Dunhill Gives Casual Dressing the Silent Luxury Treatment With New Athluxury Line
LONDON — Dunhill’s creative director Simon Holloway is not slowing down, not even in the summer, when his workload is about to double with the introduction of Athluxury, a line that will drop seasonally and sit alongside the brand’s spring and fall collections.
Pieces from the debut collection have already made their way to Dunhill stores and the full range will launch on July 29.
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“One of my personal ideas for Dunhill was that we needed to have a casual wardrobe both in luxurious ready-to-wear and something that was après-gym or après-golf, but ultimately something to travel in and look really smart, comfortable and refined,” the designer said in an interview, on one of London’s hottest days so far this summer.
He designed the new line simultaneously with his debut fall 2024 collection for Dunhill.
Holloway, who is known for his soft touch and luxury fabric expertise, has worked with wool, cotton cashmere and wool jersey for the collection, which consists of ribbed cardigans, tailored jogging pants, shorts, bomber jackets and light polo shirts in shades of gray, white and navy.
He picked natural fibers for their easy use when it comes to washing and moving around in. “They have a performance aspect to them, but in a way that doesn’t require any synthetics,” said Holloway.
“Athluxury has a sort of flavor of heritage around it such as lovely, old-fashioned sport clothing from the ‘30s, but done in a modern way so it doesn’t look really vintage,” he added.
The collection isn’t necessarily for the sports-orientated customer. “[Very few people] want to sit in a beautifully tailored suit on a plane for 14 hours because it destroys the suit. This collection is about addressing the moods of the same client and is to complement what they already have in their wardrobes,” said Holloway.
“We all have to take the dog for a walk and [it’s better] to do it in something easy and light,” added the designer, who owns an Italian Lagotto Romagnolo.
It’s a timely collection with all the sporting events of the year: the Euro 2024, Wimbledon Championships, Formula 1 and the Paris 2024 Olympics, as well as Dunhill’s inaugural Alfred Dunhill Padel Classic event that took place at the Hurlingham Club in May.
Dunhill also has a long partnership with the Japan national football team, otherwise known as the Samurai Blue, as their official suit provider for more than two decades. Holloway has already designed next year’s suits, which will be revealed in the late spring of 2025.
In its year-end results statement, Dunhill’s parent Compagnie Financière Richemont said the most recent collections by Chloé and Dunhill had performed well commercially. Richemont does not break out results for its individual brands.
A spokesperson for the brand said the feedback from clients following Holloway’s debut had been positive. WWD named the Dunhill show as the winner of Who Won the Day? for the first day of London Fashion Week for making tailoring exciting again
Following the success of fall 2024, the brand has been expanding in the U.S. market, partnering exclusively with Neiman Marcus in Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. The brand is also reentering the South Korean market, where its lightweight fabrics have been well received.
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