Prevailing tastes for the modern men’s suit prescribe two rings: cuts of European bearings, and an air of being well heeled. Actually, scrap that last bit, well-healed is the wrong phrase. Instead let us say this: that the modern man is after a suit that gives him the air of a bon vivant, one of the world’s cultured elites. Michael Bastian’s fall 2012 collection caters to both prevailing tastes, and it does it all with an American tilt.
European cuts may be in for men, but Michael Bastian marries them off with signature American design elements from across the decades. Hence the opening chalk stripe look. Hence the yellow sweater surely inspired by Charlie Brown.
All of it is dandy free. Inspired by an American influenced bon vivant the collection might be, but this isn’t a bon vivant of dandy-cum-effeminate refinery. Rather Bastian’s take on the modern man for fall 2012 is more about the nonchalant male than it is about the overly groomed one.
