Before his Spring menswear show, Yigal Azrouël spoke of the "uniform feeling" of the collection this season. He didn t mean it in the sense of sameness or similarity, though the silhouette shapes were mostly related, and the color palette held back. A look of utility is what he imagined, and he drove home the point with a repeated styling piece: a utility belt bearing a large pocket that dangled under jackets and coats.
The Yigal uniform is a little bit sporty, a little bit dressy, and a little bit leather—all at once. And that, in a nutshell, is what he showed. Looks that were skewing formal with a tuxedo jacket on top were pulled to the street with slubby sweat shorts. The drawstring track pant was elevated into what you could call a waist-tied tuxedo trouser; it came with a shirt half tucked in, the stiffness bent by the slouch.
One could argue that there are more realistic things to be seen on catwalks than sweat-suit gala garb and the like. It is very styled. But the message is only a message, though it s a good one: A uniform doesn t have to be a by-the-rule-book drag. Many of the looks Azrouël showed today weren t real-world ready. But the individual pieces had his usual streetwise charm—the kind that keeps them selling on the floor.
