Homme Rouge Stockholm Fall 2017....Fashionweekly...On Fow24news.com

L’Homme Rouge is a menswear brand from Gothenburg, Sweden, a university town much more laid-back than Stockholm. The label definitely tends toward the bohemian, but the four strapping fellows who founded it are organized, determined, and professional, which is evident from the high production values of their presentations....
For this one, music, video, and set design were used to support a rather elaborate story line. Called Stompers, the new Fall collection was meant to conjure an imaginary group of alienated young Swedish harbor workers who find their clothes in “misplaced shipping containers.” They might also have come across a copy of Raf Simons’s book The Fourth Sex.

 The show featured a cast that was startlingly young, or young-looking; the hollow-chested boys needed belts to hold up their black trousers, which were paired with UPS-brown silk shirts and long plaid tunics, one worn effectively as a dress. While the founders identify L’Homme Rouge as a menswear brand, they believe their clothes can be worn by anyone. Hence the inclusion of model Ebba Kriga Tengvall in the lineup; her look, one of the best in the collection, was a coat layered under a sweater—layering and proportion play being preoccupations of designer Jonatan Härngren.

Until now Härngren and co. have taken a soft approach to menswear; this season, however, it was the twisted classics that stood out. Substantial marine-inspired knits and watch caps and beautifully tailored coats worked within the show’s sometimes heavy-handed and slow-going narrative, but they could keep afloat without it, which explains why they made such a splash.

December 19, 2017