LONDON — Dunhill’s fall 2024 collection may have been creative director Simon Holloway’s first public outing for the Richemont-owned fashion house, but it’s “Black Bag,” the new spy thriller film from director Steven Soderbergh, that provided a first peek into the rich, strong visual language he was imagining.
Everything about the film aligned with the designer’s vision of modern Britain. It’s set in contemporary London with a diverse cast of established and upcoming actors.
Holloway said that he had the film’s stars Michael Fassbender, Tom Burke, Regé-Jean Page and Pierce Brosnan on his wishlist two years ago when he was picturing his version of Dunhill.
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The designer was introduced to the film’s costume designer Ellen Mirojnick, who was behind “Fatal Attraction,” “Basic Instinct” and “Oppenheimer,” through a friend of the house and walked her through sample jackets and fabrications for his debut collection.
The conversation first started around Fassbender’s character George Woodhouse, a sleek intelligence agent that wears handsome turtlenecks with classically cut suits, but it quickly snowballed into dressing the entire male cast.
The process of dressing characters for the big screen was a new feat for Holloway.
“It didn’t feel like making a collection because essentially everything was derived from the blocks that we were developing — in terms of shoulders, lapels and silhouettes. What we did do was keep the styling very separate for each character and that’s me relying on Ellen’s direction on how to dial things up and down,” he said.
He approached Fassbender’s character with a somber color palette and a minimal approach by choosing single-breasted peak-lapel jackets for him in shades of chocolate brown, navy and taupe in lightweight wool, cashmere or tweeds.
“The knitwear and turtlenecks give him a modernist look, but he’s simultaneously very well-dressed. I wouldn’t use the word dandy necessarily to describe him, but he’s a little more dandified than the other characters in that you can tell he’s quite obsessive about his clothes,” said Holloway, adding that Fassbender’s heavy eyewear solidified that impression on screen.
The designer had fun playing with different archetypes.
Brosnan’s character Arthur Steiglitz, the big boss of the intelligence firm, represents establishment, and his sartorial choices are reflected in the double-breasted suits in chalk-striped navy blue or gray. He even has a uniform of spotted neckties in mustard yellow or navy blue.
“Regé-Jean’s character is the arriviste. He’s the least experienced, but he’s gunning for Fassbender’s job. His neckties are a little bolder and his shoulders a little stronger,” said Holloway, who could easily be slotted into Soderbergh’s spy universe with his cut-to-precision suits and neat presentation.
Dunhill’s love affair with the big screen is a continuous one. In September 2024, the brand announced a two-year partnership with BAFTA on its Elevate program, which will support up to 20 mid-senior development producers, directors and producer-directors from underrepresented communities.
Holloway remembers that he first became aware of costume design in Mirojnick’s “Fatal Attraction” from 1987.
“For me, it was really the first time that I saw a major film about cool, urban dwellers in the era of yuppie fashion. The Japanese invasion of Paris fashion had happened and it was cool to wear black clothes with these minimalist interiors. Aesthetically, it was quite an important film and then to come full circle decades later to actually work with Ellen was insane,” he said.
The designer also teased that beyond this, he’s got a couple of other TV series up his perfectly cut sleeve.
