One of the most pleasant surprises of last spring’s collections was Bespoken’s jaunty and yet natty collection of prim British suits, shirts, and the occasional croquet mallet. For A/W 2011, they’ve followed up with another exceptional venture, inspired by an old photo the boys (Bespoken is made is made up of two sets of handsome brothers: James, Sam and Liam Fayed; Paul and Carlos Goncalves) found depicting their great grandfather on a naval supply ship during World War II. The collection it inspired is sartorial naval-themed, replete with English culture, heritage and tailoring without ignoring modern needs.

This is a heavy (but not bulky), refined, gorgeous collection, replete with harris tweeds, supportive cottons, raw edges and unstructured pieces. The boys went deep into the Turnbull archive (the brand is associated with Turnbull and Asser) to source their textures and wools. They turned to some of the oldest weavers and yarn suppliers in the UK for their materials, like JC Rennie, which has been providing yarn since 1728.

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