Joseph Abboud Fall 2018 Menswear...Fashionweekly..On Fow24news.com

Joseph Abboud staged his dressy Fall show at the Hotel Wolcott on New York’s 31st Street this evening. The designer, in the greenroom where he was conducting interviews, mentioned that it was the setting of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s inauguration ball in 1934.....
And that it was the place where survivors of the Titanic stayed when they reached the city. Quite a history for not quite as known a place.

Like the location’s eras-past pedigree, Abboud’s clothes harkened a return to formality. “It’s time to reconstruct menswear,” said the designer. “I hate the athleisure thing.” But it’s not like the athleisure thing is or ever really was Abboud’s territory; the man has always been about a suit. Now, though, that decorum has been ramped up. Look after look, in 50,000 shades of gray before other hues surfaced, strutted through the Wolcott’s hidden ballroom. The cast—and it was a strong cast—was decked to the nines in textures from quilting to tweed to carpet-like fabrics, layered with waistcoats and topcoats and sport coats and neckties and bow ties. Generally: the works. To Abboud’s point about reconstruction, some jackets had paneling sewn on the back, a design flourish that emphasized a sort of reparative impetus.

The best look was a twist on the tuxedo: Double-breasted in elegant black satin, the jacket boasted finely threaded butterflies over the body. It was styled beneath an officer’s coat with a furry shawl collar. The impression wasn’t necessarily throwback in style, but it did cinch that point about circling back to a certain sartorial etiquette and grace that Abboud wanted. “There’s a . . . star quality to a guy getting dressed up,” he said. Then, with conviction: “It’s pretty sexy to get dressed up again.”