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NEW YORK
— Like the women's collections, the menswear offerings
for fall/winter 2010 were retro-nouveau, a plumbing (and
updating) of the past to outfit the fellow of the
not-too-distant future. Among the overarching trends to
come out of the
Bryant Park
tents for the last time (next season, after 18 years,
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York is relocating to
Damrosch Park
in Lincoln Center) were the following:
LEATHER
JACKETS
Like the
fall/winter 2010 collections shown on the runways of
Milan
and
Paris
in January, much of the menswear shown on the runways
during New York Fashion Week focused on statement
outerwear pieces. And one of the most ubiquitous pieces
seemed to be the leather jacket, with many designers
trying their hands at updated takes on the iconic
motorcycle and aviator silhouettes.
Some
designers, such as Simon Spurr and
Michael Bastian
, barely tweaked the classic look, while others switched
it up considerably.
Calvin Klein
stitched a diamond quilting pattern across the lower
torso of a black leather jacket, and Michael Kors'
collection included a distressed aviator's jacket with
generous fur lapels.
Eric Kim
(late of Monarchy Collection), who debuted his
Mik Cire
line in the
Bryant Park
tents on the opening night of Fashion Week, offered
several incarnations: One motorcycle jacket featured
plaid shirting fabric across the front, and Kim rendered
another in sanded lambskin with unfinished cuffs and
waistband to create a feeling of rough-hewn luxe.
PLAID MEN
Menswear
designers have been pounding the tartan tom-toms for so
many seasons now, plaids of every stripe have seemed to
be ubiquitous. (For any doubters, we direct you to the
half-pipe at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in
Vancouver
, where over the last week the U.S. snowboarding team
has been shredding it up in red, white and blue plaid
jackets by Burton.) Now, based on the offerings at New
York Fashion Week, it looks like the plaid tidings will
be with us through next fall.
Duckie Brown
used it to Brit-punk effect with narrow-leg trousers,
shirts and jackets in a range of tartans, while
Michael Bastian's
platoon of plaids struck a more rural Americana chord
with red and black quilted nylon hunting jackets;
double-faced red, white and blue plaid, Western-style
shirts; plaid belts; plaid trousers; and even glen plaid
plastered footwear (slippers made in collaboration with
Stubbs & Wootton).
At Simon
Spurr, a menswear label that made the move from static
presentation to full-blown runway show this season, one
of the sharpest-looking pieces was a smartly tailored
black-and-white-check three-piece suit. And, finally,
Rag & Bone, which staged separate men's and women's
shows with a slacker mountaineering aesthetic, peppered
with plaids — the men's with blacks, browns and
greens; the women's in brighter shades of blues and
reds.
FURSURGENCE
Fur flew
down the runway this season, more noticeably on the
men's side than in any fall/winter season in recent
memory. Michael Kors and
Michael Bastian
used it to line bulky Arctic-worthy parkas and puffer
jackets, respectively. Band of Outsiders patchworked it
onto chukka boots for men and multicolored sleeveless
vests for women. And the sophomore standalone showcase
of
Phillip Lim
3.1 menswear, which had an urban adventurer theme, was
heavy on the fur with oversized zip-front coats and
double-breasted jackets, which boasted detachable rabbit
fur linings — some with additional raccoon collars.
Raccoon,
in fact, seemed to be the fur-bearing critter of the
season — or perhaps it was just the most identifiable
— since raccoon tails seemed to be the accessory of
the season, hanging from jacket cuffs at William Rast
and peeking from under pillbox hats at Thom Browne
(creating a
Daniel Boone
-hotel bellman look that was a bit off-putting). Thom
Browne, who also sent oversized fur mufflers and
earmuffs and trench coats with fur-trimmed hoods down
the runway, gets the award for raccoon-tail overkill
with what looked to be several dozen hanging from a sort
of suit-fabric sarong.
HEARTY
BOYS
Bankers,
dandies and genteel, well-heeled fellows of every
stripe, it's been nice knowing you. If there was one
unifying theme of the week, it was that next fall
belongs to a different kind of man — the varsity
athlete (
Brooks Brothers
), the rugged woodsman (
Michael Bastian
), the motorcycle-riding rebel (
Mik Cire
, William Rast), the urban adventurer (
Phillip Lim
3.1), the rural explorer, the hunter, the military
veteran, the thief in the night. (When the models at a
Thom Browne fashion show manage to look like menacing
cat burglars, you know change is afoot).
They wear
soft, unstructured jackets, cardigans and cable knits,
they layer on scarves and slip on chunky, butt-kicking
boots. They haul rucksacks, cinch in their belted
jackets, insulate against the weather, gird themselves
for battle and get the job done.
Which
made it all the more appropriate that on
Feb. 12
, this year's GQ/CFDA Best New Menswear Designer in
America award went to
Florence, Ala.
-based designer
Billy Reid
, whose collection, presented at Milk Studios, embodied
the full range of rough-hewn masculine luxe, with looks
labeled "The Woodsman" (a faded plaid mountain
coat, with a blanket lining and shearling collar),
"The Woodford Reserve Master Distiller" (a
dark olive plaid cashmere suit with a railroad stripe
shirt) and "Railroad Varsity" (a washed-down,
double-breasted shawl collar cardigan, raw selvage denim
and an Oxford gray wool twill engineer's cap — a
collaboration with Stetson).
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