The Games Changes, The Player Stays The Same: Nautica Spring 2013 Review

In menswear, simplicity stretches like mozzarella.  Yes designers can decorate and cajole the surfaces but simple, clean, strong lines that accentuate the form of a man's body are what give menswear that strength that many women find desirous to one day overly infect womenswear.

The fact is that much of mens American sportswear is simple, clean and strong.  Much of what is currently on the roster has existed for decades in American mens fashion and its execution is probably why.  By keeping things like fabrics, textures, colors and aesthetics decisively classic and subtly nudging things like proportions and silhouettes, menswear stays within its cyclical nature while subsequently being able to offer up something fresh for a new generation of men season after season, year after year.  Look at some of the most lauded American menswear designers!  Their framework doesn't change radically, just their approach to get men to understand, accept and gravitate towards it.

You cannot talk American sportswear without talking Nautica, the retail present heavy, strength-exuding brand that has been around for nearly thirty years now.  A classic example of a line that tailors the approach, not the framework.  Nautica is still that brand that delves into the marine, seaside loving, active, casual American male.  However, the brand has evolved into less seaside coastal docks and more street side Anywhere USA over the years while remaining that familiar presence retail-wise.  They've achieved that familiarity by sticking to a basic sense of clean lines and approachable color that resonate with the male consumer.

For Spring 2013, Nautica continues its recent love affair with vivd color.  Focusing mainly on primaries    , the brand offered up crisp summer navies accented, trimmed and color-blocked with popping reds, verdant greens, pleasing coastal blues and the sunniest of yellows.  The brand balanced off the color with their classic navy and white stories which got striped and color-blocked treatment on parkas, polos, trim button-downs, outerwear and swimwear.  Again, as with many a label nowadays, the idea was almost to offer an almost capsule collection-like interchangeability.  The suiting segments of the brand could plausibly be worn with the more casual 'beachy' segments are everything, due to the simplicity, had a dress up dress down vibe.  That's a very advantageous stance to take that shows how Nautica understands that their consumer may want to see a cut and dry design viewpoint from a label and may want to look put together and prepared without too much effort on their part.