Rochambeau Spring 2013: A Dark Wave
It’s a good thing someone at Rochambeau decided to take pictures before they flooded their Spring 2013 presentation with an overpowering green light and smokey-incense. The effect certainly helped us place the guy who’d be wearing the clothes in the cavernous depths of a future-shock subterranean pyro-rave (despite being on the 8th floor of Milk Studios), or alternately, a hidden, underground boardwalk men’s boutique/head shop, but for those of us interested in the clothes, it was hard to see what was an otherwise well executed collection. Probably the up and coming label’s best to date. Inspired by the “dark folklore surrounding water throughout history,” the guys (Laurence Chandler, Joshua Cooper and David DeStefano) drew from the same dark-side-of-the-beach vibe as Robert Geller (is melancholy-beach, an official spring 2013 trend?), though the folkloric thing clearly gave the collection a point of view all of its own. And present are recognizable Rochambeau signatures—gauzy jersey tops and modern plays on proportion and layering. Stand outs this season are the architecturally layered one button sports coat (in both peach and black) and the cool white draw string wind coat. And actually, the jewelry, which came courtesy of jewelry designer Holst + Lee. Our favorite however is the print (appearing in matching oversized T and jersey harem pants that we are dying for as well as in an oversized cardigan and jersey short), which we imagine to be the hieroglyphic translation of a lost ancient sea-faring fashion show review…or a maybe a really old rave flyer. Either way, we’re betting this one won’t stay on the store shelves for very long.
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