Ry Cooder's music for Paris, Texas is practically the loneliest sound in the world. That made it an appropriate intro for Tomas Maier's new collection, in which he imagined a man on a road trip to rediscover a country he'd spent too much time flying over. The scenario offered the designer a golden opportunity to develop his signature blend of the hyper-casual and the super-formal, and he made the most of it.
Since Maier's hero would be living out of his car trunk, his shirts were wrinkled and his suits crumpled. And because he would be crossing long stretches of desert, materials for even the outerwear (a nylon parka, a cotton trench) were featherweight. The sand-toned suits that opened the show were cut from bleached classic fabrics patchworked like camouflage or topographic maps, but they were the most urban pieces on display. The utilitarian pieces that followed, in white cotton and washed suedes and leathers, suggested the wardrobe of an explorer. Maier emphasized athleticism with micro-perforated fabrics, sometimes in gussetlike insets used to articulate seams.
But things really came into their own with a series of monochrome outfits in maroon, petrol blue, and olive green, especially a coat, pants, top, and intrecciato tote, all in the same military shade. Maier found his models all over the place, from L.A. to B.A. (as in Buenos Aires), and their sensual polymorphousness perfectly suited the road-trip theme—a valuable reminder of how much casting can add to a show.
