I always start a season with a person in-mind. Usually a real person, who catches my attention through their own demeanour or viewpoint.
I'd recently watched James Mangold's 2024 Dylan film, A Complete Unknown. The wardrobe on that film was researched properly, documented down to the last detail, and it did something I wasn't expecting - it took me right back to the beginning of my own journey, hunting for pieces in second-hand shops long before Oliver Spencer existed. It reminded me of the type of guy I used to bump into at flea markets, record stores and bars. It was about eclecticism and not being afraid to blend things together without trying too hard. A leather blazer over a striped shirt or a sleeveless knit under a coat that's seen better days (and looks all the better for it, by the way)! Nothing in that film's wardrobe was shouting. It was carefully accumulated - the way a real wardrobe is, and the way mine was, piece by piece over the years. That's the era the film pulled me back into, and it's the feeling I wanted for Autumn 26.
Once I know who I'm dressing, I go straight to the fabric, And I let those fabrics inform what the product is going to be, rather than deciding on a shape first and finding a fabric afterwards. Clothing feels more honest that way. You can tell when a fabric has led a garment because it moves naturally, and it doesn't feel like it's performing. When people hear denim, they picture a straight five-pocket jean, and that's not quite what we do, for good reason. What we’ve developed, is the Utility Trouser - a denim trouser rather than a jean, closer in spirit to a fatigue pant that's been pared back and made presentable for everyday life. It’s a cleaner look, still as relaxed through the leg but without the stitching detail that shouts military. I guess it feels a bit more grown-up.
I keep coming back to indigo, season after season. It's a difficult one to work with as it varies in shade consistency, but that’s partly why I love it! You wear it, you wash it, and it just keeps getting better and more particular to you, the way nothing synthetic ever does. We used an indigo-dyed 11oz cotton denim for the Utility Trouser, lighter than a classic jean weight, because we wanted something that had the strength of a workwear fabric but the ease to be worn day after day without ever feeling like armour. We’ve also made it available in a sulphur-dyed, cotton twill that feels instantly lived in.
Following fabrics, I get into knitwear yarns - the colours I choose for knitwear are the generally the colours that carry through everything else - not in a literal way, but how everything complements itself. Whether that be across tailoring or outerwear, woven shirting, even the tone of the leather. Get the palette right in knitwear and the rest of the season tends to follow.
This time the earthy base of chocolates, beiges and rusts needed something to punctuate it, and that's where the sage greens and purples came in. Small amounts, used carefully.
Texture matters just as much as colour. We worked in an alpaca blend for weight and softness, and leaned heavily on rib knits that give texture, and let the yarn and the colour do the talking rather than a stitch pattern.
We introduced a few new shapes into the knitwear this season too. I’m really into a v-neck knit - there's something about that open shape that takes me straight back to the era the Dylan film pulled me into, mixed with that collegiate, Ivy Leaguer style. The neckline also gives another opportunity to layer with colours and textures. The Britten cardigan is also one of my favourite pieces in the whole collection: it really feels like a garment of that period in time.
Underneath all of it, the same thread runs through - leather, plaids and checks, and rich indigo, the fabrics I let lead from the very start, showing up again and again in slightly different forms. That's what happens when you let the cloth do the deciding. You don't end up with a collection of unrelated ideas. You end up with one wardrobe that keeps making sense of itself.
I generally like to think of myself as a shopkeeper, before anything else. I like being in the stores, listening to what people actually want rather than what a mood board says they should want. A trouser that gets better with age. A knit you can layer three different ways depending on the weather and the day you're having. Clothes that don't care whether you're going somewhere important or nowhere at all.
That's the Man on the Street. Not a look. A man, dressed properly, getting on with his life.
— Oli
