An Englishman, living in New York, designing for an Italian brand—it’s a decidedly global outlook, and it suits Eidos perfectly.
Dressed in a black t-shirt, black denim, and boots, Simon Spurr reflects on his time as creative director of the Naples-based menswear brand. “I’ve been with Eidos for just over a year now, and due to the production timeline, my first season is now hitting the shop floors,” he says, seated inside a private room on the menswear floor of Holt Renfrew Vancouver. “As my season is somewhat different than what went before me, I think it’s vital that I come and really explain my methodology and my inspiration.”
Launched in 2013 by Gianluca Isaia, Eidos is “a younger cousin, if you’d like,” to historic and family-owned Naples suit brand Isaia that was founded in 1920. “It’s had a few incarnations, let’s say,” Spurr explains of Eidos. “Where the brand stood before I arrived was a little more oversized and more washed—great product, great following, but it didn’t really fit in with the vision of the owner.” Spurr, who has designed for his own eponymous label as well as for the likes of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, is celebrated for his edgy yet classic take on menswear. It is this technical know-how mixed with a playful sensibility that he brings to Eidos, creating a debut collection that is tasteful and strong without being overbearingly masculine.
Standing up, Spurr reaches for a leather biker jacket hanging on a rack, which he says “surmises the spirit of the collection.” Made of nappa lamb leather, the jacket features six buttons and no zipper, giving it the look of a tailored blazer. “I put something formal that comes from tailoring onto a biker jacket,” he explains. “It’s that fusion between tailoring and sportswear.” For him, even in the “most seemingly basic product, there’s always design consideration.” The result? Pieces that make the wearer stand a little taller, walk with a little more swagger. It is confidence woven into cashmere: “I believe the man should walk into the room first, not the clothes.”
Taking strong inspiration from architecture, Spurr has also designed a set of topcoats that are all named after famous architects. One print that he says will become a recurring pattern in seasons to come takes its cues from the IBM France Research Center designed by Marcel Breuer. “It’s a very brutalist concrete building, and it’s got very deep inset windows; as the sun rotates around there’s a long shadow cast over these windows in the form of a triangle,” says Spurr. “So I took that, because I’m very informed by light and negative space, and that’s become the motif.” Like any good designer, he is sparked by the world around him, allowing it to inform his practise and take his process in new directions.
Though based in New York, Spurr frequently makes trips back to headquarters in Naples, where the products are made. Between his native England, his adopted America, and his newfound second home of Italy, he represents the Eidos client perfectly: someone informed, someone who travels, someone who lets the world inspire him but not control him.
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