Tom Ford
Less than three miles separates the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan’s upper east side to Sir Stage on the far west side near 10th Avenue next to the Clyde Frazier Sports Bar and Restaurant. Despite this short distance, the Tom Ford show at the Armory and Raf Simons show on 10th Avenue that closed the men’s fall/winter 2018 portion of New York fashion week presented the great aesthetic divide that was on the whole a message from many of the designers during the three days events around the city – a divide between sartorial fineness and "streetwear" and a generational shift in terms of what constitute designer fashion now. Tom Ford isn’t someone likely to engage in a small project. The debut menswear show for his brand now near a decade old had all the trademark elements that the designer has cultivated over the years – high voltage sex appeal and sophistication. On the lilac carpet runway, the models strode confidently and displayed a certain attitude and an air of suave carelessness as they wore perfectly cut pants, mink jackets, shiny zebra prints and light pink suits. With the brand’s bread and butter of tailored suits, Ford focused on luxury sports wear—which meant a bubble coat with patent leather blouson, silver hooded anorak, black shearling coat with zipped sweatshirt paired with the perfectly cut cigarette pants. In recent years, designer and luxury brands have become less relevant to the younger generation. To reverse this reality, luxury brands adopted strategies to make their brands resonate in today’s digital world with showing products associated with street wear brands like logo tees, sweatshirts, and tracksuits. What was distinctive about these sporty looks in this show was that none have any of the quick references to street wear; instead the anoraks and puff coats looked exactly how an anorak should be from Tom Ford brand. Maintaining a precision of vision and a consistent aesthetic over time isn’t a simple task and particularly so in fashion like the all pink suit that was calibrated to look just right. Tom Ford didn’t need any accouterments to foster a narrative surrounding the clothes – they are clearly for the smart and the young. There was also a sense of sophistication that more mature man who all can afford these true luxury garments without a second thought. The designer clearly knows his audience with no pretense are necessary. On the other side of town, the audience who entered the Raf Simons show encountered a set of raised black wooden platforms trimmed with wines bottles and various confections. Loud techno music blasted as models meandered around the zigzag pattern of the platform in a seemingly aimless manner wearing a new silhouette of colorful boxy coats and jackets with tight fitted slim or cargo pants in satin some with photo prints and other with letterings like LSD, GHB or DRUGS on yellow sleeveless sweatshirt and on back of pants and tee-shirts. The scenic décor mimicked atmosphere from the 1981 German cult film ‘Christiane F.’ by Uli Edel that portrayed the drug scene in Berlin in the late 1970’s based on the actual tape recordings of the 14 years old Christiane Felscherinow who experimented with drugs when she joined a clique at the Sound disco and descended into debauchery. Images from the film of the actors Natja Brunckhorst who played Christiane and Thomas Haustein her boyfriend Detlef graced the back of jackets or on the knees of a black cargo pants paired with a long red wool large pockets coat, orange turtleneck, black and white vinyl gloves with cell phone wrist attachment and lace up patent leather boots, one among the many stellar looks in the show. I remembered seeing the ‘Kinetic Youth’ show nearly two decades ago on a July evening in Paris on the Cité des Sciences et des Industries where Simons brought the idea of couture clothes and suiting to a younger generation. The lean top and flare bottoms silhouette from 1999 had now reversed and turned upside down in 2018. This fall show was an incredible poetic and visionary use of clothes to stage a cultural discourse on youth and the current problems engulfing many parts of the country. Also, the audience saw themes of income inequality through the fascinating merger of material excess--like the use of extravagant couture fabric of satin duchesse for such a utilitarian garment as a cargo pants. It can be seen as the decline of the American dream among some while wealth accumulates on the other side seen through the eyes of a foreign fashion designer recently decamp to New York. Dress codes barriers have collapsed in the early aught as casual Fridays took hold first as employers relaxed office wear and the trend spread further as neckties and dress shoes lost their appeals for millennial. At the New York shows, casual dressing and streetwear dominated but a more formal approach is still a viable option albeit a less visible one. Among the best collections were Willy Chavarria who launched his label in 2015 and this season he toned his street wear vibes into a compelling collection that focused more on daywear of layered coats and chinos worn by a range of models. An hour after Chavarria show, the Japanese brand N.Hollywood staged a construction site setting completed with a finale with real construction workers casted at various sites around the city who stood in a still-life format wearing Daisuke Obana’s new and compelling offering of Timberland Pro workwear, a collaboration with Timberland to be rolled out globally in the next months. But while the construction set enhanced N.Hollywood clothes giving the clothes context and meaning, it was not the case at Death to Tennis where the designers William Watson and Vincent Oshin staged an overdone war themed show completed with two male nurses and imaginarily wounded. While the clothes had a more sophistication with floral jacquards on jacket and pants on loose silhouettes of wearable clothes, the heavy handed theatrical trick did not add or endowed the collection with any added value. At the Brooklyn based designer Ryohei Kawanishi’s Landlord label show, a model shaved his multicolor dyed light brown hair as he raced down the runway wearing mustard loose jacket and red plaid shirt in a show that displayed replica garments and styles associated with punk but making them more street and more now – red plaid pants, angora sweater, spiked leather jackets and a sleuth of acid colors corduroy jackets and pants. Abasi Rosborough embraced a more formal look with kimono white side tide jacket and long coats and a linear silhouette followed with color block jackets. Christopher Bevans went further this season to infuse his brand Dyne with technical fabrics for an overall active sportswear with an emphasis on performance like a red vest worn over black pants. There were great outerwear coats and utility jacket among them the puffer coats collaboration with the Italian animal friendly brand Save the Duck with synthetic downs as well as strong color block tracksuits that can double up as clothes for work. This was not the case at Joseph Abboud where the over layering of garments, the hand in the pocket business walk of the models, and the overdone wet coiffed and perfect skin tone lent a stiffness that stifle the nice clothes underneath. Case in point – the matching flannel outer-jacket, a double-breasted vest, pleated pants, and leather gloves are fine garments. However, in this show, the over styling, grooming, and posture of this look felt heavy handed.
Willy Chavarria
And at the end of the three days race course at the start of a new fashion season when the stock market is free falling, if fashion can serve a purpose beyond clothes, a means to something else per say, then it is the image of optimism conveyed by the last model at Willy Chavarria show holding in his hands a newborn baby.
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