New York Men’s Day at New York Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2024

Resident explores New York Men’s Day at New York Fashion Week, held on February 9, 2024. The special showcase specifically focuses on men’s fashion, as the majority of collections at fashion week are otherwise for womenswear. Bringing to the forefront of the week new trends in menswear and young designers’ work, it provides a much-needed platform for these emerging brands. This season, Men’s Day highlights Tarpley, Bulan, The Salting, and Pas Une Marque at the exciting second session of the presentation.

New York Fashion Week specifically highlights menswear and unisex fashion biannually at New York Men’s Day, a press favourite and highly anticipated showcase of the city’s best emerging menswear talents in the design world. The presentations are typically split into two parts: a morning and evening showing, each with four unique designers. This season, four designers are returning to New York Fashion Week, and four are making their debut. We attended the afternoon session of Men’s Day on February 9, 2024 to bring you the best and brightest of NYC’s emerging menswear brands – find out more about each of these stellar young designers and their brand identities as we walk you through New York Men’s Day.

Tarpley, helmed by designer Tarpley Brooks Jones, again returned to New York Men’s Day for a stellar showcase of the new Autumn/Winter 2024 season, after a well-received reception last September for their Spring/Summer collection. Tarpley explains that he’s finished with taking inspiration from elsewhere – instead, the young designer is looking inwards and to his own prior collections and experiences for new ideas, inspirations, and design stories. His last collection was focused around his own experiences, and this new season also serves to follow that lead. In a world of recycled inspirations and reinventions in the fashion industry, Tarpley provides a breath of fresh air with this philosophy.

The presentation showed both menswear and womenswear, a first for Tarpley the brand. Marbled patterns reminded us of the outdoors, a motif inspired by the designer’s upbringing in the great outdoors and his own experience on farms. Again utilizing a neutral palette, Tarpley kept interest strong within each design by focusing on standout details that grabbed attention, such as long tabs towards the hem of bottom garments, play with proportions through crops and cutouts, fluid shapes that held structure due to their textile choices, and signature techwear touches appealing towards popular “gorpcare” enthusiasts.

The garments were flattering without being overly fit to form, resulting in unique pieces that somehow still felt wearable for the everyday through functionality. This accessibility and intention in design has become another trademark of the brand. However, Tarpley keeps us guessing with a mix of pointed stiletto-heeled shoe and chunky ski boot pairings, new boxy bags fit for the office commute, and crossovers from tailored clean coat lines to sporty oversized hoods or zips. Just like a look that paired a bodysuit unexpectedly with a suit trouser pant, the designer had a sense of cohesion throughout the looks that would not usually be expected to work…but it does, and it works brilliantly. We are anticipating a long and successful career for Tarpley the brand, with plenty more freshly introspective inspiration – it seems that designer Tarpley Brooks Jones is just getting started. 

Thai designer Beam Ratchapol Ngaongam returned to New York Men’s Day to present the Autumn/Winter 2024 collection “Garbage Collector” for his unisex brand Bulan. The showcase, featuring themes of sustainability and recycling, incorporated Bulan’s signature colourful knit work and creative negative space patterning. Though every single look easily garnered attention with bright palettes and expressive silhouettes, a few pieces stood out as particularly coverworthy. A cephalopod-reminiscent look with tentacles crafted from flawlessly knitted plastic textile crawled to the floor from a lean male model, extending down in thick saturated purple strokes from a knit sweater design around his torso. Another sunny yellow design creatively wrapped a model’s head like a cocoon, bringing to mind thoughts of the “thneed” style stemming from environmental film The Lorax. The term took the fashion world’s social media by popular storm in recent months due to its versatility and high-fashion design; this Bulan knit look paired with a maxi-length fuzzy textured matching skirt would fit right in any editorial fashion lover’s feed.

