Perry Ellis' creative director, John Crocco, was thinking of Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, when he began designing the season. That house, dappled in soft evening light, gave rise to the neutral, camel-infused palette, with lovely twilight greens and grays; its architecture became some of the pieced, paneled, and color-blocked garments.
A Connecticut country-house vibe suffused the whole collection, in fact—one that was more WASP than Modernist. There were riding jackets and car coats, soft plaid trousers and chunky cabled knits. A tip of the hat to the now came courtesy of unexpected pairings of fabric and style: piped tux pants made in washed corduroy, or formal-cut trousers made of denim, not wool. A short wool Eisenhower jacket bucked its midcentury military roots to arrive in myriad forms: in tonal, patchwork gray wool flannel; in an exploded plaid print; and in a version Crocco declared his favorite, a piecemeal shearling, worn with appropriate aplomb by a sauntering, swaggerly Sean O'Pry.
