view the full collection in our Photo Gallery
story by Landon Peoples
photos by Ned and Aya Rosen
web editor Rachel Reneé
Just when the industry began to yawn at color blocking, Carlos Campos revisits and revives the ongoing trend with poise and panache. A good designer is not bound by the cycles of trends, they instill them. There’s something so effortlessly airy about the Carlos Campos Fall 2012 menswear collection that one just can’t stop looking. The clothing, bereft of any typical attention-seeking embellishments in fashion, tells the story of a somber man who spends 50 years on a park bench waiting for his one, true love.
Inspired by Gabriel Garca Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera, the CFDA-nominated designer produced a collection of charm and enchantment. “I couldn’t design this collection without picturing the end result. Seeing it now – the final collection – I’m so, so happy,” Campos said, eyes twinkling and grinning ear to ear.
What a breath of fresh air to menswear it is. Carlos Campos sees color for Fall – not too bright, not too soft. Sharp hues of rose red and midnight blues enhance the structure of his two-toned tailored pants and knee-length puffer coats with just the right amount of youth. But as age (and the world of fashion) would have it, it was time for Campos to reinvent himself. “This reminds me of my very first collection. When I read the book, I was only 16, but 30 years later – the love I once recognized is a completely different kind of love now,” Campos rejoiced.
In this age of men coordinating outfits doused with statement pieces or the ongoing trend of purposely dressing to be photographed (“style bloggers”), Carlos Campos reiterates what it means to dress like a man, but remaining educated alongside fellow fashionistos. And with such a soft, whimsical vision, Campos has produced a collection that is strongly luxurious and obviously high quality. “The challenge I faced with this collection was translating what I felt into the right textures, but I think we nailed it,” Campos explained. Wool suiting lyrically integrated with silk cottons maintained menswear’s lacking masculine identity, and reminded observers of what it feels like to fall in love.
Carlos Campos’s Fall 2012 menswear collection is layer-worthy, dexterous (where many pieces can be worn with each other in a copious amount of ways), and smart. Campos’s minimalist approach to menswear gifted something other menswear designers are lacking: Love in the time of Fall.
