Going the Other Way

Adding menswear strings to the bow has been a trend of late – Roland Mouret, Gareth Pugh… and speaking to a few designers, the idea of turning to menswear has been floated around (can't say who!).  Yet at the same time, it's going the other way and Tim Hamilton, New York menswear supremo is launching a womenswear capsule collection.  The words 'capsule collection' though don't often make for good results – even the mere word 'capsule' conjures up images of watered down nothingness.  I therefore feel Hamilton needs to retract that c word.  Especially when initial images look like this…

Capsule?  Not so much.  Is it his menswear aesthetic transplanted to womenswear?  I'm not even sure it's that.  In fact, my sneaking suspicion is that Tim Hamilton is actually a brilliant womenswear designer who has been masquerading as a menswear designer all this time… and that's not to put a downer on his menswear which has always impressed me (more so this season when I got to see the presentation in person…). 

I will investigate further when he presents the whole collection in Paris this week.  Though actually my theory has pretty much been cemented sinceI saw the shoes for the collection.  Yes, he's onto shoes already which may or may not go into production…. I vote for a big fat yay for production… especially the black and white graphic print boots…