They reintroduced protectionism in New York last week, at least in the men’s shows, where models got bundled up in clothing on catwalks all over Manhattan.
With icy 80mph winds blowing down the island on the opening weekend, and a retail business in free fall – Brooks Brothers shuttered its huge Fifth Avenue flagship store in January (it was, apparently, a long-planned move), and jeweller Fortunoff on nearby Madison Avenue declared bankrupt mid fashion-week – wrapping up seemed the smart thing to do. No wonder the thin cashmere sweater that dominated shows in Europe was absent from New York collections, with thick cable pullovers de rigueur.
Indeed, we’ve never seen so many sweaters in a men’s season, from the bulky knobbly wool waistcoats at the hip label Coventry to some brilliant jerseys by Viktor Glemaud, who injected credibility by creating faux moth holes, and Michael Bastian’s chunky Alpine meets Comanche jumpers.
“Consumers are looking for genuine quality again. Not flash. They want to touch real fabrics that say someone has used know-how and tradition to make something special,” said Gildo Zegna, chief executive of Zegna, whose directional Z Zegna show featured bulky army greatcoats with shoulders big enough to safeguard gents from the world’s economic woes. Underlining the sombre mood, the show was staged in near-darkness and the black catwalk was covered in puddles of rain. That approach seems to be working for Zegna, which posted a 4 per cent rise in sales to €874m last year.
Meanwhile, at Calvin Klein, making a bravura return to New York after a decade of showing their men’s wear in Milan, designer Italo Zucchelli used an industrial palette of zinc, lead and anthracite and materials such as stretch wool, heat-bonded foam and a “liquid” twill to create sturdy clothes that also seemed designed to shield the guys wearing them.
“American, confident and tough,” said Zucchelli about the collection, which also featured a series of nylon moulded super-hero suits, where the jackets had natty indentations for buttons, and the pants had an articulated biker cut. The actor of the moment in New York, Chace Crawford, whose character Nate Archibald in the hit series Gossip Girl is distinctly queasy about the privileged life he’s been granted, certainly looked appreciative.
In an uncertain moment, making clothes that look sturdy, though still chic, makes sense. So there were army jackets at Y-3, while at Robert Geller, American GQ’s Best New Men’s Designer, out came Edwardian cutaway jackets, re-imagined in hard-wearing denim. Diesel’s top-line collection Black Gold referenced the robber barons ruined in the Great Depression, with artily rumpled Prince of Wales suits, some with deliberate food stains. The show’s soundtrack was also telling – “Kind of Blue” by jazz legend Miles Davis.
Unemployed country gents also made a showing at Marc by Marc Jacobs, albeit with a rapper vibe, as baggy pants-meet-trousers with side zips under herringbone blazers. The message here was if you are going to be unemployed, at least be comfortable.
The other item designers could not get enough of was the hat, once again symbolising a defensive covering. From porkpies at Jacobs to roguish trilbies for Dickensian artful dodgers in Z Zegna, men’s millinery was a major item. And before you raise your eyebrows and dismiss it as a catwalk gimmick, note: we counted seven on guys on the dance floor at Beatrice Inn, the favoured bar of hipster fashionistas in the West Village.
