Sleeves Magazine Men's Fashion Week Special Men's Fashion Week June 2016 | Page 61

faintly reminiscent of Tom Cruise’s Last
Samurai. Every look, without fail,
delivers elegance, bright and detailed
punch, just enough friendly androgyny,
and a kind of understated mastery of
style you’d think impossible with such
a rich and varied collection. One might
expect a miss or two among the hits; a
certain degree of filler; but not here.
You see, the genius of this collection is
its lack of shock-value. Every look is
well behaved, well contained, well
controlled. If Isaac Mizrahi is Lady
Gaga, Agnés B is Gabriel Fauré. The
impact of the collection is holistic, not
just the result of one or two outrageous
features. The slim, modern fitting of
the tailoring, for example, constant
throughout, is easy to overlook as ‘a
given’. But it is so good as to be
remarkable – a quiet, well-mannered
slap in the face to flashier, sloppier
work. The detailing is sparse and
deliberate; a scarf here, a hat there,
splashes of a sharp kaleidoscopic
zigzagging print; so as to enhance each
look appropriately, without drawing
undue attention. It truly is an object
lesson in restraint.
The thing is that anyone can cook a
tasty dish. Give a person a hot chilli and
they’ll manage to tickle your tastebuds.
But to control flavours, to bend them
to your will and create something
structured and meaningful, is a tougher
proposition. Take, for example, a light
grey tuxedo paired with white shoes, a
mustard shirt, and a straw-coloured,
Photo: NowFashion

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