Joe G
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NOTE: 03.10.02 edit. New section (overall impressions) and detail refinements to other sections. Some of you may have noticed (rejoiced?) that I haven't been around here for a while, Well, I've been pretty busy. My fiance and I celebrated the fact that I'm engaged to the most wonderful woman on this planet (and, I guess, that she's got a new pet rock on her finger) by doing a bit of travelling. In that, we managed to hit several fashion hotspots: London, Berlin, Munich, Florence, and her hometown of Vienna, Here's what I saw. Unlike previous trips that involved lots of shopping, this time around, I really wasn't looking for much. All I thought lacking in my wardrobe was a camelhair topcoat, a zip cardigan, a pair of brown ankle-boots, a pair of Alden shell-cordovan cap-toes, and something vaguely funky to wear to interesting events. (The lattermost want was inspired by a picture in the German GQ of RLPL's velvet morning coat.) But here's what saw. Coats: I like coats, and own a few of them even though I've only spent two winters of my life in seriously cold climes. For casual wear, peacoats seem as strong as ever, if not stronger. None of the new ones have improved on Helmut Lang's streamlined camel-coloured one of a few seasons ago (still my casual coat of choice), or the Marc Jacobs/LV one with the red buttonholes of last fall. Speaking of Marc Jacobs, he seems to be taking Louis Vuitton where they belong, into the realm of travel-gear. He offers a collection of coats, vests, and jackets with a multitude of pockets that are perfect for travellers facing airlines that cut costs by charging for baggage by the gram. His hooded shearling was a particularly well-done piece. Also did a bunch of vests, but I'm not a big fan of vests in general. Giorgio Armani must've paid attention to the reactions to that Burberry campaign last year, because he has a beautifully minimalist motorcycle jacket in his top collection. Ferragamo also has a great leather jacket this year, a very midthigh deal that's hooded and belted and except for the superb leather quality could have come from Helmut Lang. Another nice line that looks ready to join Helmut and Jil in the pantheon of minimalism is Gabriele Strehle, with her new Strenesse line for men. (The women's line is a few years old.) I actually saw this very Teutonic line first in Florence. But the leather coat that I'm going to look out for should I land a job in Boston or NYC instead of my preferred Southernish location (DC, Research Triangle, ATL, Miami) is actually by Moo Prod: the very nicely cut DB lambskin-lined coat in the Miu Miu collection with hand-warmer pockets. Overcoats in general seem to have largely embraced the knee length. Saves money on fabric over a full-length overcoat, I guess. Very few extend past the knees this season. Of these shorter coats, Loro Piana's cashmere ("Storm System" treated) with fur lining one is outstanding. Warmer than any short coat I've ever seen, with the possible exception of the heavy black canvas with zip-out orange shearling lining (which can be a jacket in its own right) that I bought from Hermes last year. Loro Piana named it the "de-icer" or something to that effect, and it can be worn over jumpers (preferably one of their fine cashmere ones) or jackets. Anyone looking to spend big bucks on a coat should check this one out. I'm a big fan of past seasons' Hermes coats, and their new ones are nice, too. Their short coats have matt silver buttons that look great. And Fendi has a good DB grey-on-grey coat with bold "referee" stripes. Pricey, though. Cerruti's Arte line and Helmut Lang had nice white knee-length coats, for those tired of the black nylon look. HL's is DB faced with white satin on the lapels and edged in same, but it manages not to look unbalanced despite the extra bulk of the double breast. Cerruti's is a nice reinterpretation of an older Prada design, a sort of urban city-slicker trench with hand-warmer pockets and materials quality considerably above Prada's black nylon. CP Company also put out some interesting coats in rubberised cotton. Kind of an anti-Barbour effect. Without question, Prada's "inside out" line, with the rayon lining on the outside, and the normal interior pockets also thus, are the worst coats of the season. These are very functional, their function being to last a season and then be discarded as the wearer gets suckered into Prada's new trend. I also can't say I got Eddy Slim's epauletted coat for Dior. Next in line were the oversized deals by Tom Ford for YSL RG, many with Raglan sleeves, but all of which about as successful as the charge of the light brigade. These are available in wool and shearling. Tom Ford's formal coat (with satin-striped lapels) for Gucci is much more successful, though. Mr. Ford's protÃ
