LODEN DAGER SPRING 2012 MENSWEAR

JOHNNY GEORGE (DNA)

Though Loden Dager‘s inspirations ranged from sixties Brazilian architecture to Paul Klee—as Paul Marlow explained at his studio a few days before showtime—the thing that rang clearest through the show was suburbia (and SubUrbia). Marlow imagined all the young dudes hanging out in parking lots, loitering, and lounging. The key moment was when Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s «Shimmy Shimmy Ya» (a.k.a. «Ooh Baby, I Like it Raw»), one of the white-boy radio-rap jams of the nineties, first came blasting through the speakers.

COREY BAPTISTE (VNY)

As the guys started walking (running, really) with their Nike sneaks and pants with one leg rolled up, you could have been outside any 7-Eleven across this great nation 15 years back. That’s a very specific nostalgia to channel, but if it hits you, the way it hits you is, well, raw.

SIMON VAN MEERVENNE (VNY)

In reality, the kids back then never got as polished as this. There were cuffed tailored shorts in place of droopy saggers, and double-faced jacquards for flat prints. A hoodie sweater Marlow called a «wet-suit cardigan» zipped (and unzipped) all the way up the back, hem to hood. Mesh insets in shorts, jackets, and tanks kept it sporty (and allowed for the clever little mesh pocket squares).

NICOLAS RIPOLL (WHILHELMINA)

It all came in vivid, saturated colors like royal, orange, cranberry, and fuchsia, as well as a few cool paisleys and a motif of graphic stripes. It’s been a bright season in menswear, but Loden Dager—last season’s atypically black, white, and gray collection aside—always skews bright. Consider it a confirmation of their talent that Marlow and co-designer Oliver Helden still found a way to stand out from the crowd.

Z ZEGNA SPRING 2012 MENSWEAR

Alessandro Sartori, the man whose name was made for a career in menswear, must have felt the love as his last collection for Z Zegna got a special send-off yesterday. Gildo Zegna embraced him while the audience clapped and cheered.

The designer’s time at Z Zegna produced some of Milan’s oddest, edgiest menswear, and he saw himself out with a collection that did him proud. His vision for the brand was always a touch eccentric. (The affection for tail coats, for instance, revisited one last time in the finale here.)

There was something bold, almost cinematic about the way he exaggerated proportions. The broad-shouldered blouson with the wide-ribbed waistband had a superheroic slant. The baggy trousers that are practically his signature piece could have stepped out of a film noir.

Sartori called his collection My Abstract Sunday, so that might be why the sky blue and sunshine yellow; the blurry, painterly checks; the swingy A-line peacoat, as voluminous as a smock, suggested an artist’s day of rest. But that was ultimately less interesting than Sartori’s fascination with the technicalities of his job, which was, after all, the thing that made him so compatible with Zegna in the first place. You could stare at his fabrics and still not be absolutely sure what you were looking at, so glazed and rubberized and dyed and «vitrified» (that’s a good one) were they. 

The construction was also artful, illuminated with little details that demanded a double take: the white top-stitching on a navy safari suit, the white shirt collar on a mac, the sky blue trim on one lapel of a gray jacket. Sartori now takes his point of view to Berluti, where he has a blank slate to build a business. But Z Zegna will linger as an inspiring memory.

LODEN DAGER SPRING / SUMMER 2012 MENSWEAR

Though Loden Dager’s inspirations ranged from sixties Brazilian architecture to Paul Klee—as Paul Marlow explained at his studio a few days before showtime—the thing that rang clearest through the show was suburbia (and SubUrbia). Marlow imagined all the young dudes hanging out in parking lots, loitering, and lounging. The key moment was when Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s «Shimmy Shimmy Ya» (a.k.a. «Ooh Baby, I Like it Raw»), one of the white-boy radio-rap jams of the nineties, first came blasting through the speakers.

As the guys started walking (running, really) with their Nike sneaks and pants with one leg rolled up, you could have been outside any 7-Eleven across this great nation 15 years back. That’s a very specific nostalgia to channel, but if it hits you, the way it hits you is, well, raw.

In reality, the kids back then never got as polished as this. There were cuffed tailored shorts in place of droopy saggers, and double-faced jacquards for flat prints. A hoodie sweater Marlow called a «wet-suit cardigan» zipped (and unzipped) all the way up the back, hem to hood. Mesh insets in shorts, jackets, and tanks kept it sporty (and allowed for the clever little mesh pocket squares).

It all came in vivid, saturated colors like royal, orange, cranberry, and fuchsia, as well as a few cool paisleys and a motif of graphic stripes. It’s been a bright season in menswear, but Loden Dager—last season’s atypically black, white, and gray collection aside—always skews bright. Consider it a confirmation of their talent that Marlow and co-designer Oliver Helden still found a way to stand out from the crowd.

 

TOMMY HILFIGER SPRING / SUMMER 2012 MENSWEAR

The catchall name of this collection, Modern Prep, is one you’ve no doubt heard before from Tommy Hilfiger. It’s essentially his raison d’être. But this particular interpretation of it, likely conceived with great input from consulting designer Simon Spurr and stylist Karl Templer, pushed a more pointed fashion agenda than Hilfiger’s ever done. 

Though the collection cycled through various motifs of Americana—from camouflage to varsity jackets and chinos to seersucker and sailor stripes—there was something distinctly European in its stance. You saw it in the savvy slimmed silhouettes, the knit polos, the handheld bags, the avant-garde look of sailor stripes splashed onto pant legs. Maine and Main Street via Milan (and a bit by way of Tokyo).

The irony, as one men’s editor pointed out after the show, is that preppiness served straight-up is what’s being fetishized these days outside the good old U.S. of A. Witness the success of Hilfiger’s own Prep World pop-up, which toured through Europe this summer. There’s a risk that if preppiness gets too sophisticated, something might get lost in translation.

Nevertheless, Hilfiger clearly wants to up his fashion ante, and in that respect, this collection had meat—and certainly gave everyone a little something to chew on.

 

BALMAIN SPRING 2012 MENSWEAR

The house of Balmain is in new hands, but fans of Christophe Decarnin’s moto-roué look won’t be disappointed by the first collection from his former assistant Olivier Rousteing. Whether Rousteing stages a farther departure from his boss’ example in women’s remains to be seen, but for menswear, he hewed close. Trim tux jackets (slightly longer than usual), paneled biker jeans, and leather jackets will always have a place here. New this season is a range of pieces in pastel: tees, scarves, and even those biker jeans now come in ice cream colors (lemon, mint, and orange), mottled to look sun-bleached. Also new: swimwear, printed denim (in an abstract feather pattern that will also figure in the women’s Resort collection), and a boxy new jacket shape, shorter and shorn of its lapels.

But all in all, this was a continuation, not a break. Maybe you could see the student stepping away from the teacher in the way he snipped off sleeves from jackets (tuxedo and denim), open-weave knits, and polos. Then again, maybe that’s just a summertime concession; even the cool Balmain homme can get hot. The luxe, at least, remained ever apparent; a motorcycle vest in full python saw to that. So did a shawl-collared jacket in croc, for the man who has everything but his own game preserve.