As Katya Leonovich’s menswear line reaches it’s (not so) terrible twos for its second season collection, it’s clear she is hitting her stride. She is no stranger to the runway, having shown womenswear collections in Paris, and won Designer of the Year in Russia, and her launch into menswear last season leaped off the starting blocks. With this second season, it looks like she plans to continue riding that momentum into the fall, and beyond.
New York Fashion Week kicked off with a bang, as it has recent years, with New York Men’s Day (NYMD). The bitter February wind whipped through sequins and shearling (and sequined shearlings) as the fashionistos, editors, and influencers made their way to Creative Drive’s Sand Studios on Water Street. A modified Gandhi quote from Creative Drive’s CEO (“Be the action you want to see in the world”) emblazoned on the wall opposite life-size action figure boxes gave context to the ‘grammable boxes in which guests posed – “You are our action figures,” a sign read at the end of the short, introductory, interactive exhibit.
Julius Juul, Designer and Creative Director at Heliot Emil went out on a limb for the Spring/Summer 2018 collection. Instead of following trends, he dove into the trenches to create a line that draws attention to the post-war existential crisis that is experienced by many, but is largely overlooked in our consumerist culture.
David Hart takes a vacation from trend – and heads to Cuba! While other designers and labels are still working in the colors of the year into their collection, Hart is traveling the globe and becoming a true trendsetter. Though, arguably the biggest trend these days is going to Cuba during this sweet period in which the embargo has been lifted. How long anything will last these days balances on the edge of a coin, so it was a timely move to draw inspiration from a world long locked away.
Remember High School? Wait – remember that song “Bring it All To Me”? Who was that by? Blaque? There was that line “Are you feelin’ my timbs, my baggy jeans…”
LANDLORD’s Fall/Winter 2017 collection throws me right back into the middle of that – driving around in my 1986 Suburban with my bffs, each and every one of us wearing Timbs and baggy jeans. We were so cool. Sixteen year old me would have gone HAM on this collection, though, because it’s everything I had never (and always) dreamed of. Metallics, cool brights, jeweled embellishments, a sparkly sequin smiley face woven into the hair on the back of one model’s head – seriously, give me a time machine and an unlimited budget and my teenage self would be off the charts happy. But that’s just one side of the collection – the luxe, bedazzled, embellishments and accents, like the lavender (faux?) fur coat (layered under a moss green, canvas utility jacket).
The other side continues the utilitarian theme of the previous 2 collections from this label. Congruency is important in defining a fresh-faced label such as LANDLORD, and to see it so early in is both promising and indicative that it may have some staying power. That said, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of a little boy playing dress-up in his daddy’s closet (tho, maybe that says more about me). Delivering trends is a business decision – imbuing trends with a twist that literally makes the wearer look as though they absconded with papa’s trench, is an artistic license that I’m delighted LANDLORD took. #daddylessons
-John Stolen
Disclaimer: I’m 100% biased toward Tadashi Shoji – the man is a design genius and can’t help but create beauty, it seems. Given his historical knack for perfection, there are zero surprises that the SS17 collection is impeccable. In true Shoji fashion, traditional silhouettes are enhanced with unique embellishments. You’ve got your conservative ankle length evening dress, the tunic, the pantsuit, the halter top, the bell skirts – all the basic elements but created out of sheer lace, adorned with carefully crafted embroidery and beading, fringe! All the fringe. My personal favorite is the piece with a flowing white tulle skirt, and a white bodice, the back of which is done up in a rainbow of jewel-tone sequins. Exquisite. You could call this show “Shoji and the Amazing Technicolor Sequined Bodice”, and I would buy into it.
Chapter’s Spring/Summer 2017 collection draws, as in the past, on architectural themes, this time pitting the structure of architectural lines against the more fluid spirit of socialization and human interaction.
Uri Minkoff presented his Spring 2017 collection at NYMD with a performance that comments and focuses on the elasticity of time. “I am inspired by the idea of [time] slowing down and isolating key moments” – a thought that neatly encapsulates the process of social media to date, capturing key moments, slowing them down and presenting them in an individual context.