Washed, Treated, & Soft, What's Not to Love? Spring Summer 2011, Mik Cire & Buckler

By Laura Medina

Eric Kim's Mik Cire Spring/Summer 2011 Collection

Mik Cire Spring/Summer 2011 Runway Video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgmJKFevcNw

Think of the frosted beach glass or the softened ivory buffed by the beach's sand, surf, and sea.

You if can imagine this then you have the idea of what is emerging for men's casual wear for the early part of the twentieth-first century.

Leather technology has gotten to such an advanced point that it can be treated, lighten, and washed that it can be mistaken for washed, casual linen; and waxed linen and cotton have also gotten to the point where they are also mistaken for washed leather in return.

Both Eric Kim's Mik Cire and Buckler by Andrew Buckler led the march of the soften but not sloppy casual wear for Spring's warm days and cool nights.

Mik Cire keep the military palette of black and olive green then impart them into the three innovative and major trends in menswear: asymmetrical details, washed leather, and the henley, the tee-shirt alternative.

A Mik Cire fan and "Gossip Girl's" Dan Humphrey's father, Rufus, aka Matthew Settle, mentioned, "What's not to love about? The asymmetrical collar. The henley shirts."

As for Eric Kim, being one of the Los Angeles designers becoming Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week's consistent favorite, Mr. Settle cannot help but be awed by the emerging talent coming out of the City of Angels who eventually land in the Big Apple.

Mr. Kim took Los Angele's craft in casual wear and jersey knits then bump them up with more fashion-forward tailoring.

The tee-shirt has grown into the henley. Hoodie sweaters morphed into relax and comfortable, light-weight cardigans.

Both leather and linen received the twentieth-first century treatment. The leather motocross and biker jackets got out of their black rut then refreshed, rebuffed, and rewashed in white, light-weight lambskin. These soften lambskin jackets are on their way to becoming Spring closet classics-for folks who can't part with their leather jackets but want something relaxing, not sloppy.

To add a little bit of zing from the New Wave Eighties, Mik Cire added asymmetrical tailoring to tank tops, drop-crotch shorts, and jackets-without the zipper.

With all these fashion-forward details, these add up to a soften but still dressy ensemble without the formal stiffness of traditional tailoring.

Buckler by Andrew Buckler Spring/Summer 2011 Collection.

For former denim/jeanswear designer, Andrew Buckler, he had to look at history in order to move forward.

He, too, explored waxed cotton and linen, washed leather, and the henley but influenced by Twenties's underwear-as-athletic wear: "Chariots of Fire" and the 1928 Paris Olympics then the Bauhaus Movement for graphics.

Instead of the motocross and motorcycle jacket, Buckler washed and treated the varsity jacket with a soft hand in a slim construction.

The tank tops are looser, leaner, and longer.

The overall faux wrinkled effect is actually stitch-down with purpose and style.

Post-Modern trendiness, tailored shorts, droopy athletic drop-crotch shorts in waxed linen. The harem shorts are also profiled in Mik Cire's show.

Since these menswear trends are all about dressing for hot days and cool nights, these designers are taking light-weight textile in a more dressed but subtle appearance, as in waxed linen trousers and jackets. The lightness of linen or cotton but the chicness of faux leather. The pairing of leather and linen. These waxed-linen and cotton trousers are shower-proof, not waterproof.

The affection for softness, is not only for ease, but a preference for subtleness while losing the taste for the overt. This also explains the proliferation of white and tonal gray.

The trend of grosgrain ribbon is continuing into Spring/Summer when Buckler reinforced it into draw-string shorts and cardigan neckline.

The asymmetrical tailoring used in Buckler is a trompe l'oeil. The asymmetrical button-closure begins as a check then closes as a stripe.

Using his background as a denim designer, he uses the elements of a denim body in non-denim fabrics. Five-pocket jeans in linen, making stylish dressing easier for the male customer to understand.

Eric Kim of Mik Cire does the same. He translates fashion-forward dressing in the more adaptable tailoring of motorcycle and motorcross jackets then using the henley as the "new tee-shirt."

Spring/Summer 2011 menswear, light, soft, and comfortable but not weak.