New York won back the title of Global Fashion Capitol from London just in time for Fashion Week, but how does it measure up in terms of independent-thinking menswear designers? Here's a round up of the week's edgier men's shows
Perhaps buoyed by the news that the city has stolen the Global Fashion Capitol crown from London, menswear shows at New York's Fashion Week have had some extra swagger this season, with many oversubscribed events and an upsurge in interest in the more emerging and experimental designers.
Design duo Duckie Brown have always been out on a limb in city where understatement is still the norm when it comes to menswear. After over a decade of pushing gender-boundaries with their designs (see their skirts for men last season), this season the British-Canadian duo showed actual womenswear for women alongside their men's collection in a mixed show which only emphasised the dynamic in their work between the established rules for what men and women can wear. In the menswear, short jackets over longer coats created skirt-like layers, and the masculine shapes of donkey jackets, MA1-type bombers and cropped military greatcoats were offset by flowing silky trousers and colours picked from the brightest of chinoiserie palettes. As models of both genders walked, there was a visual dialogue between the two sides of their collection, titled appropriately enough: The Duckie Has Two Faces.
Unrestrained by any concern for American dress codes, Korean label General Idea moved on a step from last season's fetishisation of luxury car interiors with a similar sense of luxury but more of a biker feel with generous amounts of leather, quilting and a playful take on layers with winter shorts/kilt hybrids echoing the biker jacket details, much like another leather jacket tied round the waist.
Robert Geller is fast emerging as one of New York's most dynamic young designers, with a diverse range of influences far from the mainstream, but grounded in strong masculine shapes with a sporty details and inventive layering. Geller's collection featured tactile wool in rich wintry colours like forest green and navy mixed up with shiny black and various shades of charcoal.
Siki Im is one of New York's leading conceptual designers and his collection this season was no exception. When most designers cite the 1970s as an influence, you can expect flares, long collars and disco excess. In the case of Im, his collection was inspired by less obvious '70s icons: German artist Joseph Beuys and filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder (surely the first time this 'no oil painting' director has inspired a fashion collection). Im's materials included wool felt (a reference to Beuys who used felt in his multi-media work) and utilised the skills of renowned New York fashion illustrator Richard Haines to sketch (mostly outlines of male faces and dotted tailoring lines) in white pastel on the surface of the garments minutes before the show started. Last season, Im's models flip-flopped around in institutional slippers, this season he created clogs with brushed steel details. As ever, the inspirations were obscure but the results were a very different take on the 1970s, though not without a certain '70s louche swagger, inspired by a very specific artistic elite.
There were also some firsts this week: high-end knitwear specialists Orley showed for the first time presenting not only knits but a full-scale collection in a venue that demonstrated the benefits of New York's great architectural spaces. And Public School, who have previously presented their polished streetwise separates in presentation form, graduated to a fully-fledged show, featuring some very sporty tailoring, signature pilgrim hats and a graphic palette of black, white and grey.
Despite the rivalry evidenced by the Global Fashion Capital announcement, as ever, the dialogue between the two cities remains strong: New York echoed the interest in bold graphic lines seen at the London shows, the biker jackets, fur collars, shawls and the predominance of black, though New York never strayed as far from fashion's favourite colour as London did in its most recent flirtation with wild print and colour.
Two themes have developed in New York: firstly the T-shirt as something more substantial than an undergarment to be worn beneath more traditional layers; produced in more wintry fabrics like wool or leather, sometimes quilted or padded, it becomes a more versatile proposition: as a short-sleeved sweater for warmer Autumn days or as a bodywarmer over other layers.
Secondly, New York designers continue to experiment and play with proportion with short-over-long layers and long visible hemlines under bulkier top halves, blurring the lines between discrete garments. While it may take a while to persuade New Yorkers (or Londoners for that matter) to switch their chinos and dark denims for leather skirts and kilt hybrids, there is definitely a sense that New York's younger, edgier menswear designers are being noticed more if packed shows like Robert Geller's are anything to go by.
Colin Chapman
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