Spy Versus Spy: Mens Spring/Summer 2013 Review 3

I absolutely detest someone telling me what to wear. The only time I ever oblige someone's suggestion is for work-related reasons, otherwise I trust my instincts. Granted my instincts are backed up by freakishly large amounts of clothing but also by my brain. There is also a skill to dressing appropriately for an occasion especially when the choices you have to choose from are few and far in between. That's when you layer and tuck and remix and mask and tailor and sneak to cut corners and get creative by literally turning nothing into something. Now throw the two variables together of someone telling you what to wear and not having a lot to choose from and your 'assembly required' wardrobe closet from Pottery Barn can seem more like a yard sale jewelry box. Your creative instincts are forced to enter overdrive and you find more from less.

I'm attacking the next Spring/Summer 2013 Mens European Trend coverage of Black and White not from the vantage point of what I often speak of concerning the focus on lines and silhouette in the absence of color. While yes there is greater opportunity to make an architectural wardrobe statement when your eye is not distracted by color or print, I'll approach from a different vantage point. There is a seasonal genius in proposing white for spring/summer (obviously) but also black as well. While white reflects the summer sun's rays, black absorbs it but what can be the redeeming aspect of using black in a spring collection is the focus on material and cut to trump the harshness of the 'saturated color of night'. Further, as I discover living in a city of extreme summer heat, such as NYC, I find that black can serve as the perfect mask to light (often heavy) perspiration. Then factor in the cuts of certain garments, the mystiques of black and white and the focus on simplicity or complexity that each can create and ponder on how designers try to keep one both cool and dry & sharp and sly during the months where the weather forces one to expose what they may (or my not) want to hide.

For Spring/Summer 2013, European Menswear designers were not dissuaded from using black and white to express the expected ideas of ventilation, ease, svelteness, volume, proportion and shape. The offerings were insightful, wearable and easy to integrate. In this case, the offset of color certainly did not upset and it affords the wearer to choose his kind 'cool', visually or thermally.