this and that, here and there
all crossed up
New York: Michael Bastian, Fall 2014 Menswear
The designer has a vision of who his client is:
“…Bastian also has plans to take his brand up a notch - at least in regards to where it's placed on the sales floor. Bastian's goal is to be the leader in American luxury menswear, which means going up against Italian stalwarts like Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli, and Ermenegildo Zegna rather than his New York-based contemporaries whose prices are just a bit lower. ‘We really know this guy,’ Bastian said. ‘We feel like we can take care of him.’”
In the interest of fairness, then, I have to adjust my expectations. This collection is really more about individual pieces assembled, really, rather than fully-styled looks.
The materials that he's using in these pieces mean that many of them are one-of-a-kind items, which definitely put them out of my price range.
I can't lie, the first impression I got looking at this collection was “slightly off-beat east coast tenured literature professor at a small private liberal arts college.”
I call 'em like I see 'em.
It could also be “Eclectic post-Preppie,” or “Asian-fusion Laid-back Dandyism.” Just depends on where you're standing when you're looking at it.
That one scarf I could probably rig into a makeshift BabyBjörn for a toddler, it's so big. The jacket it's paired with is giving me an outerwear boner. This sweater is a non-starter for me, but this one I could live in.
The comfortable slacks and simpler sweaters in this collection are making me quite happy, but the narrower pants aren't really grabbing me in a pleasant way, and the layered compression pants are not for me at all.
For as much as I love odd accessories, I'm trying to figure out what this brooch/medal/whatever is about.
So there are details here and there that work really well, but the whole issue here would be the pricing because of the one-of-a-kind repurposed materials in the designs.