Faded Elegance of Cuba

I stumbled across Umit Benan's SS10 collection over on Dazed Digital last Friday and it has been playing on my mind ever since and I just had to share it with you. Benan is a designer I've been keeping an eye on in recent seasons becasue he has a genuine talent for talent whilst showcasing his fondess for fabric research and here he focused on cinematographic references, mixing them with his passion for Slim Aarons’ work. After some googling I discovered that the Turkish designer was recently awarded the main prize at the debut edition of Who Is On Next? Uomo for men’s ready-to-wear in Florence for his SS10 offering. The collection of off beat elegance was inspired by Cuba, in particular Al Pacino’s crazed drug baron character in the classic movie Scarface, and included gentlemanly linen and cotton shirt jackets and maxi-volume trousers.

The images reminded me of a TV show I caught last week with the icon of British news, Trevor MacDonald. In the show he took in the ‘faded romance’ of Cuba, the Caribbean’s biggest island as part of The Secret Caribbean series. During the hour show he visited the oldest cigar making factory on the island, and learned about living under a communist regime where food is rationed and a television can cost more than a home. In Cuba, Trevor discovers a country where time has stood still, he declared “The entire city is enveloped by a sense of faded elegance. Buildings once grand and magnificent show signs of weary neglect.” I can certaionly see echoes of this throughout this collection. Here, Benin's inventive baggy cropped trousers and tunic shirt paired with a well tailored double-breasted plaid jacket and espadrilles all combined a truly award-wining proportion which has inspired me to try a bit of faded elegance myself.