The Weekend Collection

The season's new Weekend Collection is made to relax in, and inspired by Marlon Brando. More importantly, it's pushing Turnbull & Asser in a fresh direction, says Aleks Cvetkovic.

Turnbull & Asser only makes shirts for your business wardrobe, right? Wrong. ‘While we make shirts for men who work in professional environments, nine-to-five, we understand that they want to be well-dressed in their free time too,’ says Becky French, Turnbull’s Creative Director. ‘We all have our lives in the city, but Turnbull & Asser is there for men leaving the Big Smoke behind as well.’

Cue Turnbull & Asser’s Weekend Collection, a new seasonal capsule centred around the notion of escape. It centres around six shirts designed with an off-duty sensibility.

The inspiration for the collection came from an unlikely place for a British heritage brand. ‘We looked at great archive photographs of Marlon Brando wearing denim Western shirts. Denim’s relaxed, easy-wearing quality became the natural starting point, so each piece relates to this aesthetic,’ says French.

Designed with a relaxed, tonal colour scheme, the shirts mix light shades of blue with ecru or cream – like the warp and weft in a pair of denim jeans. They’re not just pretty to look at either. Turnbull’s design team has worked hard to ensure that these shirts feel as easy to wear as they look. Quite apart from the sedate colours running throughout, these shirts debut the brand’s new Weekend Fit.

The design changes in this new fit are subtle but make a significant difference. French explains further,’ We’ve straightened the side seams, changed the hem construction so that you can wear the shirts untucked and we’ve relaxed the collars. Now, we have a new button-down collar and a spread collar, both with a softer construction’.

Alongside these developments, simple one-button cuffs (a first for Turnbull, who normally cut a three-button cuff) and an ever-so-slightly shorter length to the shirts encourage you to shrug yours on come Saturday morning, leave it untucked and roll up the sleeves. It’s a different look to Turnbull’s classic dress shirts, with their formal collars, but that’s the point.

First up, there’s a simple weekend shirt cut with the new spread collar and single cuffs in Turnbull’s signature cotton/ cashmere denim shirting. Not only is it luxuriously soft, it washes down like denim proper, developing its own character with regular wear. This piece also appears in a navy-and-cream fine cotton Western check. Plus, there are button-down shirts in elegant blue chambray, and mid-blue-and-white brushed cotton puppytooth.

The piéce de résistance, though, is Turnbull’s take on a classic Western shirt, cut with Western shoulder panels, a button-down collar and two utility pockets on the chest. Again, it’s available in navy cotton/ cashmere denim, for an authentic nod to Brando, or in one of Turnbull’s seasonal exclusives, a cream ‘Turnbuline’ herringbone cloth woven by Albini. This piece pulls off a clever trick, mixing a formal fabric with a casual cut.

To round off the collection, Turnbull’s also designed a brushed-wool jacket, made in Italy with unstructured shoulders, a semi-canvassed cut, patch pockets and an easy silhouette, plus tailored trousers in navy cord or wool. Cotton pocket squares to match each shirt are available, made in the brand’s shirtmaking workrooms, and English silk mill Stephen Walters & Sons has even created some exclusive denim-look jacquard ties to pair with the shirts. These are made with a lightweight lining and left untipped, finished with hand-rolled edges – continuing the collection’s informal, deconstructed look.

Shop The Weekend Collection here.