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at Burberry had a coat that looks for all the world like a shapeless leather frock. No thanks. For all of the stuff out there, I didn't find a ready-to-wear coat that worked for me. Suits/Jackets The ultimate new going-out suit is Hermes's grey with orange pinstripes. It's cut with sharp shoulders and a high collar notch leading down to high stance for the twin buttons. It has besom pockets all around, including a ticket pocket. As one would expect from Hermes, the cloth is top-notch and the tailoring flawless. I didn't need a party suit, and couldn't justify spending the money on something that I don't need. But if I did, it would have been this Hermes. After the Hermes, I quite like Wolfgang Joop's suit with stripes that start out wide at the centreline, but get closer and closer together as they get further from that line. A kind of visual interpretaton of the Doppler effect. Very unique, and reasonable cost-wise, too. The second runner-up in the party suit category has to be the Valentino peak-lapel that's in all his ads. A whole lot cheaper than the Hermes, too, albeit pricier than the Joop. one. I'll be looking for this one come clearance time in December. (Sean John has a jacket that looks similar on paper, but I've never seen or touched one. He wears it in the New Yorker "Style Issue" photo spread. When I go to NYC, I'll make it a point to see it.) Rene Lezard's are also sharp, mostly three-button affairs with very high collar notches and armholes. A very French silhouette, actually, perhaps too constricting for many Americans but quite what I like. Ferragamo's suits were, as usual, impeccably cut and tailored. Another nice newcomer is Gabriele Strehle's Strenesse line. Etro's jackets are also quite nice. They take a very trad material (tweed - a biggie this season) but colour it shades that no one in the British Isles would ever consider. Then they face the lapels of the jackets with cord, and also add cord inserts in back. Very smooth approach to country. Karl Lagerfeld has some jackets that are unremarkable except for their lapels. The collar-section is much larger than the lapel-section. Interesting. Don't know if it'll look dated three months hence, or if it's the harbinger of a new trend. At any rate, it's better than his covered-button DB's of last season. Eddie Slim's silver-and-black zebra striped jackets for Dior are pretty cool. Don't fit me, though. Fendi carries the grey-on-grey zebra stripe motif from their coats into their suits, too. Interesting but a bit too ganstery for me. Armani showed that a four-button DB doesn't have to be ugly. His have the buttons arrayed in a trapezoid instead of a square, echoing the shape of a fit man's body, and his besom pockets lie right on the hips. Wish the materials and workmanship were better, though. And Versace managed to slip one decent item in an otherwise ghetto collection, a peak-lapel grey jacket with light grey horizontal stripes. But the big thing in suits/jackets/overcoats this year is the emergence of reasonably-priced genuine bespoke. Two in particular strike me as genuine bargains. Kilgours offers a suit they call "Shanghai Bespoke", which is sewn in China. Compared to the British-sewn Kilgour suits, the Chinese ones offer fewer fabrics, mostly in some of the nicest Super 100's grade I've seen and all from Holland & Sherry. I saw one, and the tailoring is every bit as good as the British-sewn suits. Price? Well under a thousand quid. Paul Smith's bespoke service is a little bit more expensive, but has some wilder fabrics. Pick between them based on fabric more than anything else. I have the second fitting for my Shanghai Bespoke suit, which I bought as an interview suit, sometime in mid-October. As far as dinner jackets go, I really liked Paul Smith's interpretation. They had flap pockets, which one never sees on a dinner jacket. But the execution, with satin edging and an overlapping ticket-pocket flap, makes one wonder why not. The cuffs and lapels are also thusly edged. (Normally I don't like such edging on the cuffs, but Paul Smith pulls it off