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.

ZERO + MARIA CORNEJO SPRING 2012 MENSWEAR

CLEMENT CHABERNAUD (WHILHELMINA)

YURI PLESKUN (REQUEST)

 

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.

 

JOHN GALLIANO SPRING 2012

John Galliano went to trial on Wednesday here in Paris, where a packed courtroom sat for seven hours, listening to the designer and witnesses remember (and not remember) the now-infamous evening at La Perle. And tonight, a no-less-packed house—standing-room types stood on stairways that climbed literally to the rafters—took in the first John Galliano menswear collection without Galliano.

Big Splash-as the show was named in homage to the 1974 David Hockney doc, A Bigger Splash—took sixties London for its stomping grounds. Pop Art scenemakers provided the juice. First Peter Blake, who inspired military coats and handcrafts like Navajo knits. Then David Hockney, he of the owlish glasses and the thatch of blond, the floppy bow ties, and the color-pop socks. The impossibly beautiful Peter Schlesinger—Hockney’s model, muse, and lover—was the basis for the tanned and trunk-clad hunks that made up the undies-and-swim portion that continues to be essential to any Galliano show. And the Mayfair and Soho after-party scene was an excuse (not a bad one, either) for evening deshabille: sausage-tight satin pants snaking with silvery pin details, Le Smokings sans shirts, and so on.

The mood was a smidge more pop (soundtrack by the Kinks!) and less operatic than some of the baroque snowfall-and-sandstorm spectacles the house namesake used to stage. But the clothes were not dissimilar from seasons past. Credit for that goes to the house’s stalwart guiding spirit, Bill Gaytten, a 23-year veteran of the label (and member of the Dior design studio where, at least for the present, he will also stay). He has long been as much a part of Galliano’s brand as the man himself. And after the final two models—long-haired, mustachioed JG doppelgangers—took their turns (just as the designer used to do a full runway spin), it was Gaytten who came out to give a timid bow to an appreciative roar. Dior CEO Sidney Toledano applauded from the front row. And so the world turns.

DSQUARE2 SPRING 2012

Dean and Dan Caten are twenty-first-century vaudevillians, incapable of presenting a new collection without couching it in a saucy variety show. Today’s revolving stage coughed up some sexy Scandinavian fisherman, a buffet of Mykonos beefcake, a couple of lower-the-temperature Romanragazzi, a handful of droogy rockers, and Kazaky, four dizzy queens from the Ukraine whose post-Gaga get-outta-my-way-bitch shtick involved a gravity-defying dance routine performed in skintight leather pants and sky-high heels. Phew! Oh, there were some clothes shown, too.

DANNY BEAUCHAMP (D’MANAGEMENT)

HARRY GOODWINS (FASHION)

CLÉMENT CHABERNAUD (D’MANAGEMENT)

MALTHE LUD MADSEN (ELITE)

TOM LANDER

BO DEVELIUS

REID PREBENDA (FASHION)

JONATHAN AND KEVIN FERREIRA DE SAMPAIO

MIGUEL IGLESIAS (WHY NOT)

JONATHAN AND KEVIN FERREIRA DE SAMPAIO

ADRIEN SAHORES

DANNY BEAUCHAMP (D’MANAGEMENT)

VLADIMIR IVANOV (ELITE)

ROBERT RAE (FASHION)

RYAN KENNEDY (I LOVE)

ANDREA PRETI (ELITE)

CLÉMENT CHABERNAUD (D’MANAGEMENT)

HARRY GOODWINS (FASHION)

MALTHE LUD MADSEN (ELITE)

LEEBO FREMAN (I LOVE)

SACHA M’BAYE (WHY NOT)

RICHIE COTTERELL (FASHION)

ADRIEN SAHORES

And there’s the rub. At this stage in the Catens’ career, what they do shouldn’t be so overshadowed by how they do it. Later this month, they’re launching a purely sartorial «Classic Collection,» which will highlight the fact that they’re capable of great, straight(-ish) tailoring. Smart move, especially when the tailoring was positively refreshing amid today’s hymn to the depilated male body beautiful. Their outerwear, too, continues to be a winning blend of form and function.

There’s no doubt that the twins live the Dsquared² dream, which counts for integrity in its own OTT way. But while they’re hiding their light under a great big homoerotic bushel that lost its wow factor a while back, it’s hard not to feel they’re selling themselves a little short. Maybe that’s what the «Classic Collection» is about—a new kind of stature. God knows they’ve worked for it.

MIGUEL IGLESIAS (WHY NOT)