Topman

Men will soon shine bright like diamonds.

London just wrapped its first-ever stand-alone menswear shows; menswear had previously been relegated to a single day after the women's RTW shows fini

Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt. “Everything you just saw was the direction we are taking for spring,” Gordon Richardson, the creative and design director for Topman, told me immediately after the finale of Wednesday's show, inside the glass dome of the Royal Opera House near Covent Garden. It was dominated by knitwear and '70s floral shirts, tucked into high-waisted boxing shorts with contrast stitching hiking boots. Taking inspiration from youths in Brighton--a town on the southern coast of England known for its pop music venues, vintage record stores and clothing shops--the collection mixed techno fabrics. Consider a shiny charcoal single-breasted suit with a cotton floral shirt from the hippie era, or a dark cotton suit with slim trousers and the au courant cotton military print shirt. One of the most appealing looks from the show, from a customer's point of view, was the shiny light purple trench. It was shown with matching trousers in a deep purple cotton. I also liked the black cotton shirt printed with large red psychedelic flowers and paired with black cotton belted flared shorts. Although many of the knit pieces, like the red cotton sweater featuring the fox motif, will undoubtedly be bestsellers, I'm not certain about the ivory high-waisted boxer shorts with a tan leather belt and burgundy/mustard polo. It may be a hard sell beyond the limited range of fashion devotees. I’m sure a more commercial mutation will be found among the racks at the Broadway store.