Simon Spurr, whose expert tailoring is often showcased alongside denim, had a surprise for us, just minutes before his show began at Milk Studios on Sunday: “There’s not a single jean in the collection this season,” he revealed. Instead, Spurr offered a crisp, business-like selection that took its cues from a Robert Frank photograph of London in the 1950s. Spurr said he was striving for “a more elevated look.”

Spurr achieved his aim. With Joe Jonas and Kellan Lutz seated in the audience, the show began with pieces tinged with mauve, and small, glistening touches. Silver buttons on his jackets glimmered along with umbrella handles, helping his looks cut a cool, collected path down the runway. The designer keenly focused on fabric this time around, flaunting his new found love of mixing materials (leather sleeves on a wool suit) and patterns (a check meeting a hound’s tooth). The British proclivity for overbearing checks, stripes and prints came to fore only rarely, and these instances were easily surmounted by the conservatism displayed by the resolutely “elevated” items that far outnumbered them.

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After watching Simon Spurr prepare for his Spring 2012 show, we already knew what to expect: expertly tailored menswear mixed with subtle hints of country charm (think English riding boots and denim). Of course, the recent CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year nom offered many classic, slim cut, three piece suits, but there were plenty of striped patterns as well.

“The graphic prints were inspired by a guy named Norman Wilkinson who came out with the first version of camouflage for the British navy, called Dazzle Ships in 1920,” Spurr told us backstage. He incorporated the striped, zig-zag patterns into many pieces, including suits, knits, and a blazer or two.

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