Alexandre Plokhov uses his Cloak label to explore deeply idiosyncratic images of masculinity. For spring 2006, he said he d settled on two such notions: the early days of rock n roll and the big-game hunter. This safari/rockabilly hybrid was most obvious in the opening outfit, a white cotton-canvas hunting jacket with a shawl collar, worn with charcoal evening trousers.
After that striking image, the veldt was more or less confined to the leather-and-canvas desert boots and the detailing on a field jacket. It was much more the lean, mean rock dandy who fired Plokhov s imagination. The formal touches on jackets, trousers, and shirts (including piping on lapels, satin striping on trouser legs, covered buttons, contrasting collar and cuffs) gave the collection a gothic tinge, even more so because of the shadowy palette. The main relief from black and charcoal was a decadent green he called vetiver, which looked appropriately seductive in a blouson as fitted as a fencing jacket.
Actually, everything was closely tailored, except for trousers that were diagonally pleated to create volume—somewhat reminiscent of Raf Simons s futuristic experiments in cutting. They looked incongruous, given that a pre-show Plokhov declared, "I want clothes to look worn, like you ve found them in your grandfather s closet." So the yarn in a white double-breasted cardigan was aesthetically unraveling in places, and those desert boots were scrunched down. All these antidotes to formality were in keeping with Plokhov s conviction that modern dressing means eclecticism: you might wear one of his jackets with a Gap T-shirt and a pair of jeans.
