Good quality menswear usually costs so much the blessing is that it changes relatively little from one season to the next. Make that a double blessing because as a rule men have little interest in buying clothes for themselves and would make even less effort if seismic style shifts took place every six months. Instead, the move is always gradual: a subtle shift in the number of jacket buttons, or the addition/removal of pleats on trousers.
Where men are willing to show concern is in the difference between formal and casual clothes. These tend to derive their inspiration from urban and rural life respectively, the former based around suiting while the latter focuses on layered, comfortable pieces. One is most appropriate for working hours during the week, the other is most often worn at weekends.
In this country, the two main menswear designers, Cuan Hanly and Pat McCarthy, seem to have shown a considerable degree of thought by each taking one side of this market. No doubt due more to chance than conscious intention, this is an unofficial and by no means absolute divide. Still, looking at their latest collections, it looks overwhelmingly as though Hanly is most happy producing a distinctly urban range while McCarthy's line has a definite suggestion of country life at its most relaxed.
Of the two, Cuan Hanly is the more recent arrival on the scene, with his first line only being produced a year ago. With this third collection, his reputation as a man with a mean understanding of sharp tailoring ought to be consolidated. He likes suits and he likes them cut long and lean. The key piece in his new collection, therefore, is a three-quarter length frock coat which tends to encourage an elongated silhouette. It can be worn as an outer garment or, more effectively, as part of a suit. In the boldest form, the frock coat and trousers - flat-fronted, just to further emphasise the wearer's length - come in a navy and mauve windowpane check, but for men who might find this a touch ostentatious, the same design is available in both black and taupe.
Those two shades are among the strongest in Hanly's autumn/winter palette which also incorporates plenty of brown (not least for pinstripes) and some green and navy. Shirts, like suits, are relatively slim-fitting and come in cotton but by contrast knitwear, based around a mixed boucle yarn, is rather soft and unstructured. Hanly summarises his style for the new season as "Nineties Lounge Lizard" thereby drawing attention to the sleek lines of his suits. These are clothes for the consummate townie.
On the other hand, Pat McCarthy's designs would look most at home in the countryside. McCarthy does include pure wool three-piece suits in his collection and very well they look too, especially in a Prussian blue. But more likely to excite temptation among purchasers are McCarthy's casual pieces; fine stripe cotton velvet three-button jackets with matching trousers, or multicoloured check corduroy shirts. Then there are wool and alpaca mix polo sweaters and heavy cable-knit wool cardigans.
McCarthy's shapes are gentler and more relaxed than those of Hanly. The shoulder line is relatively soft, and trousers are also cut along loose lines. That is the nature of weekend and rural dressing, intended to act as a contrast to the structured formality of city life. In the same way, he can afford to be more extravagant in his choice of colours, running right across the spectrum of autumn shades, from loden green for suiting to burnt orange knitwear. If Cuan Hanly's fabrics - like his shapes - are fairly hard-edged, McCarthy's are sensuously tactile thanks to the use of silk/wool mix tweeds and velvets. And he is not afraid of mixing contrasting tones together in his checks and stripes to enhance the impression of casual ease.
Of course, the two designers share some features in common. In both collections, jackets generally tend to button quite high and shirts are reasonably fitted with collars longer than used to be the case. But their ranges are conveniently complementary. Between them, they should look after all an Irishman's sartorial needs over the next few months, whether he be in the city or the country.