haute topic
The Brawny Plan
The heritage menswear trend
has made tweed jackets, duck
boots and nostalgia hip again
The movement’s rugged edge and up-to-date shapes mean heritage isn’t just about approximating your great-uncle’s elbow-patched sports coat and pipe vibe, circa 1959. “Our pieces certainly start from a classical American base, but we add our nuances to make them modern, whether that’s by fit or construction,” says Alabama designer Billy Reid (Billyreid. com), who is opening a store in Georgetown in early 2011 selling his burnished leather saddle shoes, slim plaid ties and herringbone jackets. “Men are creatures of habit,” says Reid. “Their styles feel familiar.”
The past-is-presentable style crusade has also led to collaborations between vintage manufacturers and new-cool lines: You can now score Red Wing lace-up boots at J. Crew, and 108-year-old J. Press is attempting to unstuffy its rep this month with a school-boyish capsule collection for Urban Outfitters.
“Men like the idea that there’s a story and history to what they wear,” says Reid, who has teamed with Stetson to produce steampunky wool driving caps and Levi’s to turn out trucker jackets and distressed (yet-not-destroyed) jeans.
Still, while hipsters may just now be embracing khakis and Pendleton plaids, some men have always believed that John F. Kennedy’s rolled-up dungarees and madras shirts possessed more gravitas and staying power than say, a whippet-thin Hedi Slimane jacket that would seem out of place everywhere but a Paris jazz club.
“People told me I looked like a professor for years, and now they don’t,” says Richmond, Va., shirt designer Paul Trible, co-founder of Ledbury (Ledbury.com), a line of American-style, Euro-cut button-downs epitomizing the heritage concept. “I’m sure I’ll be in style for at least a couple of years.” Jennifer Barger
