"I wanted to do something more modern, more futuristic," Damir Doma said backstage after his show. Funny way he has of going about it. He dug back through his own past for a collection that had, uncommonly for the designer, elements of nostalgia, even retro. With its knit ski caps and novelty (well, about as novel as he gets) alpine sweaters, Doma saw it as a seventies German ski club. At least one observer looked at the multi-pleated pants and the alpine ambition and saw further back still, to the gentlemen explorers and mountaineers of the thirties. But pleats have always been a Doma staple, and dating the collection isn't much the point anyway. More important than time was place: This was Doma at his least nomadic. The elements from international cultures he once borrowed so freely were streamlined in favor of pieces that, despite occasionally challenging proportions, looked positively urbane. ("It's a more urban reality," he confirmed.) Like so many other designers this season, he played with some of the more traditional fabrics and patterns of menswear—plaid, corduroy, gray suiting wool—and created looks that were cousins of the business suit. Even these had a ski-racer graphicism, thanks to the contrast stripes that ran across some shoulders and down backs and sides, but untuck the jackets from the nylon waistbands of Doma's carrot-shaped trousers and you more or less had office wear. Which then sent the alpine sweaters, beanies, and blown-back hair to the realm of weekend-warrior getaway. Work, play? It was positively bourgeois. "I wanted to be more confident," the designer said. It made for a change, but not an unwelcome one.
