|
Nautica's Pleasantville
Written by: Godfrey Deeny
Photos by: Gruber-FWD
New York, Feb 8, 2001/FWD/ --- Nobody can fault Nautica designer David Chu
for not giving his customers what they want.
The Fall/Winter 2001 collection he showed at Bryant Park Thursday was ruggedly coherent and
highly wearable, especially if a man's goal is to be the boy girls want to bring home to mother.
Nautica never breaks fashion frontiers, though its designer David Chu deserves applause for
his ongoing experimentation with treatments. Lightweight leathers came subtly oiled or
attractively waxed; the season's shearlings had luxurious ice-gray finishes and denims were
updated with a two-percent metal mix.
In his program notes, Chu argued that: "the post modern suit has come of age in the post
dot-com era." That may be true, but to the European-trained eye, the Nautica suit is a bulky
prospect, cut loose in the shoulder with vents and, far too often, patch pockets.
This season, Chu showed the whole world of Nautica, finishing with some great denim workman
looks in the Nautica Jeans Company finale. Made of new washes and constructions in indigo
or vintage, the denims had an agreeably worn look.
Sent out with chunky cotton sweaters, double-knit reversible T-shirts and Alpine hiking boots
with yellow laces, the denim-clad models lacked a few accessories - a Volvo station wagon with
a golden Labrador in the back.
|
