Courtesy Selectism.com
Richard Chai showed a great, wearable mens collection this weekend. Chai, who is now busy designing three lines, all with his moniker attached, reworked his staple menswear in tweed and herringbone for a much colder and refined line up than in the past. Perhaps it has been his time stuck in his studio fitting, cutting and readying all of his labels for fashion week, but the clothes this year were smartly edited. After the show Chai told me that he was ready to clean up his man. "Last season was really this mash up of backpackers and surfers and punk rock kids and really this kind of eclectic cast of people. Going into this season I still wanted a part of that sentiment in the collection but I wanted it to be much more about the sharp, precise, exactness of the collection."
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Pants were high waisted and shown with deep V-necks and color blocked turtlenecks in graphite and jet black. An olive wool felt chesterfield shown with twill pintuck jeans caught my eye. Outerwear for men has evolved over the past few seasons — car coats, pea coats and trenches have been redone and revised by hundreds of fashion houses. But there was something about the way Chai layered the looks, making the jackets taught over the t-shirts, vests and sweaters. The luxurious fabrics were speckled; the wool, cashmere, tweed and cotton done in charcoal, mosses and cadet blue.
"I don't know if it was just from the cold winter we had but it made outerwear on top of outerwear and this utilitarian kind of dressing," Chai said. But the fitting cuts were welcome. Every now and again it's fun to have a day at the beach, but come Monday, clean cut is due for the job.
