Look around the menswear collections for fall 2022 and you will find an astonishing number of coats. Great coats! Beautiful coats! But underneath all that layering is in many instances suiting, and underneath that suiting, well, the clothes that guys will wear every day don’t really seem to matter. Where are the new ideas for menswear? The new shapes, silhouettes, and fabrics that will upend sartorial tradition in 2022?
Angelo Urrutia’s 4SDesigns has some ace outerwear, but the story of this collection is one of textile experimentation. Working with mills across Italy, he’s developed a pastel-speckled tweed, an irregular quilted viscose plaid, a virgil wool tubico, a wool cashmere melton, a recycled cotton bouclé…to list them all would take up the space for this entire review. What happens next is he transforms these materials—some a little raw, like the collaged cravat fabric, and others finessed, like the foliage brocade—into humble, easy to adopt silhouettes.
Urrutia is an expert at taking the stuffing and stuffiness out of menswear. The insides of each garment are meticulously considered—his shearling poncho-hoodie has lined interior pockets coated in fur—but the overall effect is something shrugged-on. Not too precious. Jacket sleeves are unlined, camp shirts are airy, and trousers come with an adjustable waistband in most instances and a healthy dose of pleats in others. The casual nature is pulled from Urrutia’s Queens upbringing and the way he and his friends dress now—even at dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant everyone looks comfortable, at ease, and at home.
Which takes us to the larger idea here. Inspired by the propriety of old Town & Country magazines, he called this collection Town & Country, Homeland—in Spanish Pueblo & Pais, Patria—exploring ideas of what it means to feel at home. A yellow knit takes its graphics from the signs at the United States-Mexico border. Handmade headpieces and feather motifs are inspired by Central American culture. (Urrutia is from El Salvador.) Other pieces nod to Armani and Chanel, but pack less punch than what the designer does best: make clothes for worldly guys with the bravado to pull off a new kind of luxury. Way cooler than a collection of coats.
