Radically modern menswear

Mens-wear rarely registers on women’s radars, for the obvious reason that we can’t wear it. In daily life, the only menswear I see is what’s on the backs of my male family and friends, and I can tell you right now that none of them will be sporting that cute pair of pink shorts or sleeveless safari jacket that was paraded down the spring-summer 2011 runways.

The fashion-forward product of a designer’s rampant imagination and real-life needs of the flesh-and-blood male rarely meet, unless you’re talking about the impeccably cut suit he likes to trot out for formal occasions, or the comfortable sportswear he lives in the rest of the year.

Which is why a designer who merges both is a rare find. Though his name is new to me, the fashion house he works for is not, and neither is his pedigree.

Kris Van Assche is a 34-year-old Belgian who took over for Hedi Slimane as creative director of Dior Homme and who also has his own label, Krisvanassche. He graduated from the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, which is as famous for producing Van Gogh as it is for turning out fashion superstars like Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Veronique Branquinho, and Haider Ackermann.

Like his fellow fashion alumni, Van Assche has a special way with fabric. He’s become known for his original approach to sportswear, mixing luxury materials and feel with sportswear and function. The result? A totally modern approach to menswear.

This is the kind of menswear you want to see on your man, the sort of clothing that glorifies his masculinity while upping his cool quotient to “male model” or “rock star.” You won’t see any feminine colors or fey prints, blousy cuts or ridiculous frou-frou. Van Assche works with an effortlessly chic palette of black, white, gray and navy. His pants are slouchy enough to be tucked into Doc Martens or held up by a chain belt, but not so slouchy as to evoke “rapper.” His button-down shirts are the very definition of “now” with their small collars and long sleeves lightly cinching the forearm. His suit jackets, meanwhile, emphasize the broadness of the male shoulder before falling beautifully around the torso.

Krisvanassche’s spring-summer 2011 collection, available at Adora Greenbelt 5: This is the kind of menswear you want to see on your man, the sort of clothing that glorifies his masculinity while upping his cool quotient to “male model” or “rock star.” Photos by PATRICE STABLE

Has your man’s daily attire become a uniform? Van Assche’s sophisticated designs break away from the “uniformization” of sportswear.

Born in Belgium in 1976, Van Assche moved to Paris in 1998 shortly after graduating from the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After working with Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent and then for Dior Homme, he began to show his original creations in January 2005. Today he heads his own label, Krisvanassche, and has been artistic director for Dior Homme since April 2007.

While you can see the radical modernism of Slimane and Dior running through his eponymous label, Krisvanassche is different in its nostalgia for a bygone era when details were everything and men took their time, luxuriating in the ritual of dressing up.

Kris Van Assche’s aesthetic quest is to pursue a new type of masculinity. As a result, Krisvanassche collections continue to deliver nonchalant elegance mixed with poetry — something any man, or woman, would appreciate.

Krisvanassche is available at Adora Department Store in Greenbelt 5, Makati.