Male styling portafolio, and personal shopper in love with street fashion, and dapper style.
jueves, 30 de enero de 2014
FALL 2014 MENSWEAR Rag & Bone
Were the digital images of gridded boxes coded with hard-to-decipher labels (C143, H143, etc.) a clue toRag & Bone's Fall collection? They were projected wall-sized on the West Chelsea venue where the brand hosted its Fall ’14 menswear show, during a few days in New York that is starting to look, thanks to presentations from Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren, as well as from R&B, like a fledgling New York menswear week of sorts. The screens served in a way as a self-diagnostic test for the spectators. The PR people saw seating charts; this reviewer saw a bingo card (analyze that, doctors). But it was hard to connect any hypothesis to the show once it began.
The collection for Fall took R&B a distance from the military-inflected one they showed for Spring and closer to their heritage of English tailoring and workwear. "I'm getting a little nostalgic at the moment," Marcus Wainwright said. "If you look at our first-ever two shows, they were a lot like this." He and David Neville showed a mix of tailored pieces with hardy staples: suits with tees or knits rather than collared shirts, accessorized hooded anoraks worn over pleated pants, and plenty of rugged work boots. There was a fifties flavor to the proportion, with it shorter shorts and higher-waist trousers, but the cut was modern: drop-crotched, carrot-shaped for the pants, with articulated seams borrowed from performancewear.
There were pieces that seemed lifted wholesale from an earlier era, like a few great bowling shirts—but they were stitched not with the wearers' names, but instead with the words (and then, on the back, the numerals)Three or Five. One more riddle to solve, until Wainwright dispelled it: Rag does a strong business in number-printed T-shirts but didn't feel like sending them out on a runway.
That may in fact be the key to Rag & Bone: Given the duo's success, they can now do more or less whatever they want. Asked after the show about the numbered projections, Wainwright revealed that they were the projection company's test cards; they just looked cool, so he asked them to keep them up for the preshow cocktail. (During the show itself, the projections switched to photographs by four photographers—Jeff Henrikson, Billy Kidd, Adam Whitehead, and Brian Ziegler—commissioned to shoot the models during their fittings. It was an effective conceit.) "That kind of is the key to the collection," Wainwright said. "There wasn't a theme, there wasn't a big secret inspiration. It's about the purity of menswear, and what we believe men's fashion should actually be. In my opinion, there's a lot of fashion that really means nothing to a guy."
Though the cut of those trousers seemed potentially challenging to a fashion-averse guy—"The two hardest things in menswear to sell are high waists and pleats, hands down," Wainwright acknowledged—there was plenty that was appealing and salable to choose from, whether the mack-fabric trenches or the shearlings or those numbered bowling shirts. (R&B's men's collections have proven so appealing and salable, in fact, that women apparently buy a lot of them, hence the girls-in-menswear on the runway.)
It's something of a riddle (C143, H143…) that a show premised on purity and real clothing was as styled as this one was. But that, too, was seemingly easy to explain. "I think there's a lot of backlash sometimes against things that are heritage these days," Wainwright said. "People think that's been done. Every menswear piece really comes from that in some way. But people should be focused on how clothes are put together." The duo seem to have done some self-diagnosis of their own lately and settled on confining the tricks to the packaging while giving the clothes the cool but mostly unpretentious vibe of their early collections. The appeal of that isn't hard to decipher.
The collection for Fall took R&B a distance from the military-inflected one they showed for Spring and closer to their heritage of English tailoring and workwear. "I'm getting a little nostalgic at the moment," Marcus Wainwright said. "If you look at our first-ever two shows, they were a lot like this." He and David Neville showed a mix of tailored pieces with hardy staples: suits with tees or knits rather than collared shirts, accessorized hooded anoraks worn over pleated pants, and plenty of rugged work boots. There was a fifties flavor to the proportion, with it shorter shorts and higher-waist trousers, but the cut was modern: drop-crotched, carrot-shaped for the pants, with articulated seams borrowed from performancewear.
There were pieces that seemed lifted wholesale from an earlier era, like a few great bowling shirts—but they were stitched not with the wearers' names, but instead with the words (and then, on the back, the numerals)Three or Five. One more riddle to solve, until Wainwright dispelled it: Rag does a strong business in number-printed T-shirts but didn't feel like sending them out on a runway.
That may in fact be the key to Rag & Bone: Given the duo's success, they can now do more or less whatever they want. Asked after the show about the numbered projections, Wainwright revealed that they were the projection company's test cards; they just looked cool, so he asked them to keep them up for the preshow cocktail. (During the show itself, the projections switched to photographs by four photographers—Jeff Henrikson, Billy Kidd, Adam Whitehead, and Brian Ziegler—commissioned to shoot the models during their fittings. It was an effective conceit.) "That kind of is the key to the collection," Wainwright said. "There wasn't a theme, there wasn't a big secret inspiration. It's about the purity of menswear, and what we believe men's fashion should actually be. In my opinion, there's a lot of fashion that really means nothing to a guy."
