Dunhill S/S 20 Campaign Pays Homage to Alfred Dunhill's Automobile Era
The dunhill S/S 20 campaign, titled Automotive, pays homage to the defining discovery for Alfred Dunhill that changed the whole core of his brand. The British luxury house was developed after Dunhill inherited his father's saddlery business on London's Euston Road. Responding to the growing demand for automobiles at this time, he created a line of accessories called Dunhill's Motorities. This first collection included car horns, lamps, leather overcoats, picnic sets and timepieces, which provided the company with the strap line of 'everything but the motor.'
The S/S 20 campaign sees the brand return to the motif of the car. The campaign backdrop is a garage in Berkeley Square in Mayfair, with classic cars partially revealed underneath car covers, and the S/S 20 collection is presented on a multiplicity of models. In fact, the cars themselves are as much models as the men wearing dunhill clothes. In both cases, it is the attention to details that matters.
Jack Webb photographs the fluid selection of silhouettes, exploring the technical and contemporary nature of dunhill. By unwrapping relaxed tailoring, the classicism of British cutting, a Japanese approach to volume and the casual essence of sportswear, dunhill is pictured as a house that covers a multitude of menswear codes.
Today, the brand's creative director Mark Weston draws inspiration from the past to create something timeless for the present and future. 'Dunhill is not one thing, it’s many. Just as there is more than one dunhill man, there are many dunhills. The history of the house is varied and storied. Alfred Dunhill himself was about change and innovation, with purposeful and multi-functional creations. More than anything else, he was always looking ahead – and that is what drives us,' he says.
'In Automotive it is both style and substance that is celebrated, as it is throughout the world of dunhill. It’s about sophistication of taste; it has to be fitting,' Mark Weston concludes.
