In December of 2007, while prepping for our annual spring style issue, we pulled (fashion speak for borrowed) a matching floral shirt and pants from Agnès b. Everyone kind of stopped when one of the assistants pulled the clothes out of the garment bag—these two pieces absolutely needed to be shot and worn all at once, in head-to-toe back-to-front full bloom. There are still plenty of flowers left on the playing field this summer. Engineered Garments has some pants and shorts in their spring collection that are so awesome and borderline ridiculous that it looks like one of the designers ran away with their grandma's curtains—though there are flower-covered hats for those who prefer low-key foliage.
Tim Soar, on the other hand, went in a slightly more tropical direction this season, eschewing the sweet and well-trodden Liberty-print path (those popular Steven Alan Liberty ties are just one of many many examples) for something a little tougher. Soar has been putting out collections for the past couple of years, but has been involved in the design world for much much longer, working in interiors and curating music for hotels among many other things. For this season he tinkered with the classic palm-tree motif that's usually associated with Hawaiian shirts, a print that naturally lends itself to menswear in the way a Laura Ashley pattern never will. Somehow a perfectly tailored Hawaiian print shirt peeking out from a perfectly tailored slate grey suit says executive realness at exactly the right volume, ie "I mean business but I also like to surf on the weekends" or "I enjoy a nice Piña Colada in the right setting. Head-to-toe Hawaii might be a little much for most, but a playful windswept palm tree knitted across your chest can never be wrong, can it?
Soar Spring 2009
FADER 52 Africa Issue fashion story
Engineered Garments Spring 2009
Engineered Garments Spring 2009