Aaron Potts is a staple of New York’s biannual Men’s Day showcase, so it was surprising to see his A.Potts label missing from this season’s lineup. “It ripped my heart out, but I wanted to take a break,” said Potts of the decision, “this is how I wanted to show up—or not show up—this fashion week, with a collection whittled down to the bare necessities.”
“Restart” has been a recurring word at collection previews of late. Many designers seem to be reexamining who exactly is buying their clothes, and, more importantly, what is it that they truly want to make. “I need to focus on what A.Potts really is,” said the designer, who recently hosted an archive sale, as many of his counterparts in New York have done. (This in itself gives plenty of insight about the current retail landscape, and about what’s prompting this introspection, but in the spirit of remaining on topic here we’ll leave this for a different day.) The experience, said Potts, helped him understand his customers. “The working creative professional,” is how the designer described them—someone who’s a little more adventurous with their everyday-wear.
Potts’s lineup for fall consists of exclusively black clothes. His hulking but relaxed proportions remain, here simplified and cut into streamlined silhouettes: caftans, slip dresses, and sweatshirts. Given the lack of color, Potts played with texture. Things got a little over complicated at times, and he was at his best where he kept things clean. There’s ingenuity in the way he connected hoods to the trains of some tunics, and his supersized, one-size-fits-all propositions have the potential to add pizazz to an uncomplicated daily wardrobe.
In lieu of Men’s Day, Potts presented this collection as part of a show put together with Maison Black, an online retail destination that showcases Black designers, and the Boys Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, which Potts was a part of when he was young and where he now mentors.