Though the cut of those trousers seemed potentially challenging to a fashion-averse guy—"The two hardest things in menswear to sell are high waists and pleats, hands down," Wainwright acknowledged—there was plenty that was appealing and salable to choose from, whether the mack-fabric trenches or the shearlings or those numbered bowling shirts. (R&B's men's collections have proven so appealing and salable, in fact, that women apparently buy a lot of them, hence the girls-in-menswear on the runway.)
It's something of a riddle (C143, H143…) that a show premised on purity and real clothing was as styled as this one was. But that, too, was seemingly easy to explain. "I think there's a lot of backlash sometimes against things that are heritage these days," Wainwright said. "People think that's been done. Every menswear piece really comes from that in some way. But people should be focused on how clothes are put together." The duo seem to have done some self-diagnosis of their own lately and settled on confining the tricks to the packaging while giving the clothes the cool but mostly unpretentious vibe of their early collections. The appeal of that isn't hard to decipher.
viernes, 24 de enero de 2014
The Best New Dress Shoes Under $200
Cole Haan, $198
Right on the Dots
Those little "pebble-grain" indentations are the sort of high-end detailing that marks—scratch that: used to mark—a pair of $1,000 wingtips.
Those little "pebble-grain" indentations are the sort of high-end detailing that marks—scratch that: used to mark—a pair of $1,000 wingtips.
Available at colehaan.com
Aldo, $110
What, These Old Things?
You can give your dress shoes a patina with miles and blisters. Or buy them like high-rolling Italians do—with a burnished finish.
You can give your dress shoes a patina with miles and blisters. Or buy them like high-rolling Italians do—with a burnished finish.
Available at aldoshoes.com
Hush Puppies, $125
Look Like Brunellos, Feel Like Sneakers
These could be the work of Brunello Cucinelli, but they're priced more like Payless and are as comfy as orthopedics.
These could be the work of Brunello Cucinelli, but they're priced more like Payless and are as comfy as orthopedics.
Available at hushpuppies.com
Zara, $129
A Trend You Can Afford to Try
In case you don't follow style blogs, double-monkstrap shoes make your feet talk. And what they say is, "I am a man of extraordinary style." If you feel apprehensive about investing in power soles like that, you don't need to be anymore. This price tag makes testing the waters less risky. Way less risky.
In case you don't follow style blogs, double-monkstrap shoes make your feet talk. And what they say is, "I am a man of extraordinary style." If you feel apprehensive about investing in power soles like that, you don't need to be anymore. This price tag makes testing the waters less risky. Way less risky.
Available at zara.com
Johnston & Murphy, $135
More Bang for Less Bucks
Designer Mark McNairy ushered in the era of bucks in any color; now any color is available at any price. Look sharp—and still make rent.
Designer Mark McNairy ushered in the era of bucks in any color; now any color is available at any price. Look sharp—and still make rent.
Available at johnstonmurphy.com
How you frame your shoes is just as important as the shoes themselves. A $20 cuff at your tailor makes even affordable footwear look like a work of art.
Where to buy it? go togq.com/go/fashiondirectories
The GQ Guide to Shoes
"I used to think that keeping a bottle of talc around was like reaching for hair tonic or witch hazel—you know, old-guy stuff. But then this magazine—and pretty much every fashion designer and J.Crew mannequin—started telling us that we've got to go sockless (see right) in the summer months. Looks cool, feels cool. Except, that is, when your feet are a swampy, sweaty mess. So now, suddenly, I'm one of those guys who use talcum powder obsessively. I give my wingtips or boat shoes a dusting with it every morning before I head to the office. My feet slide right in, and they actually do feel cool. Of course, one dusting doesn't completely keep me from sweating on brutally hot and humid days; the stuff's not magic powder. That's why I keep a stopgap bottle in my desk drawer."—Adam Rapoport, GQ style editor
Going sockless is a quick way to invigorate everything from a trim suit to short-cropped khakis. But there's a sensible way to pull it off. Do you really want to walk around all day not wearing socks with nice leather shoes? Thought so. Besides talcum powder, consider loafer socks—they're so low-cut they're essentially invisible. We like the ones from Bananarepublic.com. Buy a bunch and wear them all summer long.
• Your dress shoes should be as contoured as your suits. Say no to square toes.
• Black lace-ups are the most dependable and versatile shoes you can own.
• Real dress shoes have leather soles...
• ...but there are now plenty of quality rubber-soled options available.
• Take care of your shoes: taps on the heels and toes, cedar shoe trees when you're not wearing them.
• Yes, you can—and should—wear sneakers with a suit. But keep them simple and understated
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