Simon Spurr Returns To Fashion

Simon Spurr stood on his tippy toes to fetch a shoe box from a wardrobe in his West Village apartment. There were 20 dark blue boxes there in an otherwise clutter-free aerie given over to Modernist furniture, coffee table books and art. As he cracked open the box, the smell of fresh Italian leather filled the room. “Beautiful,” Mr. Spurr said, as he caressed the handmade, black-and-white horsehair Chelsea boot that he spent the last year perfecting. This $1,195 boot is not only an example from the first run of a luxury footwear brand, March NYC, that Mr. Spurr is unveiling this week, but it also reflects the 43-year-old’s return to the fashion spotlight. Five years ago, Mr. Spurr was an ascendant star in the city’s fashion firmament. Alongside Patrick Ervell, Billy Reid and Thom Browne, he was a promising young designer in a rapidly expanding men’s wear market. Handsome and with a plummy English accent, Mr. Spurr embodied a sort of fine tailored Savile Row-meets-rock ’n’ roll swagger that bewitched American men’s wear. But his progress ended suddenly in 2012, when Mr. Spurr shocked the fashion industry and announced that he was walking away from his brand. Now he is trying to make a creative comeback. “It’s basically like being back at square one again,” he said. Read more at The New York Times.