NYC FASHION WEEK: TIM HAMILTON

At the presentation I spoke with the editor of a particularly keen men’s fashion journal who didn’t understand Tim Hamilton’s aesthetic, he said he “didn’t get it” preferring the more sedate collection from Patrik Ervell. My explanation was that he should look at Tim’s background as a designer, all the years he spent at Ralph Lauren working on their concept team and the vintage research he did there. Hamilton’s penchant for historicism is a key part of his collection, taking century old details and shapes, reinterpreting them in modern fabrics, placing it into a world so estranged it feels quite radial despite that its DNA has been laying dormant in standard contemporary men’s dress for a century or two. For example, the nipped in waist of the glistening trench coat, evocative of the corset’s that men wore in the earlier part of the 19^th century, a fossil marking the all forgotten fanciful possibilities men once earnestly engaged in. Or the knit leggings taking a cue from men’s sleepwear of days past briskly awakened into modernity and the lifestyles we live now. The collection however, was inspired by the early 20th century Viennese Weiner Werkstatte design movement but that only seemed to be a point for departure.

It all culminates into a look that is part steampunk and part new romantic with the harder looks moving towards new wave. The 80’s were after all a decade full of historic references re-imagined for an over stimulated and confident society. Add on top of that lux fabrications that rival anything from the most indulgent European brands and you have something quite special and unique. Certainly Hamilton’s clothes are not the most accessible in either their look or their price point and they’re not supposed to be. But they are truly desirable. Hamilton is surely one of the most promising menswear talents on either side of the Atlantic.

*images by Shawn Brackbill for Dazed and Confused

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