Ross PollardBLOW! Magazine’s Fashion & Grooming Editor reviews more menswear highlights from New York Fashion Week.
New York, that most commercial of fashion weeks is under way, and I do love it. Though the week is focused on the really retail-orientated side of fashion, it’s still wonderful. Sneaky confession time – as a fashion editor and writer this is the pre-season friendly, the warm-up before the real season starts in London. However, one of the great things about New York is that I get to sit back and drink in all the looks, shows and presentations instead of running and dashing about like a wild thing with a burning bum. That’s the usual London week for me.
Anyway, New York is great and it’s a joy to cover, so on with my latest round up.
Palmiers du Mal
Let me state here and now, I didn’t choose this because finally after years of trying to make it happen, wraps, capes and ponchos for men are starting to happen (I’ll be doing this at LFW). This collection has one. I did choose this for the sumptuous woollens, the casual cool and the notes of an almost Jim Morrison winter-wardrobe vibes that run deep through the collection.
Regular readers will know I really appreciate a full wardrobe collection, and here we have a great example. The fourteen or fifteen looks in the show really do cover the complete requirements you would have: smart, casual, bright, muted. It’s all here and credit to Shane Fonner for being able to keep the theme and thread running though the diversity on display. It’s the mark of a clear fashion vision, and yet so hard to achieve.
Theory
Well this is an interesting one and ties back to my article earlier this week on this very site. The label chose not to show and released a lookbook instead. In these troubled retail times many designers are abandoning expensive shows and presentations to focus on what can really bring sales, and what really brings sales is a great collection.
The collection is sharply tailored, with a pared-back colour palette. It focuses on classic style and is perfect for chic winter looks. While they may not have gone for the big show, they’ve gone for big style and I would wear every single piece of the collection
Perry Ellis
Effortlessly stylish, this is the fashion of casually-cool noir movies mixed with nods to the 90s. Layering is at the centre of the collection and I really enjoyed the wool notes that build off it. Winter is always a hard choice, people think big coats and jumpers make it an easy season, but I reject that. The secret to winter style is an almost Russian doll-like sense of layering – as each comes off, the outfit changes, but it can’t clash, and that is what Perry Ellis brought to the runway. As the layers are shed, each newly-exposed garment adds its own purpose and dazzle.
This is very clever fashion and it is brilliantly done.
Boss
Quick review on this one, Boss is the boss for a reason. The reason is collections of pure perfection like this one. I could live in this world and die from joy.
Read more of Ross Pollard’s New York Fashion Week reviews here.