New York Fashion Week: Men's puts global influences of fashion on display
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Fashion has a long storied history of taking inspiration from foreign cultural influences and travel. This season at New York Fashion Week: Men's was no exception to that long standing trend.
Nick Graham started off the morning with a collection inspired by Havana Cuba. For the opening look to his show, model Chad White walked out in a white 3-piece linen suit and an exploded fern print shirt. Graham wasn't just looking at Cuba for inspiration, he was specifically looking at Cuba in the 50s.
During the 1950s, Cuba was the go-to place for gamblers, mobsters, and royalty alike, but at the same time, the Cuban revolution was in the air.
"With all the recent political events surrounding Cuba, I thought now would be as good a time as any to do a Cuban inspired collection," Graham said.
Cultural influences permeate through collections at New York Fashion Week: Men's
Other pieces in his collection involved crisp, lightweight lines, seersuckers, checked madras suits, and floral shirts to create Graham's signature look of post-prep.
As usual, Graham did not disappoint, and he created a quintessentially stylish collection for today's modern man.
For Assembly's presentation this season, they drew on ideas of the yin and yang, playing on cultural ideas of the mythical. However, the reductive black and white palette left the collection feeling very stale. The well-worn aesthetic cheapened what were high-quality garments. Upon walking in, the first look that was seen included a raw silk blazer, but for something so luxurious as a silk blazer it just didn't read as expensive.
Rochambeau was their usual off-the wall, urban style, and outlandish self. The brand centered this year's theme around Morocco, as vacation and travel inspiration ruled design choices during New York Fashion Week: Men's.
Silhouettes were kept loose and free. Some looks really hit the mark and others were a miss. The creative of designers Laurence Chandler and Joshua Cooper was really exemplified with looks like the setting sun stones bomber, sunset t-shirt, jajouka shorts, and bazaar joggers, while other looks like the Marrakesh hoodie appeared as if they were playing up that Moroccan theme a bit too much. Overall, it was a very cohesive collection though. Chandler and Cooper certainly know how to keep it consistent.
The brand, which is currently sold on e-commerce sites like Farfetched, is making their bid towards more retail partners, and perhaps a few pieces from this collection will help do it.
Matiere took inspiration for their collection from the dead sea and West Coast culture. While the blues they used were beautiful, the silhouettes for the garments were very mundane. The brand should be commended for their excellent use of quality materials though, such as Japanese yarn dye stripe crepe, raw silk, and water resistant materials that were used to create anoraks.
Despite the over simplicity of the silhouettes, the collection was very functional, which will be easy for appealing to retailers and buyers.
New York Fashion Week: Men's showed that fashion is truly a cultural melting pot when it came to inspiration. As brands are focused more on globalization and growth, even in a sluggish market for higher end goods, they still want to appeal to all their consumers worldwide.
Nick Graham photos courtesy of HL Group
Matiere photos courtesy of Agentry PR