Y-3 Men’s Men’s Fall 2011

We're back kiddas! Picking up where we left off this past Monday (Including our favorite pick, Agnes b; as our choice as the best men collection for Fall 2011). As we've stated previously, fashion week Fall 2011 is exploding everywhere left and right. So we have decided to cover and to inform all you dedicated and darling followers of ours with official coverage from the shows. Note: The picture selections you see are my picks exclusively. There is obviously much more in the collection itself. But as always, I only select the pieces that speak to me, the ones that make me feel something from an expressionist point of view.

Next up, Y-3 Men’s Men’s Fall 2011. According to fashion writer John Ortved, there was...

"Nothing that makes me happier than going to a really fancy restaurant, somewhere progressive (though it doesn’t have to be new, and the chef doesn’t need to be famous), and being sated by the simplest, most delicious food, made with the best ingredients. It can be original without being wildly experimental. And it can be bright, robust and flavorful, without reaching across the globe for different spices, textures and influences. This is how I felt walking into Y-3’s happy and laid-back F/W 2011 presentation, which was also a celebration of Adidas’ 10 years with Yohji Yamamoto.

Only a few of you will get this right away, but the collection is more Mario, less Shinobi (both Japanese video game characters, one plain and Americanized, the other ninjafied). Yamamoto’s skill is that he brings the technology and experimental wonderment of Japan’s consumerist obsession to a remarkably toned down German brand that, at the end of the day, is about a plain tennis show with three plain stripes. But the marriage works beautifully, and has so for a decade. Where they’ve lost me before is when I haven’t been able to relate on casual level to Yamamoto’s choices: his pants have been to architectural; there were too many zippers here, folds there, etc. It wasn’t even that there were too many bells and whistles, it’s that the clothing was in its entirety, and exploration of bells and whistles themselves.

I had none of those concerns with this collection. The success of its simplicity was evident from the models’ first steps, which were on a treadmill, giving the presentation the flow and rhythm if a show without any of the fuss of timing.

Yamamato has cut his coats with the rustic in mind, occasionally layering them on top of each other, giving us an image of a Siberian soldier, or lumberjack, taking on the city streets. The military element comes back around with cargo pants, and arm-pockets on the jackets. The Y-3 logo makes seldom appearances, which is a relief, and allowed the viewer to focus on his angular one-button suit jacket, high-collared plaid flannel shirt, and a grey flannel suit that was smelled of just the right amount of effort.

Hats (there are the standard woolen caps and toques here—good, but nothing to rave about) off to Y-3 for doing a presentation the right way, giving their audience time to digest Yamamoto’s fine collection, and the ten years of progress that led us to it.

**Photos courtesy of Y-3."