A very interesting article landed on our desk this morning (teehee). Portfolio's Lisa Marsh wrote an article on the discord between the menswear shows and buying season. She used this week's 'abbreviated schedule' of men's shows that took place in accordance with the trade shows happening in New York right now, Capsule, Collective, and Project, as a talking point for whether a men's fashion week would ever pick up in New York. Basically, about a decade ago, there was such a thing and it came after Milan and Paris in July. American designers, felt their collections weren't given enough attention because of this (no one wants to be the third in line and right before women's kicks off) so they started moving their showings to Milan instead. And the rest is recent history. New York's men's fashion week kind of faded away and now, we're left with the remnants. Yesterday we were meant to attend the Obakki show but had a really intense (but fun) shoot that ran late. Normally a show and a shoot wouldn't have even been scheduled on the same day to avoid that exact problem but we figured we would already have covered Capsule and wouldn't need to see some random runway presentation--if worse came to worse. What we found out today, in the article, was that the Obakki show was part of a handful of shows happening this week that are trying to revive a menswear week in New York. It was, to our surprise, kind of an organized 'let's revive men's fashion week' thing. Well, brand reps, you could have fooled us! We certainly appreciate the invitation but wish we'd know that the show had a context. In the end it's really not anyone's fault. The point is that menswear is experiencing some tricky booking conflicts and will (we hope) sort itself out in the coming years. Everyone says menswear is back in New York (meaning that men are dressing better than ever and the collections from contemporary to high price points are more interesting) and we just hope that means a proper fashion week is in the works.

Certain cities become cultural touchstones for an era, channeling the emotions of a given moment. Brooklyn, Seattle and Berlin are the zeitgeist triumvirate of the moment, but we would like to add Gothenburg Sweden to the list of potential candidates.

We were introduced to Per Andersson's Velour at Capsule yesterday. This impressive designer line is a credit to Sweden's burgeoning design community outside of Stockholm.

We were informed that the label came out of Andersson's Nostalgi which carries dead-stock vintage merchandise. Launched in 2001, the line came out of the inspirations from the never-worn vintage living in his grandparents tailor shop in Mariestad.

The vintage feel comes across not so much in the design but in the quality and caliber of the textiles. Chunky knits, deliciously waffled seersucker suits, tailored cotton shirting basics and the softest khaki known to man make this a sure fire hit with the alt-preppy set.

A few years ago our girlfriend Leah said men are the new women. She was clearly ahead of the curve as menswear keeps getting bigger, better, and vainer each season. The contemporary menswear tradeshow Capsule is in town. Organized by community member We Are The Market and Brand Pimps, the five floor extravaganza in the Lower East Side has brought out the best of breed for men's market week in New York. We took some time yesterday to explore the five levels of fashion in the Angel Orensanz Foundation on Norfolk Street.

We were tremendously impressed with the quality of the labels on display this year. Many traditional staples in the streetwear community were included but the real joy was the younger labels making their debut. We will be covering Capsule throughout the week focusing on designers of note.

Okay folks, we are officially drenched in sweat and feeling rather inhibited by the large quantities of sparkling things we consumed at dinner last night. But from something sweaty and gross comes something beautiful, right? Right. Just like butterflies...

Last night we attended what was marketed by our marketing friend as a 'business meeting' which, to our surprise, meant twenty-five of our friends, a lot of warm rolls, and about a million bottles of Lambrusco (it still gives you red teeth, but it tastes like champagne!). That said between the reps, buyers, designers, writers, and pr folks, everyone just about chugged their wine and laughed nervously about how, um, tired they were. The moral of the story is that everyone is really overworked and kind of cracking up under the heat and pressure and recession. But there was still a good spirit in the air. It might just be the nature of New York and fashion at large, in the end.

Moving on...

Today we watched this because we were reading our network partner, The Coveted, who posted on Grace Jones and it inspired a You Tube adventure in the lady's honor. It will blow your mind so you might want to watch after you read the whole post (anyway, it's at the bottom). By the way, reading The Coveted is what we do when we're tired from the sparkling things--there's something really comforting about her whole 'brand', you should try it out.

On Monday we're headed to Capsule so please stay tuned for that. Capsule is a trade show that happens in New York and Paris and it's known to bring up some of the best contemporary menswear around. Menswear has had a revival in New York and we're really excited to see what everyone has cooked up for the season. We covered the Fall 08 show, you can read about that here (Sorry the pictures are gone. That is one long story). After the second day of Capsule there's an OAK/Julian Red/Orthodox/DFA party and if you're in town you should come. The party really goes until 4am (but a flyer never says that) and there's some floating commas but we're pretty sure that's because the person who made the flyer was at the dinner last night.

Miami swim week has kicked off so we'll get you some photo galleries this weekend and early in the week. In other good news, Frock opened a store in Park Slope and, wanting to write a post that wasn't too NY-centric, we found this kind of cool site and, most importantly, these pants (top left).

Kathy Horn wrote an interesting piece on the Halston situation today. She stirs up some ideas of why that whole thing just isn't working out. Maybe Georgina Chapman will be the next creative director? Good point.

Oh, by the way. Recession much? Photo editorials like this and this are taking over fashion right now.

Well, happy Friday ladies and gents. We've all kinds of swim and trade show things happening next week. Have yourself a wonderful weekend. Until then...

This week, a creaky wooden building in the Lower East Side hosts the Capsule trade show where emerging menswear labels get sized up by New York's hippest retailers. Capsule, like any tradeshow, is charged with the energy of the unknown and the anticipation for what could be. One thing is for sure, the era of the urban gentlemen is in full-effect, where even the downtown hipsters will be dressing like dandies, as soon as Odin, Opening Ceremony, and Oak get their hands on these lines. (As an aside, we don't think we've ever seen so many handsome men occupy the same space at the same time. It was like a fourth dimension.) This year's show was sponsored by We Are The Market, a long-time Coutorture partner.


After the jump, our top five favorites at the show and a gallery of the event for your viewing pleasure.