Who knew that off-the-rack corporate tailoring from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s could be so appealing? The uniforms — which have had several cinematic seals of approval as the archetypal representation of blandly dressed Wall Street guys — turned into alluring contemporary tailoring in Jerry Lorenzo’s hands.
Through his body of work for Fear of God, Lorenzo proves he belongs to the cohort of designers who’ve mastered the twisting of the category in captivating ways, his pals including, for example, Zegna’s Alessandro Sartori.
The blown-up proportions of suiting with exaggeratedly loose pants and elongated single-button, double-breasted blazers that would work nicely as top coats, too, were punctuated by ties, newcomers to Lorenzo’s imaginative wardrobe-building offering. They sometimes morphed into handkerchiefs.
The finance bros he conjured donned magnified pin-striped full suits, textured mélange drawstring pants with tank tops and butter-soft leather jackets, or speckled thick wools plied into ample bottoms. Since moving his studio to Italy, energy poured into fabric sourcing has inched up significantly, Lorenzo said.
“It was really how we take these like grandpa fabrics and make them chic and modern.…[That] was kind of really the challenge,” he explained in a preview. “I really wanted to zero in on that American point of view that I love so much,” he said.
Going by the traditional definition of formalwear, one can hardly call Lorenzo’s gear as such — for the sportswear-derivative inflections add an all-new dimension to it. A wondrous one.
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