Menswear Revelry: Mr Porter and Throwing Fits Celebrated Their Capsule Collection in the Lower East Side
Co-hosts Lawrence Schlossman and James Harris of the Throwing Fits podcast are tired after a night of menswear revelry celebrating their new capsule collection with Mr Porter at the popular Lower East Side bar, Ray’s.
“These are hangover fits,” described Schlossman of the duo’s matching blue Throwing Fits cap and bright orange mesh branded shorts. It’s a sign of the many Ebb’s beers and gin and tonics that flowed around the corner of Rivington and Chystie the evening before.
The cult menswear show joined forces with the luxury retailer to launch the 70+ piece collection in collaboration with 13 of the industry’s esteemed and emerging brands, including Beams Plus, Drake’s, Stòffa, Maiden Name, mfpen, Monitaly, and Hayato Today.
“The ethos of this project is what our entire careers and even just personal fandom in menswear have been building towards for over 10 years. James and I have been using the phrase: the culmination of our life’s work,” said Schlossman.
The capsule collection goes beyond their personal ambitions and taps into the essence of the community they’ve created by partnering with small and up-and-coming brands, in turn giving them exposure that may otherwise have been merely a dream.
“These brands are part of this because we think they’re the future of the industry,” said Schlossman. “There’s something they do that they do better than anybody else. When it comes to Stòffa we knew we needed one of those studio suits. When it comes to Hayato we knew we needed his beautiful double knees, Connor McKnight, with the knit rugbys that he’s known for now. Everyone was picked because they’re a killer and a specialist when it comes to certain stuff.”
“Because of the monetary injection that Mr Porter gave them by being a part of this or by buying by placing an order on the product, they’re able to jumpstart their [Maiden Name] jewelry program,” added Harris. “Hayato Today, he’s a one-man operation. Tory Van Thompson, just hustling out of his own apartment/studio. He is now sitting next to Tom Ford on Mr Porter.”
The fashion-obsessed decade-long friends are still pinching themselves. When they first left their day jobs in fashion media in 2016, collaborating with a global luxury e-commerce retailer was not on their radar. “Hell no,” said Schlossman. “We didn’t think that we were recording weekly, let alone like breaking the timeline with this kind of industry moment. That’s how it felt at the party last night, look at the VIP guestlist from Nick Wooster and Aaron Levine, Josh Paskowitz, the designers of a lot of our favorite brands, and then all the fans. I think if you would have told me that this would happen, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”
Their twice-weekly hour-plus episodes have touched a vast society of garment-curious young men. “And a couple of girls,” Schlossman added. “And they love clothes, and they support us and they are respectful and wonderful people and they also know how to have a good fucking time. I’ll tell you that much.”
The spectacle itself took over much of the block. “We said we need three things,” Harris said of their scheming with Mr Porter. “We need a shitload of people to show up, open bar and Shy’s Burgers and Fries, and we got all three.”
Among the aforementioned shitload of people in attendance were collaborators Connor McKnight, Hayato Arai, David Lê of Maiden Name, Agyesh Madan of Stòffa, and Tory Van Thompson. Also spotted on Chrystie Street were former guests of the show Sean Evans, Andrew Chen of 3Sixteen, Josh Peskowitz, Mordechai Rubinstein, Jon Caramanica, and Nolita Dirtbag.
Hagop Kalaidjian/BFA.com1/16Connor McKnight
Hagop Kalaidjian/BFA.com2/16Lawrence Schlossmann, James Harris, Sam Kershaw, Daniel Todd
