"This year’s New York Fashion Week spring/summer 2018 menswear collections spotted statement trends such as tunic-like tops, layered sweaters and oversize raincoats. Proud designers feel that these trends might take to retail stores from the runway in six months’ time."

This year’s New York Fashion Week spring/summer 2018 menswear collections spotted statement trends such as tunic-like tops, layered sweaters and oversize raincoats. Proud designers feel that these trends might take to retail stores from the runway in six months’ time.

Worth mentioning among the entire ensemble was Todd Snyder, whose ‘Encounter Culture’ collection included striped linen bomber jackets, awning-stripe popover shirts, vertical-striped crewneck sweaters, horizontal-striped tank T-shirts and navy blue pinstripe suits. Another standout stripe star was Perry Ellis, where creative director Michael Maccari served up T-shirts, down the outside leg of jeans (which gave the denim an elevated tuxedo-stripe feel) and mixed with florals on Hawaiian shirts. The aforementioned collections also tapped into the season’s prevalent silhouette — super-relaxed, and in some cases downright baggy, trousers and shorts. Hugo Boss’ Boss label brought in its nautical-themed collection with generously pleated trousers and wide-legged Bermuda shorts. N. Hoolywood’s designer Daisuke Obana was inspired from the ’50s-era college campus with generously cut suits, sweatpants and V-neck and cardigan sweaters with extra-long arms.

A classy amalgamation

Technical meshes, both traditional athletic mesh (the kind commonly used in basketball jerseys and gym shorts) and a sturdier, netting-like air mesh made headlines for winterwear. Engineered for Motion’s runway collection was one of the most praised collection, which used the fabrics (along with other performance textiles) to create a range of sharp-looking tailored pieces that included mesh blazers with contrast-taped lapels, air-mesh bomber jackets and air-mesh overshirts.

Inspired from political scenes

Private Policy referenced the ‘turbulence of the political climate’ in the US, and presented the Trinkets collection. The collection included silky varsity jackets and chaps paired with cowboy boots, Native American-inspired geometric prints on shorts and jackets. Head of State+, took inspiration from the work of photographers Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta, Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti and Nigeria’s post-colonial period of the 1960s and ’70s. British label Represent, turned to WWII-era propaganda posters and Winston Churchill quotes for their ‘Wide Awake’ streetwear collection that included the words ‘wide awake’ on an intarsia knit V-neck sweater, embroidered on the cuffs of jeans and screen printed — alongside Churchill’s determined visage — on hooded pullover sweatshirts.