Tim Blanks is never the type who’d sound really bitchy in his reviews for Men.style.com. So when I read several of his notes for New York Fashion Week, I was a little taken aback about how he’s serving up a bit of a bitch fit to at least 1 label: DKNY.
Here are several snippets from his men.style.com post:
“DKNY’s 20th anniversary should ideally offer a prime opportunity to reflect on the evolution of men's style in the city the label celebrates, but it's actually been a pretty random journey.”
“Back in the day...much more sophisticated than the callow youngsters who wore the clothes on today's catwalk.”
“Donna herself was talking about turning young guys onto ties and a slightly more formal approach to dressing, but these DKNY men seem to have relapsed—they were virtually tieless and resolutely low-key.”
“Casual and easy, it was actually the way most men might care to dress in their downtime, which has always been the canny core of DKNY's menswear. After 20 years, not much has changed.”
Ms. Karan, who celebrates 20 years in the industry this season (I think?) brought out a collection of very relaxed, un-stuffy menswear. Not a bad thing per se, but isn’t it weird that for something as momentous as this, you give your most loyal fashion audience, clothes that didn’t seem like it took much effort in designing and producing?
Granted, she may have just paid homage to the silhouette and the attitude that has defined the DKNY man for the past 2 decades, but for me, there’s a difference between re-updating what has been a signature and just rehashing them. Unfortunately, from what I saw in Ms. Karan’s runway this morning, it’s the latter, and that’s a sad proposition to be in.
Look, it may be contested still up to now, but I think Tom Ford’s final collection for Gucci last Fall 2004 set the bar on how you look into the past, pay its due respects, and forge the way to a bright future. Until the end of his illustrious career at Gucci, he was in every way, a designer and a showman.
(For those who don’t closely follow fashion, Mr. Ford was hired to resurrect the then-ailing luxury brand. Some many years later, Gucci is on top of everyone’s mind when it comes to forward-thinking clothes, curiously controversial advertising campaigns, and well, the living proof that sex indeed sells. He parted ways with the Gucci group after disagreements.)
His finale collection could have been just what we saw at DKNY this season: Archives thrown on the runway for models to wear—and for the editors seated to relish and enjoy. But he didn’t just rest on the fantastic tailoring and styling that he’s known for, he celebrated everything that the Gucci label meant to him: Sexy sophisticated clothing, with a playboy-sharp point of view. That’s what he gave to the people who witnessed the end of an era at Gucci, and it left everyone with a smile on their faces and awe at how well Mr. Ford knows his shit.
Back to DKNY. While it is great to sit back, relax, and savor the many years that DKNY has been a part of the New York mindset, isn’t it also great to offer a look of things to come? Maybe instead of the normal sneakers worn with a suit look that she favored so much, an awesome shirt of quirky detailing (designers for fall, for instance, embellished their shirts with Tuxedo details) or a fantastic wingtip would have made for a stronger impact—and a terrific preview of the next 20 years of DKNY.
Unfortunately, the show stopped at the past.
Curiously, Banana Republic did a better job at celebrating its 30 years in the business. The classic khaki trench coat was re-issued in a slimmer proportion; cotton chinos fit slimmer in the leg; and three-piece suits are made with lightweight wool instead of the heavy ones that could overwhelm a lithe guy.
[Photographs are courtesy of men.style.com]
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