Suddenly, Hed Mayner found himself putting together his fall collection in a time of war. “War was always something your father and grandfather talked about,” he said during a showroom visit. “Now for the first time it is my generation.”
Mayner and his team persevered and focused on a new approach for him: the classics, and especially customization. The designer said he found it intimidating at first because he had never lived in an area where stores were easily accessible, let alone vintage stores. But eventually he discovered that distance actually gave him a form of freedom.
“I felt like I could distort things without breaking any rules,” he said. Instead of modern mannequins, he and his studio stuffed a vintage doll and made body shapes out of foam. The idea, he added, was to make clothes that look as if they already have a body inside them, as if the wearer takes on the proportions of someone else. “I wanted it to look like 3D, without cutting too much,” he said, noting that he tries not to work around themes and mood boards. “There’s no reference or history or culture, there’s the thing itself, and you work within,” he said.
As reporters gathered, the designer playfully modeled, donning a chocolate herringbone peacoat and turning to show how the back seam stands out. A gray four-way stretch fabric was printed with pinstripes to look like a suit, but actually takes on a ‘human shape’ when cut into an overcoat or trousers. “It gives me the opportunity to wear tailoring without feeling like I belong to a certain group or have a certain status in society,” the designer noted. Speaking of status, his ongoing collaboration with Reebok reworks a classic brutalist sneaker from the ’90s.
True to form, the pants were roomy and flowy. For shirts, Mayner studied vintage Brooks Brothers styles. “I’m obsessed with diving into something, completely changing it, but keeping it as it is,” he said. One result was an almost crisp striped shirt in a bonded cotton-aluminum fabric that artfully holds its wrinkles. That may resonate with loyalists, but in a seriously strong coat season, Mayner showed he can hold his own.