Just Relax : Menswear Wants Nothing to Do With Stiff Power Looks of ‘80s

GQ magazine threw a party at the Soho branch of the Guggenheim Museum here last week. Dozens of male models, wearing designer clothes for next fall, stood on boxes--the better for hors d’oeuvre-munching editors and garmentos to see them.

One model wore a plumed cap and the kind of clothes the Von Trapp boys might have worn if they’d grown up to be hustlers. Another wore an animal print blazer with entire animals on it. The message was “Welcome to the Jungle,” now go home.

Many, of course, wore clothes that were boring, which means they wore clothes that men who are not in the fashion business will actually buy and wear eight months from now. But, all in all, it looked like an audition for the New Village People: an outfit for every archetype of masculinity.

The series of fashion presentations that began last week and wrapped up Thursday with the close of the three-day Designers’ Collective trade show illustrate a shift in men’s style. Designers continue to move as far away from the power looks of the 1980s as possible. Now, anything too stiffly buttoned-up or, conversely, too foofy and nightclub-ready seems outdated, or “wrong” as we say in fashion-ese.

What looks right are clothes best described as countrified, casual, tweedy, quirky, soft but rugged, vintage-y but not retro. This means high-button antique-look suits; three-piece tweeds; soft-shouldered or unconstructed jackets; bulky cable and pieced patchwork sweaters; sweat pants (n place of jeans); and plaid outerwear.

The Donna Karan Men collection, one of last week’s best, resembles the spoils of a particularly good mission to Goodwill Industries. High-buttoning vests, long narrow jackets and jodhpur pants in Donegal tweeds are her vintage three-piece suits. In her more casual, less costly DKNY Men collection, Karan makes felted lambswool sweat pants an alternative to jeans, chocolate suede or black velvet jeans as an alternative to denim. From her upper-priced signature collection come cashmere rib-yoke turtlenecks and luxurious but broken-in sport coats.

Calvin Klein’s “antique” suits are six-button double-breasted affairs worn over “henley” undershirts, as those button-placket crew necks are called. Trousers tucked into ankle boots were Klein’s best styling trick.

Perry Ellis Signature, designed by Andrew Corrigan is pleasantly ‘70s in its inspiration. Slim trousers, often plain-front, have been Perry Ellis staples for several seasons now. But, for fall, bell-bottom jeans reappear in denim.

Joseph Abboud shows cabled cardigans with toggle horn buttons, “pottery” sweaters that resemble Dhurrie rugs, and a rust hand-knit cable sweater that was everything a man’s sweater should be.

John Bartlett’s drawstring “mountain jeans” were sweat pants styled in wool. Shirt jackets came in charcoal plaid and were meant to go with solid trousers cut like ski pants.