PERRY ELLIS SPRING 2012 MENSWEAR

SEAN O’PRY (VNY) 

PERRY ELLIS SPRING 2012

Remember when the only men who wore capris were stylish Euros? Well, these days American guys are a lot more style-savvy. «I knew I was taking a risk with the capris,»Perry Ellis‘ creative director, John Crocco, said post-show. «But we had a few capri options for men in stores and they were selling really well, so I thought, Why not?» 

FRANCISCO LACHOWSKI (FORD)  

Cut cleanly in sand and white linen and ending a few inches below the knee, they were a nice companion to the salmon, mustardy ocher, and periwinkle jackets and knits. The colors were inspired by his recent travels to the Painted Desert in Arizona. «It’s about the traveler, the road trip meets safari,» Crocco explained.

SEAN HARJU (SOUL ARTIST)  

With plenty of linen, cotton, and an intriguing chintz-linen blend, plus roomy uncomplicated cuts, there was a pleasant, airy feel to the collection. Crocco added some approachable tailoring touches, such as suit trousers that hit at the ankle and a handsome white-on-white seersucker sport coat.

DAVID AGBODJI (REQUEST)  

When he did venture deeper into trends—a couple of color-blocked sweaters might look cheekily right on a svelte downtowner, but you could see the potential for disaster in the wrong hands—it was with a likable, gentle nudge most shoppers will likely respond to.

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.

 

DKNY MEN F / W 11.12 CAMPAING

 

 

JON KORTAJARENA (WILHELMINA)

PATRICK KAFKA (SOUL ARTIST)

COREY BAPTISTE (VNY)

BY INEZ VAN LAMSWEERDE AND VINOODH  MATADIN

FOR DKNY F / W 11.12

 

 

 

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.

GIORGIO ARMANI SPRING 2012

Prints are a big story for next Spring’s menswear, but when Giorgio Armani titled his new collection Printwear, it was never going to mean a world of flowers or ikat or any of the other ideas that have already presented themselves for 2012. Subtle geometry was Armani’s concession to the coming trend, like the check on a sweater that quietly dissolved into ombré, or the zigzags and houndstooths fading out on a cotton shirt and pants so light they were almost gauzy.

Lightness is Armani’s current obsession, as we learned at Emporio the other day. But if that collection was pared to the point of plainness, this one showed why Armani is Uomo Numero Uno. A dove gray cardigan jacket swathing a sweater and pants was silvery and serene, but it’s scarcely new in the Armani vocabulary. There was, however, something going on with the jackets, with the way the fabrics molded smoothly across the shoulders, that you sensed rather than saw. Impossible to define. Maybe that’s exactly what it was—more definition without more structure. Masterful.

Elsewhere, Armani’s shifts in silhouettes were easier to nail. There was a slight flare to a double-breasted jacket. Generously cut trousers either tapered to the ankle, where they buttoned for a pegged effect, or were nipped at the knee to form a soft jodhpur shape. That’s how Armani manages to alter perceptions of the most basic components of a man’s wardrobe. Why you would be seduced by nipped-at-the-knee pants is a story for another time, but Armani is likely the only designer of his stature who could interest you in a pair.

Same with his shoes. The espadrille is the definitive holiday footwear of the leisured classes, but Armani took it into the city, slipping a rope sole under a brogue or a boat shoe. Maybe not as playfully extreme as Miuccia Prada’s potted history of the sole for the Spring just finished, but Armani’s mutant footwear probably has a better chance of insinuating itself into boardrooms. And where the shoe leads, the soul follows.

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SIMON NESSMAN (I LOVE)