Menswear

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Fashion Shows

Sneak Peek: Duckie Brown Spring 2011

“Let’s put you in a ridiculous outfit,” Steven “Duckie” Cox, one half of Menswear label Duckie Brown, joked with their model.

Ridiculous? Judge for yourself.

With Fashion Week only a few weeks away, Cox and partner Daniel Silver were previewing their spring collection, presented in collaboration with American Crew artistic director Paul Wilson to a small group of reporters at their Meatpacking studio.

The inspiration for the collection was “everything but the kitchen sink,” and the clothes live up to the name: Different materials, prints, patterns and colors define each piece. With this maximalist outlook, Duckie Brown has more than waved adieu to the austerity of 2009; they’ve killed it, buried it, and put a technicolor nail in the coffin for good measure.

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  • John Ortved
  • Wednesday, Sep 1, 2010 / 3:00 PM
Accessories

Something For The Boys: Rebecca Minkoff Dishes On The Man Bags You’ll Want To Steal

Rebecca Minkoff stole out hearts years ago with the so-called Morning After Bag (MAB, for short), and now she’s out to steal our men–or the spot on their arms, at least–with the introduction of Ben Minkoff. Inspired by her grandfather, a World War II fighter pilot, the collection-for-guys promises all the rugged durability and old-school details we love…and, with any luck, the cool factor required to make your significant other spring for a new look. We won’t tell if you want to take one for a spin, either.

Fashionista: Many times, designers going from catering to women to targeting men will just add chunkier hardware and adopt a more rugged design. But your products tend to be hardware-heavy and durable to begin with. Was it difficult to really make this line stand out and feel more masculine?

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Menswear

Long Nguyen Looks Back on 20 Years of Dolce & Gabbana for Men

Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.

There’s always a birthday to celebrate in Fashion Land. Two years ago it was the big 4-0 for Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, with an extravaganza on the High Line and a show/dinner on Central Park lawn, respectively. This fall marks the 25th year of Donna Karan and Tommy Hilfiger as well as the 40th year for Roberto Cavalli. And there’s sure to be plenty of events fêting these designers come Fashion Month.

Dolce & Gabbana also celebrated a birthday in 2010–the 20th year of its menswear line.

I’ll always remember that day in January 1990, in the old showroom at Via Santa Cecilia, that Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana presented their first men’s collection, just five years after they had launched their womenswear label. I had started to work for Dolce & Gabbana in New York a year and a half earlier. In those days, I was the only employee. It was my first job in the fashion industry.

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  • Long Nguyen
  • Wednesday, Aug 18, 2010 / 4:20 PM
Entertainment

J.Crew Shoots The Rassle in Suits

The gentleman of The Rassle don’t typically wear suits.

“We’re a rock-and-roll band,” says drummer Erik Ratensperger. His lead singer, Blair Van Nort, chimes in, “I don’t think we’d ever actually wear suits on stage. Well, unless we were playing Radio City Music Hall or something.”

Despite being “jeans and t-shirt kind of guys,” this Brooklyn-based foursome–consisting of former members of the Virgins and Young Lords and the Takeover UK–seemed pretty comfortable in J.Crew’s classic suiting styles, the Aldrich and the Ludlow. I mean, they were wearing them in 85 degree heat and barely sweating. That’s got to say something, right?

The newish band, which you can check out on TheRassle.com, was shooting a quickie video for J.Crew’s e-commerce site today, and we got to hang out on the set. The video will launch the last week of September on JCrew.com:

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Fashion Is Fun

Dior Dresses Dan Black: Our Exclusive Look at How the Electropop Star Gets Ready to Perform

When Dan Black goes on stage at Webster Hall tonight to open for Robyn and Kelis, he’ll wear head-to-toe Dior Homme: tight black jeans with zippers at the ankles, lace-up sneakers that zip up the back, a Halloween-orange tank with a draw string at the bottom, and a black suit vest that zips up asymmetrically. We know this, because we were with him in the Dior showroom yesterday when he picked it out.

British-born Black, who was just nominated for two VMA awards, plays the second of two shows tonight. When he arrived at midnight the day of his first show he was sick and had nothing to wear. So between doctors appointments and performing in front of a couple thousand people, he popped into Dior, who has been dressing him in Europe and for some of his shows on the West Coast, and we got to tag along.

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Ask Chris

Ask Chris Benz: Can You Give Guys Some Style Advice?

Dear Chris,

Right now, you only design for women. I’m a guy, but I love your aesthetic. How do you dress? Who are your favorite designers? Inquiring minds want to know!

Thank you

Dear Guy -

Thanks for the compliment!

