September 11, 2009
Phillip Lim's previous runway shows have skewed heavily toward the fairer sex. This season, Lim decided, it was "time to give props to 50 percent of the population." For his first-ever all-men's presentation, Lim set up vignettes of models lounging in austere plywood and plaster boxes, set to the music of a single piano player. Matching that feeling was the sober palette of blacks, navies, slates, and camels. In fact, it was an altogether fall feeling. "Spring isn't about bright color for me," said Lim. "And besides, guys wear black and navy all year."Lim's intent was to take the stuffiness out of traditional menswear colors. His inspiration was the way the beatniks "imbued traditional masculinity with a sense of transparency and vulnerability." The movement, he said, was also about "stripping away what was unnecessary." That explained the plywood boxes. But to my eye at least, the clothes evoked a more familiar Lim reference point: eighties-era Bowie. Low-breaking jackets; cropped, cull-cut trousers, graph-paper check, and borderline fragile footwear were certainly more Bowie than beat. Open toes perhaps notwithstanding, the accessories were again the standout of Lim's menswear, from suede mod boots to leather-wrapped key pendants
— Josh Peskowitz
http://men.style.com/fashion/collections/S2010MEN/review/PLMEN
