Fall 2006 Harmon

There were a mere ten male models in his tableau vivant for fall, but Andrew Harmon compressed a whole world of adolescent sartorial dreams—Rocky Horror, Roxy Music, CBGB—into those outfits. (For his accompanying womenswear, meanwhile, he was channeling Christiane F. and Jodie Foster’s Foxes!)
There was a whiff of Roxy’s Bryan Ferry in a gray velvet smoking jacket worn over a glam gold shirt, and Rocky’s Riff Raff was evoked by a boy in cotton gabardine tails. That combination of elegant form and prosaic content has always been a Harmon signature, and it could also be seen here in a pair of denim dungarees paired with a double-faced satin jacket, as well as in leather jeans topped by a little satin vest. Elsewhere, Harmon stepped up the fabrics this season. Witness his silk mesh evening shirt (decorously sheer) or the silk satin suiting he used for high-waist trousers. “If you’re going to go glam, you’ve got to do it right,” he said.

Fall 2006 Duckie Brown

The venue—a mirrored salon in the Carlyle Hotel—spoke volumes. Steven Cox and Daniel Silver, unabashed purveyors of fashion wackiness, were taking their label Duckie Brown uptown, and to prove the point, the first outfit was a dark gray houndstooth crombie. “It’s our most serious, most classic collection,” said Cox, confirming the shift in sensibility. “And our most experimental,” he quickly added.
If at first glance the uncharacteristically somber palette appeared to give the lie to that statement, a closer look revealed Duckie’s signature odd cuts to be present and accounted for, especially in full trousers draped and gathered at the waist. And items were doubled up in trompe l’oeil effects: a waistcoat over a jacket, both with a lacquered sheen, or wrap shorts over full trousers with a matching jacket.
The peculiar little details that have always distinguished Cox and Silver’s clothes were more subtle than usual. A white shirt was beaded in black, suggesting it had been slashed by animal claws. Silver said they’d been inspired by a children’s tale about a scary night, which was a salutary reminder that part of the charm of the Duckie Brown label rests on the fact that it’s in touch with its inner child. The final jacket, whorled in bright colors, was further proof that, for all the new seriousness, Cox and Silver haven’t lost that touch.

Fall 2006 DSquared

For Fall 2006, those irrepressible showmen Dean and Dan Caten conjured a vision of WASP aristocracy, one that was less Ralph Lauren than “I want to be a Hilton.” The result was a typically anarchic exercise in clashes of high and low culture. A long coat, red sash, and topper looked fit for an ambassadorial reception, except for the distressed denims they were paired with. A bandy-legged equestrian strolled down the turfed catwalk in glossy, olive-green leather combats.

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