MICHAEL BASTIAN SPRING 2013

Michael Bastian‘s Spring show was scheduled for high noon. High tea would’ve been more apropos, but there’s no room to wriggle on the New York calendar. Some designers might’ve blushed to put so much flesh on display before brunch, but not Bastian. 

There’s always been an erotic undercurrent to his shows, but for Spring he shot it to the fore. «People try to pigeonhole me as preppy,» he said backstage after the show. «I don’t feel like I’m preppy at all. There’s a base of that, but there’s a base of that in any American menswear designer.

The two poles of American menswear are Ralph Lauren as the superego and Calvin Klein as the id—and I want to start going more toward the id. This felt like a big step in scraping preppy off. You talk about American heritage; one of our biggest heritages is sex. I don’t feel like that’s been out there enough.»

Id, he did. Bastian had begun the collection in homage to Helen Frankenthaler, whose watery colors inspired the palette, but the death of Donna Summer, disco queen and gay icon, rerouted his course.

Mid-show, one of his thick-thighed avatars was sauntering out to «Love to Love You, Baby» in a glittery Donna Summer ’81 («Summer Is Back!») T-shirt. The scene Bastian had set was a Fire Island pool house, where, he said, «there’s that feeling that you wouldn’t rather be any other place.»

The show’s success was that you believed he wouldn’t. This was Bastian reveling in Bastian-ness. These Adonises, unrepentant in their swagger: He loves to love them, baby. To dress them, too. The Bastian codes are well established, and they don’t veer far from season to season. Here as ever were linen suits, vintage-y short shorts, polos, great knits.

There’ll be plenty to buy. But the achievement of this show was Bastian’s embrace of his own fantasy without apology. Even in a day when sexuality and equality is an increasingly visible political issue, there’s a reticence to speak openly about it in men’s fashion for fear of spooking «normal» guys, «real» guys. 

  NOAH MILLS (WHILHELMINA)

Facing it head on is, in its campy way, brave, even if Bastian dismisses that notion. «The whole conversation, Is it straight? Is it gay? I can’t tell who is what any longer,» he said. «I can’t tell what country anyone’s from, I can’t tell anything. People like things that make them feel sexy—that’s the secret. If something makes you feel better about yourself, you’ll pull out your credit card.» There’s a utopian vision for you. Fabulous.

GANT BY MICHAEL BASTIAN SPRING 2013

The scene, imaginatively at least, at the latest Gant by Michael Bastian presentation was the Galapagos Islands. «It’s so funny, because everyone’s saying, ‘When did you go to the Galapagos?'» Bastian said. «The answer is never. But sometimes your idea of a place is even better than the reality. I did see the documentary on BBC America, which I encourage everybody to watch.»

Bastian dreamed up a pair of young backpackers making their way through the islands, dressed in a combination of their preppy best, their new island finds, and the technical gear necessary to weather the clime. That new technical gear, in the form of nylon windbreakers with Aertex linings, represented the newest category addition to the label. As for the rest, it was the better-than-basics it has been for several collections, with highlights including the camouflage cargo pants, knits (like a reversed Fair Isle), and Baja hoodies with South American motifs. Bastian has been designing the line for several seasons now—seven, precisely—he said as he surveyed the scene. It was meant to be one or two. 

That’s a measure of the sweet spot he’s hitting, as well as the good time he’s having doing it. No wonder he chose a voyager theme. «Gant’s like my vacation,» he said. «There’s never a very heavy emotional subtext to it; it’s just cool clothes.»

RALPH LAUREN SPRING 2013

You may never walk a mile in Ralph Lauren’s shoes. You may have to walk a mile to Ralph Lauren’s shoes. A fashion spectator, invited into Lauren’s sweeping Madison Avenue showrooms, has a long journey ahead of him. The trip through the worlds of Purple Label, Black Label, Polo, and RLX—plus the Jeans iterations of at least a few of the preceding lines—seems to encompass at least one city block. Bring your hiking boots. Or borrow a pair of those on display.

First, Purple Label, the toniest jewel in the RL crown—the chairman of its board, if you will. The highest rollers won’t be disappointed by the three-piece tailoring and tailcoated evening options, though they may be surprised to find them newly snug, thanks to a slimmed silhouette. The sportswear offerings have been much expanded, from floral pants to hazard orange, bonded slickers, for the CEO who peacocks when he’s off the clock. Or perhaps just in acknowledgment of the fact that today’s CEO isn’t necessarily hoary. This is the age of the Instagram millionaire.

At Black Label, the story is brown. It’s the label’s new neutral, and it looks great against the country club pastels like lilac and sea foam that are RL standards. The Black Label denim gets in on the story, too, in weather-beaten sand tones.

ARTHUR SALES (SOUL ARTIST)

Polo is more relaxed, the college boy of the bunch, with natural shoulders and softer materials to match. The RL team has begun to mix it in with the technical-sport RLX collection, a move that’s brought a bit of freshness to both. The vibe is Outdoorsman in the Off Hours—which translates pretty directly to Men’s Fashion Editor in the On Hours. Leave on those hiking boots, in other words, but put on your blazer, too.