I am usually exhausted by the time I have to think about my own clothes, so I tend to dress simply/haphazard. My go-to is a navy blue blazer, because it’s completely classic and looks perfect with everything. I think men should really restrict themselves to wearing a white shirt, navy blazer, and Levis 501s with a Converse Chuck Taylor, and call it a day. That is–until there is CB menswear, and then they should wear mustard pleat-front shorts, chiffon tuxedo shirts, sequined blazers, and loads of friendship bracelets, natch!

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Menswear

Lacroix’s New Creative Director Hopes to Revive Couture in the Future

Besides Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, there is no designer in the world with a more enviable/terrifying job than Sacha Walckhoff, the new creative director at Christian Lacroix.

Walckhoff’s been working at Lacroix in some capacity or another since 1992. He started as a knitwear designer, moving onto diffusion line Bazar, then to jeans, and eventually menswear. In 2000, he left the company full time to consult for brands like Kenzo, but returned in 2003 when Lacroix began spending more energy working on his collections for Pucci.

The Swiss-French designer has been at Lacroix’s side ever since, through the last two years of financial trouble right, culminating with the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2009.

It wasn’t until after Lacroix–the man–announced he was breaking all ties with the company, that CEO Nicolas Topiol and Miami, Fla.-based investors the Falic Group asked Walckhoff to come on as Creative Director.

Walckhoff’s first ready-to-wear collection? Menswear, which is funded by a licensee. Women’s pret-a-porter and couture are part of the future, but not the present.

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Menswear

Take Ivy: Novel Then, Essential Now

Take Ivy, an Ivy-League collegiate guide to menswear, was originally published in Japan in 1965.

In fact, this is the book that made “trad” fashion so popular among young Japanese men. The look is an adaptation of the old-money prep school style of, you guessed it, American Ivy Leaguers.

Filled with photo after photo of gorgeous (now-retro) scenes from the daily lives of these boys, Take Ivy is now enjoying a welcome run with powerHouse Books. This new edition is the first to be translated into English, but remains otherwise unedited. To be sure, some of its charms lie in the captions.

But if this book was influential before, it’s absolutely indispensable today.

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Menswear

At Men’s Fashion Week in Paris, Brits Fight for Equal Opportunity

PARIS–English fashion still thrives on a history of fine bespoke tailoring originating from London’s Savile Row. Also known as The Row, off Regent Street in the center of town, the legendary street is known for its high concentration of old-school, blue-blooded suits.

Yet, despite the dozens of shows during London fashion week, many of The Row’s best are left behind–including key old-school masters.

To coincide with Paris Men’s fashion week, Esquire UK selected seven designers who don’t show. Ever. But who should–according to editor-in-chief Jeremy Langmead and co. The mag went on to organize a fashion show for each.

On Friday at Paris’s Bristol Hotel, Esquire threw its “7 Brilliant Brits” event. In every corner of the room, a screen showed a film of each designer’s catwalk, along with explanation booklets about each collection.

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Menswear

London Fashion Week’s NEWGEN Men Winners Include Christopher Raeburn, Christopher Shannon, JW Anderson

Smack in the middle of Men’s Fashion Week, the British Fashion Council has announced its NEWGEN menswear class of Spring 2011.

Much like the womenswear recipients, announced June 10, the ten designers will be afforded the opportunity to show their Spring 2011 collections at London Fashion Week this September. And along with £5,000 – £10,000 towards their show costs, they’ll receive free exhibition space, usage of the BFC catwalk and mentoring.

Christopher Shannon, James Long, and JW Anderson will use stage runway shows; Carolyn Massey, Lou Dalton, and Sibling will do presentations; and Christopher Raeburn, James Small, Katie Eary, and Omar Kashoura will create installations.

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Menswear

Net-a-Porter’s Menswear Site Will Launch in January

First off, happy 10th birthday to Net-a-Porter!

In honor of entering double digits, the famed internet retailer announced today that it would launch Mr. Porter, a site dedicated to men’s clothing, in January 2011.

“We have a ready-made customer base for our men’s business,” said Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet of the new venture. “100% of Net-a-Porter customers have a man in their lives in some capacity and 59% of them are married or living with their partners.”

(We doubt all of Massenet’s customers would agree with that 100% figure, but we digress….)

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Menswear

Edun Launches Menswear at Bloomingdale’s

Socially-conscious fashion label Edun has had an interesting couple of years. After breaking up with designer Rogan Gregory, the label kind of floated for awhile, and no one was quite sure where it was going.

That is, until founder Ali Hewson signed a deal with LVMH, which injected a bit of cash into the company, allowing Hewson to hire new creative director Sharon Wauchob.

Not only is the Paris-based, Irish born designer’s first women’s collection for the brand getting rave reviews (it’s selling at Barneys like hot cakes, we hear), but she and Hewson have also re-launched menswear, which debuted at Bloomingdale’s last night. (Apparently, these collections were designed by a freelance team, not Wauchob. Regardless, they looked great, and I’m assuming the general direction of the firm is set.)

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