MARTIN KEEHN F/W 2016

“CHURCH STREET SURPLUS”

Martin Keehn FW16 draws from his own first experiences arriving in New York, a blue-collar kid discovering the city in an era when downtown was an aesthetic junkyard before pre-fab counter-culture fashion replaced actual counter-culture. What emerges is a mixture of working-class meets club fantasy meets army/navy surplus.

The dichotomy of utilitarian vs luxury speaks to the aspirational theme of the collection, with single needle tailored work shirts realized in fabrics that typically evoke ivy league or the 1%. Dobby dress shirts with a hint of Lurex suggest the fantasy of the proletariat untethered. Dominating silhouettes in leather and melton overcoats give us this season’s archetypal authoritarian. Factory worn-in denim accessories are an attempt to un-fame the masses and satirize prefab culture.

Typically, Keehn is irresistibly drawn to tension and reminds us of summer in more frigid times with a palette of peachy pinks, saturated creams, dove grey punctuated with metallic and leather accents throughout for a nod to our dark side. Photography Simon Cave. http://martinkeehn.com