brilliantly and beautifully. CoSTUME NATIONAL also had a nice morning-coat type jacket. And obviously the Purple Label velvet one... On the minus side, I was rather unimpressed with the construction of a few of the Brionis I saw. The picking at the bottom puckered the fabric. Then again, the Brionis in question were much cheaper than any I'd seen before, at 2000 euro high street list. But the headliner on the wall of shame are Eddie Slim's dinner jackets for Dior with the stripe on one lapel inexplicably extending upwards nearly a foot past the lapel itself. I didn't like Ferre's dinner jacket, either; it uses the same type of braid that often goes down the trouser-legs of Italian dinner jackets (including my several-year-old Valentino one) on the lapels. It would be fine if just a strip like Eddie Slim's, but terminating at the edge of the lapel unlike Eddie's. But Ferre cuts it into three angled pieces, and it just doesn't look well thought-out. Tom Ford (Gucci) and Ralph Lipschitz (Ralph Lauren Purple Label) both had decent-looking white-tie evening get-ups, but I wonder why they bothered. Each costs more than my massgeschneiderte (that's German for "bespoke") one from Knize, and neither is designed expressly to fit the wearer. Also, Tom Ford's YSL RG 4-button DB suits failed to appeal. The button positioning cannot help but look even the most fit guy look like he just drank a keg of Guinness. Maybe they work OK for lard-laden types, though.... And of course, for about the cost of a Kilgours Shanghai suit, one has the inside out Prada monstrosity... Shirts/Jumpers Obviously, no discussion of sweaters can leave out Loro Piana. But this time, I will. The zip cardigan I ended up with came from Etro. It is a kind of orange reverse-heather (flecks of grey/black instead of white) with grey collar and bottom hem. It was the most interesting take on the zip cardigan that I've seen. Is it LP quality? Hardly. But it also wasn't LP expensive.... Dolce & Gabbana seem to have spent their planning time for this collection somewhere between Innsbruck and Badgastein, because it has a very Tirolian feel, all the way down to the oft-used Edelweiss motif. I swear I even saw a Trachten-Jacke in their store. Very interesting, if nothing that I would wear. Prada has some zip cardigans this year than are practically coat-length. Umm...OK. CP Company has an interesting one that's wool sprayed with rubber. Many of the jumpers this season are festooned with a wide variety of patterns. I prefer solids, though. A black guy with snowflakes all over his torso just looks dumb. One jumper I did like was Yamamoto's oversized cable-knit with the big hand-warmer pocket over the abs. If the sleeves weren't stupidly long, I probably would've gotten it. I learned this year that the leather firm Mulberry also does some clothing, too. In particular, they have some very nice patterned shirts. They are are not quite as subversive as Etro's, but are in that general direction. And Fendi is showing some nice shirts that are a greyscale take on the vertically-striped shirts that Paul Smith's done for a while. A lot of the Saville Row suitmakers seem to be getting into shirts, too. Kilgours has some. Ferragamo, as usual, has a nice selection of shirts, too. John Varvatos is a designer I don't particularly care for in general, but he has a formal shirt this year that understands such shirts must be giving enough to really get down. (I did just discover that the arms are a bit fat for a high armholed dinner jacket, making it no less constricting than my other formal shirts, by pre-Prada Jil Sander and a purplish one by BCBG Max Azria.) In the more affordable range, Zara's stripes and diagonal patterns are a winner again. Except for the fact that Zara, like some high-end houses, has to learn to size properly. For some reason, a Zara 43 (17US) corresponds to a 41cm collar, not a 43cm collar. Also, shirts that don't make men who bench-press every once in a while look like Incredible Hulks would be nice. Armani has some nice pullover shirts with diagonal stripes. The attention to detail surprisingly good for Armani, with an actual attempt made at pattern-matching. Trousers/Jeans The trousers of the year? Loro Piana cashmere ones that my legs wouldn't let me put down. For the money, they better last forever... also nice were the Samsonite Blacklabel ones. Nothing fancy, just smooth lines and quality tailoring. I also quite liked Martin Margiela's jeans deconstructed and reconstructed