12 October 2011

Get Off The Bus!

Photo for The Trad by Alice Olive

It doesn't hurt to look at menswear like a European holiday. There are those who board the tour bus and never get off. They're taken where other people think they should go, see what other people think they should see and eat what other people think they can handle. Everything is taken care of and any interaction with the locals is liaised by the guide.

Here in NYC, there are a small number of people working in menswear design. Many hang out together, share ideas, move from one company to another, haunt the same vintage stores and flea markets, read the same Japanese menswear magazines and steal from each other. They love to quote Coco Chanel, "Creativity is the art of concealing your source."

Problem today --'source' is a four minute Google search open to anyone who can spell. So everything looks like everything else -- when you're on their bus.

When you get off the bus at Grahame Fowler, you'll discover a man doing his own thing. I love the bag up there. And so will some designer but by the time he picks that bag off and gets it into Capsule-2013, Fowler will have moved on to something new, intelligent, tasteful and funny. You're not gonna know anything about it riding on the bus. It's when you get off and walk up a winding street without a clue to where it ends. I somehow always seem to find a pub to liaise in.

Check out Grahame's new blog here.

6 comments:

  1. And when everything looks like everything else we will all be more culturally impoverished for it. One could make the same argument for just about anything design-related, I suppose. I'll be in New York over Christmas and look forward to stopping by the shop.

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  2. Puts me in mind of what Arnold Gingrich said in a book, "Women will buy 'what they're all wearing now', whereas men will say 'good for them, now show me what I want'"

    Alas, this was long, long ago. Now it's alleged grown-ups who just want what the cool kids are wearing

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  3. Nothing wrong with ending up in a pub!

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  4. Hell as long as I don't see your bare toes and your ass crack i'm happy- sartorial expectations adjusted for 2011...

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  5. I ride an actual bus and it never lets off at Grahame Fowler.

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  6. Upon your advice Tin Tin, I did go to Graham Fower and, yes, I do now feel like I'm off the bus and am following my own sense of style.

    "Move along. These aren't the droids we're looking for."

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