Libertine Spring 2016

 Who wears these clothes? That question is asked a lot about most clothes that are presented at fashion weeks around the world. It’s obvious who wears household brand names like Michael Kors, DVF, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Kate Spade, Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang, and other popular American fashion brands. Either it’s those celebrities and well-heeled consumers with deep pockets or those die-in-the-wool fashionistas that have the latest from top American designers.

But the question still begs who wears the collections of not so well know designers that push the proverbial fashion envelope. And in particular, who wears Libertine? Especially, who will wear Libertine’s spring 2016 collection, a collection that focused more on pop art/street vibe than wearable outside of members of you own fashion tribe?

Libertine’s creative director Jonathan Hartig is one of the few innovative minds in the fashion industry that understands how to bring freshness, sensuality and a certain amount of chicness to street wear.  Twenty years ago there was plethora of fashion talent tapping into street wear and translating that exuberance and rebellious angst into garments that reflected that expression of youthful abandon and agitation.

Hartig still has that ability and he has facilitated his penchant for mixing colors, patterns and embellishments into a wonderfully dissertation on street fashion seen through the lens of 2016. Though some of the collection harked back to hip hop of the 1990s with big gold chains, oversized sweat shirts and prints with big colorful, emblazoned numbers, this collection was solidly a Hartig concept.

Still, the question begs who will wear these garments? The consumer who is confident, not afraid of taking risks, and who is a big fan of street culture; this is the consumer for this spring 2016 collection.

—William S. Gooch