The Spring Men's Shows: Our Picks
We typically cringe when scanning reviews that attempt to read fashion’s tea leaves through the filter of our still-bleak economic times. Yes, fashion is inextricably linked to commerce; if Barneys ain’t buyin’, you ain’t showin’ your line in the topiary garden of some Medici villa in Florence. But is every double-breasted blazer in a muted color indicative of designers’ preoccupations with the Euro’s stability?
This season’s crop of menswear shows is indeed light, creative, intermittently daring and dapper. And all of that is hardly indicative of the current news cycle. We are up to our knees in oil and unemployment and instability. But fashion designers thankfully didn’t send out models drenched in crude as some sort of knee-jerk statement in return. Instead they are doing what they do well: crafting something beautiful and inspirational.
So save your dough for at least one designer piece a few months from now. Here’s a smorgasboard of what we loved in Milan and Paris (and who should wear it).
Who designed it: Thom Browne
Why we like it: Forget the red socks. Browne refuses to swap his proportions for anything on the roomy side, which we alternately love and hate, but his latest collection is the right balance of whimsy and severity — for the right guy, that is.
Who should wear it: Brad Goreski is no fashion amateur; we think he’d handle this blazer just fine.
Who designed it: Veronique Nichanian of Hermes
Why we like it: The unadorned khaki jacket with a semi-slouchy tank, paired with statement shoes, shows that you put some thought into a dressed-down look.
Who should wear it: Rep. Aaron Schock, the red-hot (and Republican, WTF) Illinois Congressman who’s clearly into fashion, yet somehow thinks a fuschia gingham shirt with white pants and a turquoise belt is fetching. This Memorial Day barbecue ensemble raised a lot of Beltway eyebrows for, uh, obvious reasons.
Who designed it: Ann Demuelemeester
Why we like it: A razor-sharp show and a welcome alternative to the designers’ floppy straw hat phase from seasons past.
Who should wear it: Zac Efron, because he can’t stop showing off his pipes.
Who designed it: Dunhill
Why we like it: Has Dunhill ever had a smarter collection? We think not. The two-button double-breasted blazers are among the best in the business.
Who should wear it: Cameron Silver. Sort of obvious, isn’t it?
Who designed it: Yohji Yamamoto
Why we like it: Yamamoto recently opined that fashion has become too influenced by the American T-shirt imperative. We agree.
Who should wear it: Tristan Scott, co-owner of E.P.I.C. in Echo Park, who is never afraid, as Drew Droege’s Chloe Sevigny says, “to think outside the boot.”