was one of adventure, passion, and intrigue as a respected geographer, artist who had ink drawings displayed at the Royal Academy, while also a seasoned soldier, shipbuilder, and member of the elite British Secret Service.

For AW15 Joshua Kane imagines a collection for three ages of Fawcett – his youth as a dandy, his voyages, and his heroic return a mature man. It’s often said that Fawcett’s life inspired the Lu- casfilm character of Indiana Jones. Indeed, every good explorer knows the value of an iconic hat. Joshua Kane’s Fawcett is suitably attired with the ‘Gostick’ hat, made in collaboration with Lon- don-based Laird Hatters.

In the Gilded Age of the twenties Fawcett became obsessed with a quest for the discovery of an ancient, and highly cultured, civilization that existed in a city lost in the jungles of the Amazon. He called this city ‘Z’, while others called it El Dorado. It was claimed that gold was so plentiful here that inhabitants ground metal into powder and blew it on their bodies so they would be shining from head-to-toe.

Precious metals appear in the AW15 collection as laser cut brass adorning collars and cuffs, and as oversize gold and silver travel scarfs made of liquid silk. A compass pocket watch is deconstructed into silver and brass jewellery, and the striking horological print is continued across the shirting.

Imperial wool forms the basis for the sharply cut outwear designed with the worst of the British elements in mind. Knitted gloves and wrist warmers provide further protection, and for the rain, there is Joshua Kane’s umbrella collaboration with James Smith & Sons, umbrella makers of distinction since 1830.

Traditional fabrics are given a dramatic twist with the exploded houndstooth motif, an oversize windowpane check, as well as Joshua Kane’s signature polka dots. For the more formal occasion a jewel-like Deco stripe enlivens a three-piece.

On his final expedition in 1925, at the age of 58, Fawcett disappeared into the jungle with his son Jack, a tall man with movie star looks, never to be seen again. Private papers discovered recently point to Fawcett’s belief in an exotic she-devil sent to lure explorers into wilds of the Amazon. We imagine Fawcett made the best of any given situation.