Hillary Clinton was there. So was a new retooled fashion industry film version of “Texts from Hillary,” which garnered a knowing smile from the Secretary. She was, you know, just doing a little honoring of Oscar de la Renta. Bravo’s Andy Cohen hosted the 2013 CFDA Awards and incorporated elements of his talk show “What What Happens Live” into the evening’s program with light hearted segments you like “The Vault” during which photos of the nominees from the 80’s and 90’s were revealed. Giggles and humility ensued. A film by Jun Diaz which was shot at a historic Renaissance Revival mansion was featured and provided a thematic foundation through which all individual honoree and nominee tributes were connected.
And then there were the winners. Menswear designer of the year went to Thom Browne. A deserving win but not the exciting upset it would have been if first time nominees (for designer of the year) Daniel Silver and Steven Cox of Duckie Brown/Perry Ellis would have won. Dao-Yi Chow & Maxwell Osbornefor of one of our favorite up and coming brands, Public School, took home the highly coveted Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent in the menswear category.
“We are honored and extremely grateful for this award. We were competing against very talented designers. To be recognized by our peers, editors and the fashion industry is an incredible moment,” says Chow. Adds Osborne, “We are thankful to the CFDA and Swarovski for creating this amazing platform for American designers. The menswear award is truly an honor.” Our eyes were already fixated on their growth from an indie label known for mixing structure into scruffy & edgy looks into now a CFDA award winning brand. There’s plenty to love about their Spring collection, but we’re pining for the next edition of their shoe collaboration with Generic Man that are coming mid-summer (image below).
Another notable menswear winner? Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy who was recognized with this year’s International Award, presented by Jessica Chastain.
On the womenswear side, Proeza Schouler won the award for best womenswear designer and the Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent in Womenswear was given to Erin Beatty & Max Osterweis for Suno. 3.1 Phillip Lim took home top nods in accessories with Pamela Love doing the same for the Swarovski Award for Emerging Talent in Accessories.
The night was electric and seemed to mark a turn in the page towards the future. Names like Thom Browne and Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler, that at only a mere decade ago would have been considered upstarts walked away with the most widely recognized award in the industry. New talent like Public School, Sumo and Pamela Love have been set on the same course. Time, style…and the CFDA…marches on.
When the music stopped halfway through the show, we were fairly certain it was on purpose. Is it because the Steven Cox and Daniel Silver are contrarian, playful and irreverent? Well…yes. Exactly and exactly why we adore these two. Why play music when there’s an undertone rhythmic bleeping and clicking inherent to a show. Why wear one coat when you can wear two—here with a bomber over a top coat. Can contrasting shades of the same color be worn together? Paneled and celebrated, actually. Should shirting always stop just below the belt line? A commonly held myth that’s bucked throughout. Are sweatshirts always worn beneath your jacket? Think again, especially when there’s proportion to play with. Do jackets always need to button in the front. Absolutely not. Indeed. The clothes here are classic Duckie Brown—challenging the way men, and especially American men conceive of dress, and have left us fully provoked.
On the whole, there are two completely satisfying things about the first ever Perry Ellis collection by Duckie Brown—first, we get the pleasure of seeing what commercial goodies Steven Cox and Daniel Silver are able to concoct while wearing corporate gloves and second, we get a brand new Perry Ellis that’s not as much reworked as it is taken to the future. Wait, stop. Quick check of history—Perry Ellis the man was once (back in the 70’s and 80’s) the enfant terrible of American men’s Fashion—before even Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. Ok, back to the now. There are elements that are strictly Perry Ellis—like khaki, and plenty of it (also the herringbone set was an homage to the walls at Perry Ellis’ Seventh Avenue Studio where he used to hold his fashion shows), and there’re aspects that have Duckie Brown written all over it, like drop crotch pants. The combo is laid back excitement and brazen politeness. Yes, the color story could be considered, uh, pale, monochromatic, but in its assembly and construction, it never veers too far from the playful soul of Duckie Brown. So how did Duckie Brown, makers of conceptual mens/unisex clothing who’re one half British come to take the reigns of one of the most storied, commercial American brands around? We sat down with them to have a little Kha-ki, if you will, and find out.
