“I’m nonetheless getting used to the climate,” Rhuigi Villaseñor mentioned with a shrug. “A complete of eight years dwelling right here, and all I do know is va bene.” The on a regular basis reflections on his lengthy affair with Italy anchored the temper of Empire of Time, Rhude’s fall 2026 assortment. It unfolded as a gradual negotiation between California and the boot-shaped nation, with consolidation at its core. “It’s an evolution of spring,” mentioned Villaseñor, candid in regards to the strategic shift behind it. After years of high-impact reveals, he scaled again the presentation format to deal with clients reasonably than the calendar.
The recalibration felt each economical and philosophical: “All the things is sociology. When somebody asks me what I do,” Villaseñor mentioned, “I’m a teller of the time. We log the zeitgeist. We log the info.” For him, this season was about main reasonably than reacting, even when that meant betting on items that don’t have fast rack enchantment. His long-running challenge is to blur the road between consolation and ceremony with out surrendering both, and fabrication underscored that ambition. Italian wools sourced from Florence sat alongside Japanese indigo twill and herringbone, whereas French terry grew to become the bottom for what he referred to as a “traxedo”—a monitor pant engineered like a tux.
Carrot-cut trousers echoed the benefit of sweatpants, reduce in suiting wool as an alternative; varsity jackets and zip hoodies have been rendered with a softer, extra tailor-made hand. The model’s beloved T-shirts remained—“It’s the bread and butter, it’s our heritage”—however they not dominated the narrative. The identical utilized to motor and sports activities references, shifting away from overt graphics towards a extra managed vocabulary.
Whereas tailor-made clothes and elevated outerwear are produced in Italy, Los Angeles stays the locus of Rhude’s washed-down Americana. “It’s ’50s La Familia,” the designer mentioned, “It’s Frank Sinatra, it’s jazz. We’re not singing celebration songs anymore.” Denim was handled to realize a superbly imperfect patina, Nappa leather-based was sanded and softened, and wools have been overwhelmed as much as seem like they’d been discovered at Goodwill.
But Villaseñor is just not abandoning spectacle completely. He hinted at a renewed deal with equipment, and a future runway second tied to world partnerships. “I don’t wish to be led by my clients,” he mentioned, “I wish to educate them.” It’s a dangerous stance in a consumer-led market, however one aligned along with his bigger ambition: to construct one thing with the longevity of the homes he admires. “If we’re trying to construct like Ralph Lauren or Giorgio Armani,” he mentioned, half-smiling, “we’ve received a protracted method to go.”
