For Fall, Boss’s chief brand officer, Ingo Wilts, took his menswear branch yet further afield from the pylons that have long held Hugo Boss’s engines, those things in the realm of the tailored and the corporate. Wilts didn’t totally leave the finery behind, but he did, smartly and with a quirky-cool measure, bring in a distinct athletic element. “We named it ‘sports tailoring,’ ” he said, straightforwardly. “There are, especially, baseball influences. . . . It’s such a New York thing, baseball. This is combined with our heritage, and then a layer of protective surfaces, like rainwear, is also present.”
The results were strong: XL outerwear, padded and filled with down, felt younger and freer than what we typically see from Boss while remaining expertly made and strict in execution. Baseball jersey shirting, with piping down the plackets, also registered as neatly new and laid-back. There were even knits with intarsia inlays of baseball players, flanked by ponchos, always well-done blazers, and great tailored trousers with drawstring waists and ribbed cuffs.
To that last point: The actor Armie Hammer and his wife, Elizabeth Chambers, were watching from the front row, both looking sharp in Boss. “I try to only wear things that I feel comfortable in,” said Hammer, backstage after the show. “I love the concept of high fashion, but at the same time, if you feel out of your own skin or out of your element, then you won’t really wear it well anyway.” With that, he turned to the runway: “I love the waistbands,” before adding, with a wink-wink kind of ardor (and you’ll know this if you follow him on Instagram): “I’m a bit of a tracksuit man myself.” That hit the message home: This was an often covetable and comfortable Boss collection, and it was satisfying to see Wilts and the brand move in this more unrestrained manner.