Beam also presented more functional looks for the everyday outside of the editorial, for either men or women. Preppy and fun stripes felt youthful in mixed shades of burgundy, mustard, mint, charcoal, cream, and peony. Next to jumbo knit sweater tops and bottoms in delicious shades of salmon, burnt orange, and spring green, these bright thinner knits contrasted delightfully for a well-rounded offering fit for transitional seasons. Bulan consistently turns out quality work that remains true to the brand’s identity whilst bringing something exciting to the scene. As Beam Ratchapol Ngaongam’s online tagline proudly proclaims, “it’s more than sweaters – it’s knitwear,” and Bulan is carving a name in the industry by redefining the unisex knitwear landscape season after season to international acclaim.

The Salting again presented their new season with New York Men’s Day to debut a fresh collection of nautical-inspired stripes and coats. With slim lines both in print and form, the brand encapsulates a clean take on dressing for both city and sea. Tailored jackets and pintucked knee-length shorts seamlessly transition from yacht days to downtown nights, and the entire collection is cohesive enough to mix and match between looks. Sticking to a classic palette of navy blues, whites, taupe neutrals, and bold pops of mustard, The Salting brings summer colour to winter-appropriate garments for their Autumn/Winter 2024 offering.Audrey Gallagher; Agency Ugly Art Films

The styling of the new collection imbibed a sense of youth to more classical design concepts. Stretch beanies sat atop models’ heads, paired with draped scarves looped breezily without care and relaxed fit garments that hung easily on lean frames. Smart Chelsea boots, stockings, and and popped coat collars felt proper without appearing stuffy, and appropriate for any age. Michael Ward and Michael Smaldone co-founded The Salting in 2018, bringing on co-owner Manel Garcia Espejo in 2020. The brand looks to uphold quality craftsmanship and refinement in order to provide a garment that is loved for decades in a wardrobe . The Salting works perfectly for any male consumer interested in going from corner office straight to seashore whilst looking fresh, young, and carefree in their fashions.

Pas Une Marque presented a tailored yet casual menswear selection this season with saturated neutral tones, embroideries in the shape of their signature key emblem, and three-dimensional sculptures that similarly echoed the brand’s emblem. The collection, titled “Seams of Dissent” for Autumn/Winter 2024, follows the Pas Une Marque (“Not A Brand”) ethos of “being more than just a label.” It instead serving as a philosophy and creative way of life for those who defy convention, based upon Rene Magritte’s infamous drawing of a pipe with the quote “this is not a pipe.”

Pas Une Marque looks to defy convention this season with unexpectedly fun embellishments of dangling keys, overdone sleeve silhouettes on traditional sweater knits, artistically patterned functional denim featuring the “Ceci n'est pas une pipe” quote, colourful splashes and prints on buttoned workwear sets, and delightfully deconstructed garment seams. For the free spirit looking to make a statement without trying too hard, the brand presents a wonderfully accessible avenue for self expression through fashion that reads unconventional yet wearable. Pas Une Marque will spruce up the everyday wardrobe for any gender with their “Fashion for the modern day philosopher,” providing work-ready pieces that will undoubtedly be reached for often for the colder season’s playful textured layering trends. 

New York Men’s Day (NYMD) is a biannual initiative intended to help nurture emerging talent and consolidate the showing of contemporary menswear and genderless collections. 

Each season, NYMD features emerging brands in a group presentation format over two-hour periods, with designers debuting in the morning and a different set of designers showing in late afternoon. Each brand presents its collection in its own fully-styled studio space, incorporating décor relevant to the brand identity and collection inspiration. The format of showcasing multiple presentations at the same time creates ease of flow for media and buyers, allowing them to move through the studios at their own pace.

More about NYMD and applications to join the collective showcase for emerging designers can be found at https://www.newyorkmensday.com/.

CREDITS

Writer & Editor: Laur Weeks @laur.weeks

Photography: Audrey Gallagher @audrey__eliza

Photographer Agency: Ugly Art Films @uglyartfilms

PR: Agentry PR @agentrypr

Presented by: Hilldun Corporation @hillduncorp