Before the collections kick-off in the afternoon of the first Friday after Labor Day— New York Fashion Week—there’s New York Men’s Day offering a no fuss start to a week packed with, well, a lot of muss.
This time the seasonal menswear showcase, which is put together by Agentry PR, was once again hosted across two floors—that otherwise serve as separate photographic studios—of an industrial building in Hudson Yards. There were ten designers in the lineup, covering menswear, genderless, and a touch of womenswear. These brands were all relatively indie, with a distinct take on what constitutes “menswear,” and ranged from new (as in launched last year) to established (operating for nearly a decade).
The last couple of years have seen menswear evolve away from collections designed as companions to women’s lineups into a highly directional category. There’s the genderlessness of it all, which continues to evolve as our own perspective does, and therefore serves as one of fashion’s most precise cultural barometers; the retro and upcycling-friendly sensibility introduced into the mainstream by the likes of Bode that changed the way men dressed seemingly overnight with its lace button downs and patchwork separates; and trends like Gorpcore, which started as niche and insular style subcultures and exploded onto the streets and runways. Menswear today is arguably as defining and tone-setting as womenswear, and New York Men’s Day offers an edit of what that looks like from the city’semerging voices.
The surface was top of mind for the group of designers in the morning session. Clara Son, Terry Singh, and Kent Anthony worked compelling embellishments and treatments. Son’s soft, playful manipulations included vests and shirting reminiscent of doilies, draping and tufting, and chain-like embellishments. It all felt welcoming and warm.
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Brandon Murphy presented an array of sharply cut tailoring for his BMC label. The pieces stood out for their commitment to elegance and sophistication, even if the collection’s styling with silky blouses looked familiar.
Aaron Potts took his easy daywear for A.Potts further into the workwear space, this time finding a nice balance between his voluminous fabrications and minimal outlook.
In the afternoon, Raleigh Workshop’s Victor Lytvinenko reworked denim with playful surface treatments like foiling and upcycled it into patchworked styles. Sebastien Amisial Marianne Amisial of Sebastian Ami played with camping-themed utilitarian renditions of classic Americana. In a similar space but undeniably more playful was Skyco’s Skylar Hertz, who created camo-like prints out of running figures and turned tapestries into jackets and ponchos.
Fresh on the Men’s Day lineup were The Salting’sMichael Ward and Manel Garcia Espejo, who found inspiration in the work of artist Betty Parsons for their considerate and minimal wardrobing made of billowy, easy fabrics. Another new name this time around was Tarpley’s Tarpley Brooks Jones, who debuted with his “contemporary minimalism” that, as he said at a preview, teeters between the New York City fashion crowd and the Tenessee farmlands he calls home. “A Tenessee farmer and someone in Bushwick can wear the same jacket and it’s not ironic,” Jones said. Now that’s range.