Essential Homme: We meet again! And you’re debuting the first Perry Ellis by Duckie Brown collection. Tell us about your first memories or interactions with Perry Ellis.
Steven Cox: He wasn’t someone I grew up with at college in London. The designers I would normally reference would be like Westwood and Yohji. There weren’t many American designers who made an impact on me while I was growing up. Maybe Calvin Klien and years later, Ralph Lauren—I think Ralph is the king. But Perry Ellis no.
Daniel Silver: I think it was when Perry Ellis approached us I said to Duckie (Steven) that we should go see some images and get a feeling for what the brand was and where it is so we know how to talk them about what we can do.
SC: I think sometimes its good that I didn’t (know more about Perry Ellis), because sometimes if you don’t know what it is it can be fresher.
DS: It’s not us recreating Perry Ellis, because that never works for anyone. Also this is not Perry Ellis, this is Perry Ellis by Duckie Brown. It is a new day and it is a new designer label. So we have tried to be respectful to the heritage of what we think is valuable of Perry Ellis pre-1985 (ed. note: Perry Ellis died in 1986 but the brand continued), but beyond that this is a whole new ballgame.
SC: There doesn’t seem to be any archive of the mens so we haven’t seen any of the past collections. There were 104 DVDs given to us, and of course we didn’t watch all of them. I was only interested from when he was alive. So we put 3 videos on at a time and just had in them in a loop at the studio for a few days, and we had some interviews and fashion shows. But you know, fashion shows used to be like an hour and fifteen minutes!
DS: They were like one long cocktail party. Models drinking on the runway, eating on the apples.
SC: It was almost quite boring and I would notice some interesting things but…. I didn’t want to dive too deep into the archive of Perry Ellis because I already had a vision already of what I wanted for Perry Ellis by Duckie Brown early on, before we even got the job. It was basically, I wanted an army of khaki soldiers. I wanted 32 beautiful guys, different looking than the ducky brown casting, more clean cut, not American, but an American-European, a beautiful guy.
DS: Listen, for Duckie Brown, if you’re English and kind of ugly and weird looking we want you. There’s none of that here. We went for a more understandable beauty. This is a more commercial collection, we want to reach a bigger audience. Yes, it feels also, you can see our influence, but we’re going after a different piece of the market here so we had to tune ourselves accordingly.
EH: So how did you tune yourselves for something that’s more commercial?
DS: Duckie Brown is fashion with a big “F” and we want to make your blood boil and get a reaction out of you and change your eye as to how things can be worn or how things are supposed to be. Perry Ellis by Duckie Brown is that, but taken way down. It’s still a show but its for a wider audience. A more transatlantic sportswear collection.
SC: I don’t think taking it down are the right words. You look at it with different eyes. Separation. Sometimes people find it hard to separate. We do 5 lines. I don’t have the same head in every collection. I move it around. People sometimes may think they do Duckie Brown and that’s all they do. We don’t. We do Duckie Brown, Mr. Brown by Duckie Brown, Florsheim, we do this line in Korea and now, this. Its not less than or down, this was easier than doing Duckie Brown. I find it much easier to show it because Duckie Brown is much more particular, it’s a fantasy self. I wouldn’t wear all of Duckie Brown but I am wearing one of these pieces. Perry Ellis by Duckie Brown is done in a fashion format. I feel very confident with this collection and I don’t always feel confident about Duckie Brown.
DS: It’s our handwriting. With Duckie we had no constraints. For Perry Ellis we had the responsibility to maintain the integrity of a brand that once was, but to re create something new that felt relevant for today. The danger here is that you, as an audience member, will think we’re being too Duckie or being to Perry and it’s a very fine line for us to walk. I think we nailed it.
SC: I always think if I pushed it far enough. This season I didn’t push it far enough.
