People smugly say: “If you know, you know.” But what if you don’t know and think something might be worth getting to know? 4SDesigns is a brand well worth getting acquainted with, whether you were in at the beginning of founder Angelo Urrutia’s story or not. One of the finalists in this year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, Urrutia is under a lot of scrutiny right now. Accompanied by his wife, Lilly, at this buzzy presentation on the last day of Paris Menswear Fashion Week at La Société, he unpacked the detail of a collection that demonstrated why.
A New Yorker through and through, Urrutia prefaced the walk-through by saying it was inspired by a blend of Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, and New Jack City—so Alvy Singer x Harry Burns x Nino Brown. An MA-1 was faced with orange tweed instead of polyester, along with a desert viscose, and worn over a mirrored homage to Martin Margiela. Urrutia said the original was something he’d lusted after way back in the ’90s but never had the funds for. There was a tribute to the influential analog DIY broadcast of Manhattan Cable in a logo jacket as well as on a horizontally striped cotton-silk shirt and pants.
Possibly the prime look was the gray check foulard scarf trench and shirt in a reflective material worn over a black sateen skirt that was snappable into a short. But then it also could’ve been the reversible green bomber jacket in iridescent organza with scrim-like tufts falling from it. Or in fact was it the bottonato-yarn shirt whose hand-hewn horizontal stripes included sections of raffia, worn with denim-looking leather jeans?
Urrutia’s trademark chore-meets-Chanel jacket was present and correct, both in black and monochrome bouclé, over a tweaked-collar oxford shirt with vertical blue stripes in shifting densities of tone. A black organza short-sleeve shirt with fil coupé camouflage detailing and a white thick-yarn shirt with embedded curls of black beading were among the other beauties here; both would have sat finely against the designer’s flowing cupro work pants. As we worked the rails, he also mentioned The Great Gatsby and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, two more great American stories. Urrutia is developing a pretty interesting story of his own.
