Just two years into his new line, Tim Coppens, a recipient of the 2012 Ecco Domani award for Best New Menswear Designer and the 2013 winner of the Fashion Group International Menswear Rising Star Award, may be the most exciting thing in menswear. If his dark, streamlined show on Monday evening was any indication, the Read more →

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The Clothes: Inspired by daguerreotypes of Russian Orthodox monks who have lived for centuries on Mount Athos in Greece (seriously), Plokhov’s goths were strained between two clerical roles: the Parochial (who wear white and can marry), and the Monastic (who wear black and are men of god). The result were monochromatic looks in the form Read more →

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Michael Bastian has taken Gant to school.

Over the past two years, since Michael Bastian took over as the designer of Gant by Michael Bastian, and then relaxed into that job, the brand has experienced one of the great turnarounds in menswear. This year, Mr. Bastian did not disappoint with smart, playful college looks. It was a sartorial swap meet between Harvard and Dartmouth, a showcase of prep and cool.

Girls sported high-volume (yet not exactly loud) plaid and printed trousers, fun striped sweaters, sexy, but restrained skirts (ending mid-thigh) and even the occasional cargo. Boys had raffish blazers (a double-breasted check was a particular winner), faded jeans and thick sweaters that were on the right side of goofy.

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Simon Spurr, whose expert tailoring is often showcased alongside denim, had a surprise for us, just minutes before his show began at Milk Studios on Sunday: “There’s not a single jean in the collection this season,” he revealed. Instead, Spurr offered a crisp, business-like selection that took its cues from a Robert Frank photograph of London in the 1950s. Spurr said he was striving for “a more elevated look.”

Spurr achieved his aim. With Joe Jonas and Kellan Lutz seated in the audience, the show began with pieces tinged with mauve, and small, glistening touches. Silver buttons on his jackets glimmered along with umbrella handles, helping his looks cut a cool, collected path down the runway. The designer keenly focused on fabric this time around, flaunting his new found love of mixing materials (leather sleeves on a wool suit) and patterns (a check meeting a hound’s tooth). The British proclivity for overbearing checks, stripes and prints came to fore only rarely, and these instances were easily surmounted by the conservatism displayed by the resolutely “elevated” items that far outnumbered them.

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