DS: People are going to think that we pushed it, trust me. We have an incredible work gold jacket with matching shorts and a gold mesh shirt.
EH: Now, tell us about all this Khaki. Not such Duckie or, really, outrageous material, but one that Perry Ellis himself was rather known for mastering.
DS: It’s fabric!
SC: We used the same mills as Duckie Brown. for Perry Ellis. Khaki is a very loose term. We start off with what you expect khaki to be and then we move through gold khaki, olive khaki, grey khaki, olive khaki and end with like, pink.
DS: We took the idea of khaki and exploded it. It’s 50 shades of khaki darling.
Duckie Brown’s Spring 2013 collection was first, punk rock and second, angelic. Actually, their creations were just how we imagine Johnny Ramone might dress up in heaven. Tough guy tartan, leather and denim were formulated with Duckie Brown’s signature ephemeral, fantastical and über-loose and/or hyper-tight men’s silhouettes. There were smile-inducing over the top looks—like a backless Harrington jacket and gigantic flower-breasted jacket—stuff you might have a hard time finding a place to wear, but their inventiveness also translated beautifully into things those of you who love to take (realistic) risks in your wardrobe can outright covet. Especially in the form of outerwear. Duckie Brown make some heavenly jackets, here, you’ll adore the denim trucker, red hidalgo baseball jacket, oversized Camel motorcycle jacket, and the slick black fitted motorcycle jacket.
Before the show, we had the chance to sit down with the guys/design angels. Their mind frame going in to the show was upbeat-chill and we learned some very interesting things. Donatella Versace and Steven Cox share 2 maybe, and 1 definite thing in common, Daniel Silver and Steven Cox often have very different ideas about what they’re doing, and they don’t actually think anyone should wear that gigantic black flower we formerly spoke of. On Earth at least.
left to right: Daniel Silver, Matt Bell, Steven Cox
Essential Homme: So guys—how was your summer?
Steven Cox: Well, I don’t want to work in August ever again! (Laughs) We try to go away as much as possible so this year we went to Mexico City and a to little beach town on the Pacific, Puerto Escondito, all the way down in Oaxaca.
Daniel Silver: Good sea food and Steven learned to surf! Then we were in Toronto and up by the lakes. A Friend has a cottage there and then we went to Shelter Island.
EH: Were you guys inspired by any of these places? What were you thinking about when you made the collection?
SC: I saw this YouTube thing the other day and it was really interesting. I never felt that I would ever have anything to do with Donatella Versace…except my looks (laughs) and my wig (laughs). I think the inspiration thing is old fashioned. Anyway, Donatella’s in the back of her limo going to one of her shows or something and she had a camera folioing her, some kinda reality thing, and someone asked her what she hated the most. She said the thing she hated the most is the question of—what’s your inspiration—She said that it was too impossible to answer. Ok, inspirations work for some designers, like Michael Kors who has that one inspiration of the woman, the jet setter, and that’s really, really solid and it works for him. For me, there’s no one thing I can tell you. It changes and evolves every day. Why did I do this collection, I really have no idea. Why did I choose this hard-edged, rough, collection with boys that are looking hard but they’re not hard at all because the clothes can be women….
DS: I don’t think that’s true though. I think there’s a lot of the collection that’s hard and its leather and denim and it kind of flips to a softer more feminine side because that’s us. You’ve got both.
SC: We like the tension.
DS: And we often don’t agree.
SC: Like what he’ll say about the inspiration I just don’t think is true. If I really paired it down to one thing, This inspiration came from two words Tim Blanks (from style.com) said to me backstage last season that I won’t repeat because its just isn’t right.
DS: …and they weren’t fuck you. But the two words he did was were the jumping off point.
SC: So the inspiration—two words from Tim Blanks.
DS: But its always a continuation of where we left off. It is a feeling and how do you describe a feeling.
EH: Guys have been more willing to take risks in their wardrobe recently, something you’ve been doing on the runway for the past 11 years. What is it about now you think is causing that?
