Boss continues to cast itself adrift from the tight-tailoring template that anchors much of its conventional corporate appeal, yet which on the fickle and frothy seas of fashion is overexposed to the point of anachronism. So, for Spring ’18, chief brand officer Ingo Wilts today shipped in a likely crew of nu-tailoring and nautically flecked luxury-workwear-wearing models to the lower shores of Manhattan.
The key looks in this collection were, absolutely, the suits: Double-breasted, notch-lapeled, barely-padded jackets were cut to angle jauntily downward from the back of the skirt down to the front when worn open. The pants below were belted high, generously pleated, and tapered toward the ankle. They featured a uniform flash of stripe down the side of each leg (they’ll probably offer a plain option at retail). In both navy textured cotton or neutral-toned paper-finished cotton, they looked good.
Around these keystone tailoring pieces Wilts charted an entertaining enough course through his vision of luxury urban casualwear. Crunchy leather macs and soft cotton collarless trenches flowed full above more tapered pants gathered at the waist by emergency whistle and bungee-hung hook-buckle belts. Polo shirts and vests were impressively wrought in knitted twists of suede. White sneakers flashed red at the sole with each step as models swung their leather or mesh duffel bags stamped with H-B-N-Y. Bomber jackets and bucket hats featured the semaphore flags of those locally branded initials, and some pieces were further embellished with the latitude and longitude of the Boss store in Columbus Circle. This ensured that any crew member who enjoyed his shore leave too enthusiastically could be returned to his outfitter of choice. Today’s show was the second leg of Boss’s menswear runway reset under the command of its veteran company captain: So far, all’s well.
