NEW YORK, Feb 3, 2006/ FW/ --- What is American chic? In a country 350 million strong, 50 states that encompass more than half of the North American continent plus the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific, it is hard to find a common thread that binds them.

Still, it is this diversity that makes the U.S. strong as a nation; and looking at every American ancestry, all of them are descendants of an immigrant or even immigrants themselves.

So, how do you define American chic? Like the American people, it is an amalgamation of everything they are, wherein cultures converged and became part & parcel of what characterizes America.

Opening the New York fashion week every season, Kenneth Cole chose to define American chic for Fall 2006, putting forward the best of American sportswear – relaxed, elegant and modish.

Showing both menswear and womenswear, Kenneth Cole opened with a female model wearing a dark charcoal textured wool draped collar jacket worn over a dark charcoal merino wool knit pencil skirt.

It’s a look that will be at home in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, including St. Louis, Missouri. And that is a feat by itself, creating something that is accustomed to places that are so disparate and distinct.

Kenneth Cole told 7th on Sixth that his fall 2006 collection is “modern clothing re-envisioned with a classical aesthetic.”

Hence, it is not surprising to see European touches, like the flannel jacket paired with pinstripe vest and flat front skinny trouser.

Remember, Europeans settled America way back in the 1600, and up to today, there are still a lot of old world influences seen in the U.S., interpreted with modernity because after all, the U.S. is still a very young country, just a little over 200 years old.

Fashion for fall 2006, as proposed by Kenneth Cole might be the seed for what is going to be American aesthetics. Of course, history will be the judge of that. It is just good to know that we are there when it all started.

Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole