During the past month, the men’s NYFW for the Spring/Summer 2018 Collections have been breaking the fashion industry by storm with the quality and meaning behind multiple of the collections.
The HEAD OF STATE designer, Taofeek Abijako, particularly left critics astounded by his designs throughout his SS ’18 collection. He managed to create a social impact through cultural designs and concepts behind the collection of the season. The theme revolved around the colonialism in West Africa. The inspiration for this concept came from multiple African contemporary photographers and artists. Some of the influencers of the designs consist of Clic Clac Baby, Malick Sidibe, and Samuel Fosso. The HEAD OF STATE SS ’18 season collection wanted to capture how normality in society has returned in West Africa through multiple efforts but wanted to feature an elegance and soulful manner that represented the birth of all nations throughout West Africa. This collection mainly revolved around multiple different aspects, which this collection was known for during men’s NYFW. It included skillful color blocking throughout the designs and the pairing of a new sense of street style. As this collection has includes a wonderful representation of multiple cultures and nations the fashion industry has to wonder what is coming next from Taofeek Abijako’s HEAD OF STATE brand.
Raun Larose featured a different design throughout the SS ’18 collection. This collection’s inspiration revolved around the 1980s. The representation for this seasons designs was to show how technology on the mass cultural ideal influences society. Raun Larose wanted this season to symbolize multiple themes throughout the collection. The apparent themes were to show a romanticized, nerdy, and extremely exaggerated collection in the modern era. Some articles of clothing that revolved around the 80s featured oversized jackets and pants in multiple unique shapes. Progressive fabrics were used to symbolize the increasing artificiality and virtual reality of society. Inorganic materials were used to give the collection a retro-futuristic feeling. An artist named Jose Chunà designed stripes for the collection to reference towards a computer screen about to crash. This collections main theory is to question the future and where society is headed within technology.
Another brand that took a different approach to the fashion industry is C2H4. For the SS ’18 NYFW, this brand’s feature collection was called “Zero Gravity.” The designer’s vision was for chemists on Mars. This was to resemble a laboratory work wear collection for chemists in the year 2082. Feature pieces included laboratory coats, utility vests, and multifunctional anorak. Bottoms consisted of technical sweatpants, pocketed cargo pants, and side-strap track pants. This collection wanted to represent saturated and monochromatic color schemes to boost certain colors such as multiple blues, reds, and urban yellows.