In looking at various Men’s Fall RTW 2013 collections, there were many favorite looks in part, due to the strong presence of hybrids, born from the mixing of tailoring with athletic or relaxed details. Some of the hybrids I saw were just plain ugly but the one’s I did appreciate, the designer’s ingenuity was to blame.
Kris Van Assche is a perfect example of mixing casual with tailoring. The designer reinvented the white oxford by connecting the shirt bottom with either a hoodie or short sleeve cable knit sweater. For a ‘dressier’ occasion, there’s the hooded suit jacket in wool on top with a leather bottom (mid below).
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
For Givenchy, there was definitely chic tailoring, yet combined with some elements to give it a slight edge + casual appeal. One such detail was adorning with photorealistic images either across the front shirt panel, on the sleeves or even along a suit. Another detail I really liked was the zippers running from behind the suit jacket, slithering its way up the chest front then ending at the collar bone (pic 2, row 1). One of the collection’s strongest pieces were the jackets (pic 4, row 1) in both grey + black and a sweater in grey that had lacing detail similar to that of a football.
Love the leather toggle coat at the end below and don’t you just love how hot model Jenny Shimizu looks in pic 1?
(photo: Giovanni Giannoni)
Jean Paul Gaultier‘s collection of tease + play was playful as the models slowly removed up until the ending the show wearing nothing but their long johns. The neon backdrops intensified the accidental ‘striptease’ concept. Starting the show with a man wearing a black coat, looks kept coming out in reds, black + grey, patterns and black.
There were suits and pants which were all slim fitting. Some pieces where their patterns ran from top to bottom, especially a jumpsuit of sorts, (below, middle) made it hard to determine whether it was a look made up of separates or just one continuous item. He also featured little boleros that went over thin sweater pullovers exaggerated by opera length leather gloves – might sound very feminine but the model werqs it well.
(photo: Dominique Maitre)
Look at Andrej Pejic looking simply sublime and effortless (pic 1, row 2). But seriously, whoever did the casting, bless their little heart, especially for the model removing his long johns – meow!
Then there’s Korean designer Juun.J with his unique concept of wearing a jacket over coats, occasionally being an obnoxiously fluffy down coat.
Usually a ‘don’t’, here Juun makes the notion of wearing a short jacket over a longer article of clothing. – in fact, just the other day, I had to find a long coat to go over something long – yet, I must admit, if the ‘tail’ of the lower garment underneath short jacket is cool, textured, patterned or pops with color, all bets are off – Note as cheap fun thing to do in NYC during Fall + Winter.
Love the chic tailored coats below followed by the supple leather jackets over the wool jackets adorned with outlined pockets + hem in black.
These two jackets are cool with their contrast of a wool body + leather sleeves – a hybrid. (wonder how long it’ll take before people use the word ‘hybrid’ ad nauseaum like ‘curate’) Junn’s interpretation of a suit with the pair at the right has such ease, I could easily see myself lounging in one but I think it’s the pants that really do it for me the way they hang like that.
Juun’s show however, ended in an idea that Balenciaga designed for AW/12 – the ‘Stars Wars’ sweatshirt/blouson – he teamed up with American Artist Greg Simkins to design Manga inspired sweatshirts/blousons like this one below-haven’t heard anything yet but these are super cool with a tattoo feel for them.
(photo: Giovanna Giannini)
(via WWD)