Belgian designer Kris Van Assche has been on my radar for a long time, but just barely. I look at his work, his collections, keep tabs...
But his Spring Summer '15 collection at Paris Fashion Week had my mind making connections... it is a fun, pleasant collection that made me flash on a certain teenage, high school milieu. There is a fresh, young masculinity to the pieces that reference school uniforms (I love the shorts and pants with knee vents!) with ties disappearing into odd extra pouches across the shirt, but also a young man's first suit. "I wanted to return to that time in a man's life when he is stepping out into the world, maybe for the first time, and he is eager to conquer it," Van Assche said at the show. But what I love about this collection is that the teenagers in question seem to be European, and they seem to be quietly emulating a kind of California style that includes puca shell necklaces, nylon bomber jackets, and flip flops and sandals. But if these young Frenchmen were to try to blend in with a California crowd, they would seem different somehow, a little too stylish in an indefinable way... their clothes would be cut a little too well, and with a little too much intellect...