DS: I think men are more open. I think it’s the reality shows and blogs and stuff. Men are getting that there’s a word out there called fashion and the game has shifted and is changing, the rules need not necessarily apply. And so I think men are more willing to take more risks but I think Europe is much more interesting in what they are doing. In the US it’s business as usual. That’s my feeling
SC: I dunno. I think if you go back in history men were elaborate and would wear crazy clothes. I think it’s gone the other way and men are ending up all looking the same and there’s this thing of you don’t want to look like a peacock or stand out.
DS: No, I think that was the ’50s. In the ’12s you can wear a colored brogue.
SC: But they always talk about sales. When we get written about in the US, the press always has written in the form of, ‘Is it wearable?’
DS: Wearable is code for sellable and that’s all that’s important anymore.
SC: When I was a student in England it was all about doing something that’s never been seen before—which is impossible. And I don’t reinvent the wheel. I never have. For me a fashion show is about the fantasy self. I would never wear the floral jacket that we’re showing on the runway. Why am I showing it? I don’t know. Because it’s fashion if it’s interesting. I think I’ve always wanted to be a fine artist and this is the closest I can get, commercially, to doing that. Maybe I’m a failed artist and that’s why I do fashion. I just want to show something interesting. But now we’ve got Perry Ellis. Any man can wear what we’ll show in Perry Ellis but not every man can wear what we show at Duckie Brown.
DS: Perry Ellis has also had a great influence on Ducky Brown, obviously it’s for a wider market. Yes, it’s fashion and it’s interesting but we’re trying to reach a wider audience with that. Having done Perry Ellis by Duckie Brown, which was more straight up if you will, gave us more freedom to do Duckie Brown.
SC: Well, I’ll always look at the collection and think I could have done more, I could have done more, I shouldn’t have held back, so it’s like, it was very interesting to do both at the same time. Sometimes I feel like I have to get my commercialness out in Duckie Brown, but this time I didn’t have to. We have an equation. Like zero is a navy cashmere v neck sweater. A minus one is a pink one, a minus 2 is a pink floral. It’s all an equation. We try to balance it all out to zero.
EH: First it was Florsheim, now Perry Ellis. What other collaborations are you itching to do?
DS: We want to do men’s channel. Fred Perry, Adidas. And did I say Chanel Mens.
SC: I’d like to do something in Europe. Back in London or France or Italy. I’ve got more than I’ve ever wanted. I still can’t believe I’m showing in NY fashion week its a dream come true. To think that i was a 19 year old in liverpool and I’m doing a brand like Perry Ellis. On that note, I’d love to do something British like Dunhill.
DS: I don’t wanna live in London! It’s hard to get around. GIve me Milano give me paris….
EH: Describe the collection in three words.
DS: Tough, Street and Leather
SC: Not street!
DS: Well, they’re my 3 words
SC: I’d say aggressive, beautiful, sophisticated
DS: Sophisticated? That is ridiculous. It is not sophisticated!
One of the top news stories that’ll come out of the men’s category at New York Fashion Week will be the first Perry Ellis collection to walk down the runway with new collaborators—Duckie Brown (Daniel Silver and Steven Cox). Silver and Cox watched just about every Perry Ellis show they could get their hands on and honed in on the famed designer’s sense of style and knack for humor. “We’re doing an American collaboration. So we have to be honest to it. It’s part homage, part quirky and all deeply stylish,” Cox explains as they create witty iterations of the mac, trench, baseball cap, the hoodie and the track suit. Also, we hear, khaki. Lots and lots of it. We also got a glance at their inspiration board—a parquet floor, Works in Bronze and Steel 2006 by John McCracken and a minimal piece from Dutch conceptual artist Schelten-Abbenes. The key words, it appears, will be wood, minimal, eggplant and subtlety. For now, we’ve got this sneak peak sketch and a brief and cheeky film about a hair cut with the Duckie Brown boys, which we think, has something to do about sending a fresh, new Perry Ellis collection down the runway come Fashion Week.
