London Fashion Week: Pringle

PRINGLE finds its wild side while maintaining its classy heritage

Pringle of Scotland has had a shaky decade, with the knitwear company reinventing itself more than once, first ditching its knitwear heritage then rushing to re-embrace it. However, the appointment of design director Alistair Carr in March last year was a promising move for the company, who have since settled into a more comfortable groove. For his second collection for Pringle, Carr took inspiration from a girlfriend from his early teens. Punky and rebellious, she recently got back in touch with him, which got him wondering what she might be like now. Models sported hair with bright dip-dyed ends, as if their teenage experiments with home dye had almost grown out, but not quite. Clothes were grown-up, certainly, but with rebellious streaks. Rusty orange leather bomber jackets spoke of a misspent youth, classic wool coats featured flashes of bright colour at the collar, and a cheeky nod was made to the staid twinset (a Pringle creation) in dresses featuring trompe l’oeil cardigan prints. Chunky cashmere sweaters in ice-cream shades balanced between the classic heritage aesthetic for which Pringle is known with a youthful insouciance, while wobbly ribbing on a camel wool dress was as cheeky as the silhouette was conservative. Navy and jackets played with multiple vents while beautiful cashmere roll necks allowed more attention-seeking pieces to shine. While Carr is yet to meet up with that old girlfriend again, this collection might just satisfy the woman he imagines she’s become; one who likes her tailoring sharp and her cashmere soft but isn’t ready to hang up her bomber jacket for good just yet.

• Gallery pictures: Getty/PA/AP