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.

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.

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.

 

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.

 

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER SPRING 2012

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER