Every fashion season, fashion journalists and industry professionals anxiously await a designer/brand that stretches the proverbial fashion envelope. Understanding that in the current economic climate—with so many stores and boutiques closing nationwide—expanding design horizons is a huge risk that few design houses are willing to make. Still, there are those designers that throw caution to the wind and follow the beat of their own drum. Fashion industry professionals are grateful for those courageous few.
Kenneth Ning is of the courageous set!! For spring 2018 Kenneth Ning looked to reimagine male office attire and the juxtaposition of political hackers and the government. This collection featured reimagined dress shirts, dress slacks, suits and even office casual wear as seen through the lens of an updated, downtown hipster aesthetic and deconstructed tailoring. Ning accomplished this by employing asymmetrical techniques, inserting statement sleeves, and inverting shirts and business jackets upside down and inside out. These reimagined shirts were often paired with the trend of slouchy pants.
Interestingly, Ning would mix and match deconstructed office attire with military fatigues which evoked his political hacker/government juxtaposition. Also evident in this collection was Ning’s take on gender bending apparel. Genderless apparel was a design motif that has popped up in several spring 2018 collections. And while some designer/brands were able to successfully insert this trend, most designers were lost in translation when attempting to employ gender nonspecific aesthetics.
Ning’s design aesthetic is not for most male consumers. And though his core audience is niche and mostly confined to coastal, hipster consumers, Ning’s spring 2018 collection is cheeky, playful and full of potential.
—William S. Gooch
Image credits
- kenneth-ning-spring-2018.jpg — Editorial image.
- collages1353.jpg — Editorial image.
- collages1354-001.jpg — Editorial image.
- collages1356.jpg — Editorial image.
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