It is a scene that might gladden the guts of anybody sufficiently old to recollect it. (That may be me.) Alan Balletshofer, the Berlin-based wunderkind whose youth belies his potential to make very grownup garments along with his eponymous menswear label Balletshofer, set his present round an electrical blue and silver espresso bar-cum-newspaper kiosk, with a few fashions working as baristas. In entrance of the bar, cafe tables and chairs had been arrange for the viewers to sit down, chill out, sip a espresso, and perhaps take the time to leaf by the paper fairly than furiously doom scroll on the cellphone. (Sigh. Bear in mind these days? I do. All we are able to do as of late is doom scroll.)
Or alternatively, the viewers might have watched Balletshofer’s present. He despatched out an excellent run of gleaming fake leather-based aviator jackets, with face framing buckled faux fur collars; excessive necked minimalist suiting as black as a nitro chilly brew; and, grey overcoats whose single breasted fastenings have been ever so barely askew, worn over a combo of crisp white shirts and black ties that appeared one half Kraftwerk, one half American Psycho. To drive his setting house Balletshofer labored with the esteemed native newspaper Berliner Zeitung, who printed up copies of the paper with one of many seems from the brand new assortment; that’s one method to make the information. (And for his lookbook for the gathering, Balletshofer shot it at Berliner Zeitung’s printing plant.)
It was a wise and enjoyable concept: Witty, intelligent, ingenious. However Balletshofer went one higher and it’s an concept so darned easy and efficient you need to surprise why nobody else has performed it. (Perhaps some model will now, let’s see.) Strictly working off a wardrobe of a dozen or so seems—along with the aforementioned, that included baseball jackets, tweedy fits comprising shirting and slouchy-ish pants, and buffalo plaid flannel blousons; a collection of garments for day to nighttime, informal to formal, and far of it worn with blue-laced Timberland footwear, his second collaboration with the model— Balletshofer despatched every look out a number of instances, on totally different fashions, to underscore how garments can learn in another way if you swap up who’s carrying them and the angle and magnificence with which they’re worn.
It labored, and it labored effectively as a result of of their choreographed motion—generally a leisurely stroll, different instances at a clip sooner than a chaotic Berlin (or certainly New York) minute—the multitude of men sporting Balletshofer’s garments made them really feel actual and tangible and, better of all, wearable. It might have been much more impactful if the number of these within the garments had prolonged to guys of various ages and physiques. But the takeaway right here stays the identical: Balletshofer has positive instincts on what guys would possibly wish to put on in the present day—and the smarts to know how one can convey that in an unique and distinctive approach.