into trad-cut trousers. Not enough to buy them, but they look cool. Might check Century 21 for them come January. He also has a very nice line of traditional men's trousers this year, which are exceptional. By contrast, I saw absolutely nothing in the Earl Jeans line to distinguish them from anything else. And while PDC's are nice, in Europe at least they're simply more than I wish to pay for jeans. My favourite jeans (that is, the ones that best seem to fit my body) continue to be Sisley's, followed by Energie. Yet another Edsel mark for Tom Ford are the YSL trousers. I have pretty big indoor-soccer-player calves, big enough that most slim cut jeans (Helmut Lang, et. al.) do not allow me adequate freedom of movement. However, his new YSL trousers have ridiculous amounts of fabric down low. Shoes Tod's has some great ones this season. They seem to be building all sorts of designs atop the basic platform of their peerless bowling shoes. For anyone looking for a hip wingtip, I doubt there's one more comfortable than Tod's. (My fiance will pick up a pair of them for me come clearance time, as Tod's in the US are excessively expensive compared to their European prices.) As for boots, my choice was again Tod's, the lace-up ankle boot version of those bowling shoes. Normally I don't buy two pair of shoes so close in style, but they're soooo comfortable (I could run in them), and the boots are suede. I wanted something more elegant (leather sole, for instance) and truth be told, with a "better" badge (John Lobb or something along that vein). But these look great and the comfort just cannot be beat. Chelsea Boots are everywhere this season. My favourite was Ludwig Reiter's, which has a slightly blunt front and high toe-box along the lines of their wonderful Gustav Mahler shoe. As far as trainers go, I liked Prada's red ones and Puma's all-black Platnum ones. American glasses-company Oakley has some nice sneaks, too. But the best mix of old school quality construction with up-to-the-minute colours is Ludwig Reiter's Reiter Sport line. I run in mine, but others may wear them to the club. The shoe that was perhaps most galling to me was Tom Edsel's YSL RG cap-toe oxford with the raised seams. Someone spent lots of time hand stitching these shoes, but the leather is actually glued together. Most disappointing trainers were Yohji Yamamoto's Adidas line. What's the point, putting one's name to the side of a shoe and thinking that it's worth double? (Last year's Jil Sander Pumas were almost as dumb, but at least the name was smaller on them...) Accessoires In bags, I liked a couple. Eddie Slim's Dior leather bag with the aluminium ring on the front is a sleek but usable design. Other bags I liked were from the likes of Armani, Emporio Armani, Mulberry, Dirk Schoenberger, and Burberry Prorsum. By contrast, Valentino, Ferragamo, Fendi, and Jil Sander offered bags that were much too purselike for comfort. And I won't even get into those horrid Versace baguette thingys with the huge "Versace" script... The accessoire of the year, though, is the same as it's been since summer '01 for me: the folding Palm keyboard. For one thing, it occupied me during my flight to the USA by allowing me to write this little report. Stuff for Women Not going to write much here, but if you're in need of a gift for a special someone, here are some ideas: -Helmut Lang has a great take on the classic Chanel cocktail dress, his design having black and silver "referee" stripes. -Moo Prod's Miu Miu line has a sweater-dress with a rollneck that's also very attractive. The girl better have a perfect body to wear it, though. -A designer I'd never heard of named Alberta Ferretti makes some very nice dresses. -Emporio Armani has some sexy black stuff, skirts and tank tops and such. Perhaps it's better to wait for Banana Republic or someone like that to clone it, though. The quality of those clothes I would consider unacceptable for a guy. But women's stuff changes faster, and let's face it, when was the last time you saw anyone outside of a McKinsey boardroom meeting wearing Kiton Donna? Stores I was anticipating the remodelling of one of my all-time favourite stores, E. Braun & Co. in Vienna. They reopened on 1 September, after having been closed all summer. (Before they closed for the summer, they had a wonderful fire-sale that resulted in 70% off Loro Piana sweaters and Brioni trousers, Kiton 7-folds for 50 euro, etc.) However, I'm disheartened to report that they've