"There's not much you can do with men," Tomas Maier murmured after his show today. What he meant was that perfectionists like him always have to work round the fundamental physical limitations of torso and limbs. Maier did his best to change the equation a little with his new Bottega Veneta collection. The magic word was "elongation." Everything, skinny ties included, was designed to emphasize verticality. Trousers were laced to a legging leanness. Jackets were cropped to highlight pipe-stem legs heading floorward. Shoes were lengthened, the reasoning being that an extended foot creates the illusion of a longer leg. And boots had stacked heels—not Cuban, not Western, Maier was quick to point out. "I'm just looking to change a man's stance," he added. He could count that effort a success, if the tipped-forward posture of his models was any indication.
There is something irrevocably rock 'n' roll about skinny young men tottering around in tight pants and boots. Maier slyly acknowledged that fact when he showed a silvered shearling jacket. Equally, there's something of the male hustler in such a look, so perhaps we could add Maier's midnight cowboy to the list of American archetypes that he has drawn inspiration from over the years.
It was nowhere near as easy to parse the interventions that characterized the collection's tailoring. Geometric blocks and strands of color overlaid jackets. "It's the culmination of my fabric treatments," Maier explained, but it felt like a point had been missed. And Tomas Maier never misses a point. So it's unlikely that this particular outing will be counted as one of his finest.
