Black leather and bikers go together like horse and carriage (or car and driver?), but Phillip Lim s dark, funkified take on "café racer" chic veered off in its own direction. "I m feeling this whole genre," Lim said of biker style, which he also channeled for his women s pre-collection. "It was how to make that genre not so literal, not so aggressive, not so one-sided."
His solution was to make it rootsy. His bikers wore leather pants that slouched and rode high on the ankle. Their dungarees bore the stamp of foreign travel: They came lavishly, if graphically, embroidered. So did a leather moto jacket stitched over with white stripes. The camo print resembled ikat. Wherever they d been, his racers brought back the stamp of other lands. "I always call it Escape From Bourgeoisie Island," Lim said with a laugh. "The one who got away returns." Even the title hinted at the distance and the difference: Sonomama, Japanese for "as you are."
A Phillip Lim collection has wheat and it has chaff. That s as they are. This one was no exception. But it held together better than some other recent outings, thanks to appealing individual pieces—key among them, a side-zipping sweatshirt in bonded leather, the brother to one in the women s collection, and a series of patchworked outerwear—and to the unifying power of black leather. What might have jarred gelled when kept confined to graphic black.