taken a giant leap backwards. The staff is now younger and all wear the same boxy black Zegna suits. But they've also stopped carrying a lot of lines. Whereas before they edited from collections as diverse as Kiton's and Cavalli's, now they're a pretty standard upper-end men's store. No more Ferragamo, no more Valentino, very little Etro, not a spec of Cavalli. In the place of these marques, there's lots of Zegna, a fair amount of Armani Collezioni and Canali, a smattering of Kiton and Brioni. Nothing that one can't find at any other men's store with pretensions to luxury. And no longer worth a special trip. Another store I'd been wanting to see is Max Dietl in Munich. Unlike Braun, it did not disappoint This old-school men's tailoring house shares a Werkstatt with Knize of Vienna, so I know the quality of their bespoke clothing is exceptional. Dietl builds a slightly harder shoulder than Knize, but otherwise they're quite similar in silhouetee. They also had the fabric available to make the coat I wanted. It's pure camelhair, from camels raised in Bahrain, spun into cloth in the UAE. When my coat is done, it'll be splendid. The coat Art Modell wore to the Superbowl the year his team won will look like a rag by comparison. (Speaking of which, how 'bout that spanking of the Mastermind last night on MNF?) Dietl also carries Brioni, Kiton, and Attolini. Munich's swank suburb Schwabing, where the secondary school is in a castle, has a new store called Off & Co that's worth a visit. They carry some American stuff that I haven't seen elsewhere on the Continent, including PDC jeans and John Varvatos. They also carry Paul Smith and are a measuring point for his bespoke suits. I hadn't been to Saville Row since before college. I actually wanted Kilgours to make my overcoat, but Dietl had better fabric. Kilgours' closest match fabric-wise was a Holland & Sherry fabric that combined camelhair with ermine. It has a slight sheen that is fetching from some angles but glaring from others. And it was horrifically expensive. The Ferragamo store in Florence has to be one of the biggest single-marque stores on the planet. The Ferragamo that opened in Venice last year is still more interesting in terms of design. but the Florence one is h-u-g-e. They also have a museum that's kind of neat if you're into old women's shoes. I personally liked the store better. Overall collections I liked the following collections quite a bit, in no order except for the top two: Hermes, Tod's, Etro, Strenesse by Gabriele Strehle, Ludwig Reiter, CP Company, Loro Piana, Kilgour French Stanbury, Max Dietl, Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo, Valentino, Ralph Lipschitz' Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Martin Margiela, Knize and Miu Miu. (Armani and Miu Miu are not really up-to-standard quality-wise, but they looked good. Hence their inclusion. I'm as shocked that I liked anything by Mrs. Prada as anyone else may be.) On paper, Sean John also looks shockingly good, considering its origins. But I'll reserve judgement 'till I see it in the cloth and try a few things on. Some others were overall pretty solid but with a fair number of "WTF" pieces: Dior by Eddie Slim, Helmut Lang, Fendi, and Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton. However, these collections got under my skin: Versace, YSL RG, Prada. YSL was probably the biggest disappointment, because I was expecting class and grace but it delivered neither. I don't expect anything from Prada or Versace, and my expectations were not exceeded. Prada's stuff mostly looked dumb, and the only notable difference between Versace and Outkast is that the Versace line has bigger and more annoying logos. Peace, JG PS: A little note about some of the names I used for well-known designers: "Eddie Slim", "Moo Prod", "Tom Edsel", etc. I have to give credit where credit's due, to the man with the best job(s) in the world, Gregg Easterbrook. He's a Brookings fellow who also has a role to play in the Atlantic and New Republic. He also writes "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" for espn.com. (I used to think the NYT's Tom Friedman had the best job in the world, but Mr. Easterbrook overtakes him.) Although I've never met Mr. Easterbrook, he's one of my heroes. Bet he dresses well, too. Now if only he would learn that the Washington Redskins ("Potomac Drainage Basin Indigenous Persons" in Greggspeak) are actually the class of the NFL, he'd be damn near perfect.... Peace, JG
