Lou Dalton is fast becoming the greatest storyteller of London Collections: Men. She loves giving a bit of history to her man. This season, she spoke of a young nomad, travelling from place to place looking for a home.
While the collection may have been inspired by displacement, the pieces on show seemed perfectly at home within the broader context of the Dalton brand. Unlike her man, they had firm roots and heritage. There was that signature tailored jacket she does so well, updated this season with a boxier cut. There too was a tweaked version of her MA1 duffle coat, styled alongsde the other staples that Dalton is starting to make her name for, like perfect sweatshirts and neat tailored trousers.
This collection was about establishing Lou Dalton as a growing commercial brand to be reckoned with. Central to the show were shirts and t-shirts printed with the codes and lettering of Royal Air Force planes - a detail that also appeared on the linings of jackets - two of which will be available to buy from Liberty straight after the show. Providing for a customer, quickly and simply, is clearly Dalton's priority, hence the sense of continuation and focus in this collection. She may have been inspired by a rootless wanderer, but Dalton certainly has a firm understanding of her turf and the ways in which she can expand on it moving forward.
