The fashion gods have spoken! Orange is cool, your jacket should match your earrings. Welcome to my judgmental discussion on current menswear styles. With any luck it’ll help you avoid the fads that are nothing but a money suck.

(When it’s fashion week but you don’t give a fuck so you rather go hiking in the forest)

South African Fashion Week – Mens A/W’17

Not even Fashion Week will keep me from an opportunity to go hiking, and honestly looking at all the images and reports I don’t feel I missed too much. Perhaps Fashion Weeks really are becoming ever more obsolete in the age of social media.

Even my fav designer ever of all times Henni de Kock opted not to show in favour of engaging directly with his clients. As a tailor, I see little in the media coverage of fashion week than my clients would find at all useful. And honestly there was little shown at SA Fashion Week that really had me excited about where the industry is going…

All that aside, it’s time for:

The Good, enough that I can tolerate it.

Coenraad de Mol (De Mil) showed at SA Fashion week for the first time, and focusses his aesthetic on comfort and wearability.

Although I liked the overall flow of his collection and the novel shapes he’s introducing to garments, I’m not entirely convinced that he cares all that much about wearability.

Floyed Avenue once again showed a rather plain looking collection which, upon closer inspection, is a rather complex feat of construction!

I’m not a complete fan of Floyed’s colour pallet, nor his dysfunctional tendency to haphazardly introduce pointless seams, but of all the collections this season I found his the best executed.

Lesego Molokoane (Leaf Letlhare) is a man after my own heart, and although I’m never entirely convinced of the commercial viability of his clothes, I’m always excited to see him constantly experimenting with new construction techniques.

Azaria Khoza, the designer of Pure Moon, did manage to at least not be boring, so I’ll keep him in my good books for now…but really a random hole in the middle of nowhere…really?!?

Zamaswazi I feel is definitely coming into his own with a more refined vision for his gents. His random paneling has been replaced with more thoughtful accents, while he continues to play with construction and lines.

Ephymol, while usually a brand I admire, this season seemed a bit unsure of itself. We were shown the expected outrageous suits for dandies with more money than taste

mixed in with…well I just don’t know how to describe it other than ‘the atrocious’.

The Bad, meaning it’s just not for me so don’t take it personally

Where the f*ck did this even come from Ephraim Molingoane?!?

Originally Kasified Clothing definitely has a vision, but should perhaps pull back from going FULL Nick Naks man

Shade…I can stretch my mind to understand you’re playing with colours and prints, but I can’t seem to find an excuse for thinking this deserves to be called fashion.

Black Coffee, although not my aesthetic at all, at least has a very coherent point of view, and a solid vision behind their designs. I’m a bit underwelmed at the sad attempt to incorporate graphics into the collection, and even more at the basic simplicity of the shapes. I mean, it’s 2017 people, just get with it already

I’ll say again that I have an affinity for African Swiss’s aesthetic, but I feel a bit of attention to editing could go a long way in taking these clothes from a random conglomerate to a considered wardrobe.

 

There are always those who should maybe just find another career

Young and Lazy, the name says it all, and thank goodness because I hate wasting words on rubbish

Dope still seems to believe that patches can turn a Pep garment into your own collection – really I’m tired of seeing such badly constructed clothes paraded around as if we’re not chewing up the planet with every hot glued seam.

Sol-Sol, Maria McCloy and Ellen Madie, stop waisting your time, these designs are so tired they’re retailing at Mr Price, so stick to being consumers and let the designers carry on with their jobs

Fortunately, there’s always some Glam

As I’ve said before, if Fashion Week’s are to survive they need to focus on the pure creative freedom that this platform provides. I was disappointed to see so few designers taking the opportunity of Fashion Week to really make a statement. I mean, what a waste of energy to sew a striped pyjama that’ll walk down the runway for 4seconds…what the f*ck was the point in that?!?

But fortunately there’s always one, and although this is far beyond what would ever be viable as a garment, it’s just so great to look at something that’s job is nothing more than to be beautiful.

And have it actually be beautiful of course, that really does help ;)

 

If you’re interested in what our designers put out in September 2016 for our current summer, I blogged that here.

These images are (mainly) from SA Fashion Week, which also gives some background on each designer, the other looks from their collections and a video of their show (you can check it out here).

Check out these PIMP sustainably produced Lapel Flowers from Batiki. Read the review here, and purchase off Amazon here.

The Studio is at 625 Levinia Street, Garsfontein, and open every Thursday from 10am to 10pm. You can also subscribe to this blog by hitting the follow button, and join the monthly newsletter here for fashion scandal and exclusive designs.