The sorry state of the official New York’s men’s schedule notwithstanding, the action in fashion in 2020 is in menswear. Watching the recently wrapped shows in London, Milan, and Paris is to witness the explosion of the old rules. There were strass brooches at Kim Jones’s Dior Men and David Bowie–by-way-of–Kansai Yamamoto one-legged jumpsuits at Rick Owens. It’s out with the stuffy and old, and in with the experimental, the gender-liquid, and the new.
Duckie Brown’s Steven Cox and Daniel Silver are riding that wavelength for fall. Consider the back-to-front button-down in see-through chiffon Cox models in Look 4. Or the black shorts of Look 12; those extravagant swaths of fabric Cox clutches in his hands tie together to produce a particularly exuberant bow. As he so lovingly put it, the duo’s fabric choices this season lean, “a little grandma.” The delicate painted floral of a silk pajama set is particularly pretty, but the pink silk jacquards they counterintuitively used for their tailoring were also quite dandy.
Most of the fabrics they’re using these days are pulled from their own stockpiles. That’s another way they’re sensing the times: reducing, reusing, and recycling. Silver also recently surfaced a large quantity of the leather gloves he made in the 1980s to sell at the salon nights they host in their showroom-gallery. The red leather pair hand-painted with black spots would look fetching on the woman who buys their double-breasted black silk jacquard jacket with the shrunken waistcoat over it.
