Winnie NYC, one of the best emerging menswear brands of 2022, has made a strong impression at Paris Fashion Week with its Fall/Winter 2023 collection. Founded by designer Idris Balogun in 2018, the brand has quickly gained recognition for its refined approach to menswear.
Balogun, who has honed his craft on London’s Savile Row and at luxury fashion houses Burberry and Tom Ford, returned to the essentials for his first runway show at Paris Fashion Week. Models walked through a private apartment overlooking the Arc de Triomphe in outfits that blended traditional tailoring with sportswear elements. Balogun took a fresh approach to formal dressing, pairing a tuxedo jacket with faded denim jeans and dressing down suits with check-patterned shirts and polo tops.
The designer’s confidence in tailoring is evident in his collection, but his use of color could use some refinement. Pops of turquoise, raspberry, and lime green made for an uneven display. Despite this, the collection was well-received, and Balogun was a runner-up for the Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize at the LVMH Prize for Young Designers. He sourced most of the fabrics from Nona Source, a platform that sells surplus fabrics from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton fashion and leather goods brands.
In an industry filled with concepts and narratives, Balogun chose to return to the basics and focus on the craft of fashion. “I designed this collection during a time where I feel like I was just seeing a lot happening in the industry, just a lot of like narratives and concepts, and I really just wanted to pull all those things back and go back to the time where I fell in love with fashion, which was on Savile Row, on the cutting table, just fabric, chalk, and some shears,” he said after the show. With this collection, Winnie NYC solidifies its place as a brand to watch in the world of menswear.
Winnie NYC’s use of sportswear elements in traditional tailoring, combined with its focus on craftsmanship, sets the brand apart in the world of menswear. Despite some unevenness in the use of color, the collection was well-received and solidifies the brand’s position as one to watch in the industry. Balogun’s dedication to the craft of fashion is evident in the collection, and it will be exciting to see what he creates next.
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Click on this link to read this article in French version.
