If you need to find musician Harrison Patrick Smith in the room he is in, look for a guy in a skinny black suit.
What pinstripes are for the Yankees, the shrunken driver's black suit is for Smith, who dares to perform.
And on Wednesday evening in Paris, Smith was wearing a fashion show at the Acne Studios, so what else is there? A single-breasted suit from Reedy.
“They're all a little different,” he told me. I'll take his words about it. The acne suit he wore looked almost the same as every suit I'd ever seen. Same thin cut. Same coal colour.
He said the first one was cobblestoned together at a local New York noren, but he is now owned by Gucci. Maybe he hoped that acne would keep him this. Smith said he could use a little more. He is currently touring Europe and has sweaty solo shows.
What I thought was that he had a simple idea. A few years ago he would have been another man in a suit, but the fashion of men was delegated, especially for his baby face generation. Mr. Smith always seems to be doing something destructive. Do you even point out that he was the only guy in the room wearing a suit?
But dare I wouldn't have looked bold at the Tom Ford show in an hour. After all, there is no American label on this side of Ralph Lauren. Tom Brady, Jay Z, David Beckham – If a middle-aged man reaches his list of best-dressed clothes, then it's likely that Tom Ford's suit has adorned his shoulders. Mr. Ford was a major lobbyist in Meticulous Suits even before Smith was born.
Last year, Columbia-born designer Haider Ackermann was named Tom Ford Creative Director. This was his first show on the label, and nothing showed that either Ford's fierce battle grace had leaked from the label.
Certainly, when I walked in, I felt there was a lack of khaki and knit cardigans when I was pinched between what looked like two 50-something clients in a faint tuxedo. And when he spotted Mr. Ford in the front row, of course wearing a double-breasted suit. The suit waiter rang through the room with Martinis stretching over the silver tray. This was what Ackerman intended to lead in tailoring. My insufficient dress code has escalated.
That assumption was wrong. The first man looked in oil slick sportswear. This moto jacket features snap button collars, trimmed pebble particles pants, animal skin boots, and tapered witch-like pointed toes. I thought of not Mr. Brady, but of Buzz Bisinger, author of Friday Night Light.
As Ackerman said behind the scenes, Ford always said, “It's about suits and the red carpet, but there's also everyday life, and I wanted to embrace the moment.” Probably a very shiny everyday life.
But Ackermann didn't set fire to tailoring for a long time. Finally, the suit came. And I continued to come.
The charcoal double-edged suit fitted with a starchy microdot black and white shirt and a wide range of pinstriped suit peaking under the belted trench was pure Patrick Bateman. No coincidence, as Ackermann said in a recent podcast that he was thinking of a chronic touchstone for male fashion designers.
Behind the scenes, he said he imagines authority emanating from Ford and the founder of his company's shoulder suit.
As the show played, Ackerman maintained a straight backing architecture that made Tom Ford a real benchmark for men, while renovating the façade. The colour was brave, the fit fit sat well, but the foundation was intended to surprise traditionalists.
He smirked at the word behind the scenes, but there's still ambitious appeal to these truly amazing suits. However, they were also accused of being wrapped in an unconventional “well, this is new” mold that can attract new generations of clients who previously had past suits.
Take a slouched tweed number worn over a leather shirt, or a row-stretched double-breasted suit that wavys as the model passes. It should be said that it was not a common adjective in Ford's days on the label. (Mr. Ackermann is another creative director who may have the best look he himself. He took the bow on a fierce double-breasted model with the collar folded in a full self-swaddle.
Or consider two suits (mint and robin egg blue) each paired with a combo of freshly oriented white shirts and white ties. Or an aquafresh green sports coat worn in sepia pants, a bright cigar brown shirt and a black tie. (I can hear the ads now: 9 out of 10 leading fashion stylists support this look.)
Towards the end, the smooth-haired model arrived in a black and white dotted jacket with slightly contrasting black and white dotted pants. I wish Mr. Smith was there to see it. It may have persuaded him to add another kind of dark suit to his rotation.
