Last season, Duckie Brown’s Steven Cox and Daniel Silver moved their label into experimental, creation-and-curation territory. It’s working. At the pair’s Meatpacking District space they sell newly made Duckie Brown pieces alongside vintage ones (and there are non-Duckie Brown vintage finds in the mix, too). There’s art, on rotation (currently sculpture by Ohad Meromi, including retro-kitsch palm tree lamps). There’s a cutting room table filled with Speedo swimsuits that are pinned with confetti scraps of fabric. Essentially, the idea feels like a very glossy tag sale.
That being said, Cox and Silver do work on a new collection each season—it just finds itself distilled into their blend, which is a refreshing thing to observe. Call it a slower-than-slow-roll approach; they’re not violating the rules, they’re just working entirely on their own terms. The reason, Cox says, “is because we love doing it this way. That’s it.” He also mentions that, even though the lookbook is photographed with a female model, he still considers Duckie Brown a menswear line. “I am not a womenswear designer. I’m useless at womenswear. But, I think we have a bigger female customer base at the moment.” These two have never really followed convention, and Cox’s logic, therein, makes sense.
The story for the new collection, if it can be extricated from the jumble, is jersey—particularly the use of jersey on outerwear, like Crombie coats, peacoats, Harrington coats, and aviator jackets. Some examples were heavier, some were more liquid in patina. One highlight, the Crombie, was featherlight. “Is it a T-shirt or a coat?” Cox asked. “Because it’s kind of a T-shirt.” Precedent would have it called a coat, but again, they’re operating outside of the standard here. Another takeaway was a one-of-a-kind reworked bomber jacket, inset with a lapis-hue, sequin-embroidered halter off of an old Oscar de la Renta dress. As for their best-selling elongated silk shirt, its new iteration for Spring features skinny, simple referee stripes.
