New York Men’s Day opened New York Fashion Week sponsored by Perry Ellis America at Canoe Studios in Chelsea. Here are five designers who presented: Teddy von Ranson, Stan, Nicholas Raefski, Clara Son, and Atelier Cillian.

Scene: Teddy von Ranson’s metaphorical collection “North Beach”. Impressed by the similar ways surfers, skiers, and snowboarders layer technical fashion pieces, he reimagined an assortment of clothing. Now the man is one. He surfs in the Pacific and the Atlantic all year, skis and snowboards from Lake Placid to Aspen to Mammoth, kitted out with playfulness and mastery.
Teddy von Ranson effectively layers the effortless cool west coast sentiment with east coast discernment to advance his story of the modern American man. The best parts of the collection are the genius ways in which Teddy experiments with prints, textures, and color waves.
Talent for the show: Hair by lead hairstylist Christian Ceja-Compin and team for Oribe, Makeup by lead makeup artist Monique Rinard and team for AOFMPro, Stylists David Vivirido. Footwear a reimagined vintage-style ski boot with lug soles. Model above Jaden Edlund.

Scene: Designer Teddy von Ranson (center) with models.
“I wanted to explore literal and metaphorical winter beaches: the die-hard surfers in the chilly winter waters of California and the ice capped breakers of northeastern beaches, the slopes from Lake Placid to Aspen to Mammoth where moguls and half pipes emulate the waves”.
Teddy von Ranson

Scene: STAN by designer Tristan Detwiler titled “The Rugged Gentleman”. Since the brand’s inception, Detwiler has sourced and upcycled antique textiles with rich historical backstories. This season was less surfwear, more party wear. “I wanted to present a more formal gentleman character, the kind that goes out for an evening on the town,” he explained.
Navajo blankets feature prominently in the collection, some of which date back to the late 1870’s when The Hubbell Trading Post was established on the Navajo Nation. This exploration of textiles continues with antique fabrics as far ranging from the 18th century to the 19th century.
Talent for the show: Hair by lead hairstylist Cobe Alcantar and team for Oribe, Makeup by lead makeup artist Monique Rinard and team for AOFMPro using Dermalogica, Footwear Sperry.
Above photo, my friends Tony Spinelli and Alva Chinn. Tony is wearing trousers and an overcoat made from a 1916 all black wool crazy quilt. Tony, an iconic male model in the 70’s was on the premier cover of Vogue Men photographed by Irving Penn. He appeared in Halston’s debut ad campaign and Richard Avedon’s work for Versace. Alva Chinn is wearing an evening gown of 19th Century silk brocade drapes from a little chateau in France. The pioneering model made her name on the runways of Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, and Chanel in the 70’s and made history walking for Halston at the legendary Battle of Versailles Fashion Show. 

Scene: Designer Tristan Detwiler (third from left) with models, and Clair (far left) from the now non-existent Yardage Town. In 2019 she welcomed Tristan into her quilting group and shared her lifelong passion for quilting with him.
“I looked to my paternal grandfather as a muse for this collection, Robert Stanley Detwiler. In my eyes, Bob always embodied the idea of a perfect gentleman. As a salesman in the 50’s, Bob wore a three-piece suit and a hat every day. A man of few words, he is remembered for his charming tip of the hat accompanied by a warm smile. I made that into my own, by crossing it with a more adventurous, rugged spirit”. Tristan Detwiler

Scene: Nicholas Raefski’s second collection “Meet Me By The Bleachers” is inspired by his nostalgia for going to high school in the 1970s. Notions of false nostalgia – yearnings for something you never actually owned nor experienced. Lounging on bleachers, models wearing a variety of 70s inspired styles radiated a youthful energy that matched the clothing. Pastel shades, funky patterns, and confident color blocking were displayed under the warm glow of overhead lights. AstroTurf carpeting completed the image of a Friday night in the suburbs of 70s-era Southern California.
The eleven looks collection is divided into four groups: the jocks, the nerds, the punks, and the hippies.
Talent for the show: Hair by lead hairstylist Ashley Breken and team for Oribe, Makeup by lead makeup artist Jessica Marisol and team for AOFMPro using Dermalogica, Stylists Jules Wettreich, Footwear Puma, Converse, and Doc Martens.

Scene: Models at the presentation.
“Going to high school in the 1970s is something I have always felt nostalgic for, despite being born a few decades too late to have experienced it. High school is all about archetypes and stereotypes; being put in a box. But when we grow up these boxes vanish, we find we cannot be bound by one group or idea. I enjoy the challenge of taking something that I know little about from the past, thinking about it in the present, and designing it for the future”. Nicholas Raefski

Scene: Clara Son, South Korea born menswear designer, launched her collection “Exuvia Capsule”. The Fashion Institute of Technology graduate continues her journey into innovative designs with this collection by drawing inspiration from art, nature, and personal feelings. A futuristic fashion approach with minimalist under currents and otherwordly silhouettes.
Her debut collection was also inspired by a trip to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum where she had an emotional experience while observing the work “Black Cloud” by Carlos Amorales, a paper cut-out ode to the monarch butterfly migration from Canada to Mexico. “It was very eerie”. She wanted to metamorphose the negative energy into beautiful artistry. Son plays with contemporary and historical shapes through ruching techniques and mixes heavyweight with lightweight materials to emulate the hardshells and soft underbellies of bugs. “Exuvia,” is described in an entomologists’ glossary as a cast off outer skin, a shedding of what is no longer needed.
At the end a modern dance ensued with seven dancers in flesh toned tights and two models from the presentation.
Talent for the show: Hair by lead hairstylist Kien Hoang and team for Oribe, Makeup by lead makeup artist Monique Rinard and team for AOFMPro using Dermalogica, Stylist Nyeelah Lewis, Footwear Camper Tracktori boots by Joseph Yi.

Scene: Models at the presentation.
“I used to love bugs growing up and when I was really having a challenging time, I told my friends that I felt like a bug”. Clara Son

Scene: Atelier Cillian by designer Stephen Mikhail, who was debuting his premiere collection “The Misdeeds of Dashwood”. Atelier Cillian enjoys pushing boundaries in menswear and masculinity. His inaugural collection was inspired by the Hellfire Clubs in Britain, first founded in 1718, where Members of Parliament and society elites fraternized in excessive indulgent in sensual pleasures after hours. “They would go buttoned up to work everyday passing laws that they would go and break later on in the evening,” Mikhail described. “Watching how politics were handled during Covid, this was my commentary on politicians behaving badly.”
Channeling this theme through looks of black and gray tweed suits styled with historically authentic top hats opposite red draped turtlenecks and tattoo-revealing sheer sleeves with fingerless leather gloves is the medium where Mikhail questions masculinity as well as who defines it. Atelier Cillian can be recognized for its inherent duality between masculine and feminine.
Talent for the show: Hair by lead hairstylist Christian Ceja-Compin and team for Oribe, Makeup by lead makeup artist Monique Rinard and team on behalf of AOFMPro using Dermalogica, Nail color Un/Dn Laqr, Stylist Kevin Breen, Footwear Florsheim.

Scene: Models at the presentation.
“I think there are a lot of amazing womenswear designers out there but womenswear doesn’t give me the challenge that I’m longing for, it doesn’t give me the boundaries that I can just crash through”. Stephen Mikhail

Special thanks to Helen Oppenheim, US Correspondent for Peluquerias Magazine, archivist, blogger, and hair historian, for asking me to collaborate during Fashion Week.