Ross PollardRoss Pollard takes us through the autumn/winter 2018 menswear season at New York Fashion Week.
Yep, the New York-related song lyrics are back; it can only mean one thing, my New York Fashion Week round-ups are back – I’d like to say by popular demand. For many people, they’ll think the Big Apple’s fashion jamboree starts on the 8th of Feb, however, us connoisseurs of menswear have already got the live-feeds up, scrolled through all the pics and got the first reports. Preceding the more known days are the men’s-focused days. Let’s have a brief look through what we’ve seen so far.
Todd Snyder
The Todd Snyder runway was a real mix. Plenty of casual style, denims, jumpers, a few selections leaning towards sportswear and alongside those, some more preppy dressed-up looks. This impressed me. When you do youthful and mix it with a more formal style it can risk going a bit my-first-job-interview-at-college, but Todd Snyder has kept well away from that and into colourful and fresh, that sits comfortably with the young target customer.
The wide-legged trousers we saw splashed across London with simpler colour palettes are also present in New York. The 1940s touch fits in with the varied influences across the history of American menswear that runs through the collection. It’s a hat tip to that most true of adages, ‘you have to know where you come from to know where you’re going’.
Feng Chen Wang
This isn’t a wallflower collection. This is balls out, look at me, forward fashion at its best: bright, big and bloody good.
Feng Chen Wang offered up a rhapsody of layers and statement fashion. Each look is incredibly editorial, but still wearable. I love the yellows, golds and monochromes that create as much of the looks as the tailoring does. I think at times designers have headed towards the notion that cool means a very slim, tight silhouette. Not here. Feng Chen Wang is bucking that trend. There is bulk and form, mass has been woven into magic.
However, I wasn’t a fan of the white wellies that dotted throughout the looks. These keep appearing on runways and who goes, ‘I love that look, and with that footwear, I can go straight from the catwalk to Billingsgate’? I know taste is subjective but it’s something that baffles me.
Ovadia & Sons
Fun is an underrated quality. We aren’t all into wearing sharp blacks. Sometimes our personalities are smiles, fun and a bit giddy, and that’s what Ovadia & Sons deliver by the bucket (hat) load. Light and fresh colours, cool prints – I can see this being huge through the warmer months. It’ll look great in the warm grey undulations of the various cityscapes where it will find many, many homes.
The more formal looks portray an astute eye with an almost draped feel to the cleverly lazy structure. They live and breathe warm afternoons that slip into perfectly pretty nights with extended sunsets in riverside spots as a band plays in the background. More of this please.
Tom Ford
We all know what Tom Ford does, and this is vintage Tom Ford at it’s best, I could expand, but I can review in two words: Fricking Awesome.
Death To Tennis
Simple, done well, is beautiful. Death To Tennis is simple, it’s done well and it is certainly beautiful. There is an understated elegance to the whole collection that builds a feeling of warmth. There will be some who see the word ‘charming’ as a slight, but we need to stop that. Charming is great, charming should be embraced more. You should be charming, and you should really give these looks a go.
I really enjoyed the pared-back style and how there was an impeccable chicness to the collection. This is a collection where the model could head straight off the runway and out into the streets of the city that never sleeps and look amazing. While I love couture, let’s not forget that clothes that aren’t wearable can never have the life that they deserve.
Dyne
The revolution may not be televised, but please let it be dressed by Dyne. If we’re going to tear down the barricades, can we do it styled in this collection of youthful militaristic revolutionary thought? Borrowing from various movements of the 50s, 60s and 70s, Dyne have taken the stylish notes of the barricade-storming youth groups of those turbulent decades and created an homage to resistance with a futuristic feel.
I’m utterly in love with this collection. It’s like the futuristic kids have travelled back in time to defend the dream of a republic. Anyone wanna come to banner-making class with me?
‘Make Clothes Not War’.
Read Ross Pollard’s examination of the perplexing state of menswear here.