If there’s one designer that’s accruing a lot of (well-earned) buzz during the sleepy New York men’s season, it has to be Emily Bode. Her eponymous label has quickly earned accolades from The New York Times and coverage in Vogue thanks to her slow, southern (she was raised in Atlanta) sensibility to clothing. It’s that mentality that has her selecting rare, often hard-to-source, materials to create garments that are truly one-of-one.

This season’s collection was inspired by a personal friend discovered on trips to Cape Cod; Homer, a Harvard-educated botanist-turned-quilt dealer, was the inspiration behind the garments. Set up in a room designed to replicate the look and feel of a greenhouse, Bode’s presentation mixed both a collegiate and a country aesthetic. Schoolboy shorts and high socks meshed organically with patchwork pants clearly cut from a well-worn quilt. Cowhide coats, handkerchief shirting, tiny needle-point stitching and beaded detailing put the “style” in “homestyle”; clothing isn’t often likened to a recipe executed at home from scratch, but it’s hard to ignore the similarities between down-home cooking and Bode’s down-home approach to clothing design.

As other outlets have noted, Bode’s presence at major retailers like United Arrows, Très Bien and Totokaelo have exposed the brand to a bigger audience and allowed its fanbase to grow. That said, the challenge will be scaling up Bode’s aesthetic to match the rapidly increasing demand for the brand. As much as Bode is continuously committed to creating one-off pieces from exceedingly rare fabrics, we’re excited to see her team source deadstock materials while also reproducing new textiles for her collections; it means that, ideally, Bode should be hitting more stores in the near future—without sacrificing the touches that make the brand’s work a bright spot in the New York fashion scene.

A major initiative for adidas for 2018, the newly-unveiled Crazy BYW is set to make a major splash at this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend. Just before the All-Star break however, it seems that fledgling label Bristol Studios (fittingly based in this year’s host city of Los Angeles) has had the first opportunity to work on the new silhouette, unveiling its take on the stripped-down Boost basketball sneaker along with its Fall/Winter 2018 collection.

For those unfamiliar, the Crazy BYW (short for “Boost You Wear”) takes cues from late-’90s and 2000’s-era adidas basketball kicks (think the Kobe Byrant Crazy 1 and Crazy 8 specifically) to inform an modern basketball shoe touting adidas’ modern technology. It’s a fitting shoe for a brand like Bristol Studios, whose co-founder and creative director—Luke Tadashi—makes no secret of his love of basketball (and the culture surrounding it) from that period.

Tadashi’s clothing this season was an homage to his personal Japanese heritage, referencing an autobiography written by his grandfather describing life during World War II and his immigration into the United States. Clothing was worn, shirting was misaligned and pockets sewn on inside-out.

That inside-out detailing was important, especially in the context of the sneaker collaboration. While the original Crazy BYW features a mixed-material mesh upper, Bristol Studios’ take utilized a suede-like upper in ivory or black, with a unique, pull-cord lace closure. At quick glance, it appears as though the sneaker has had its lining turned inside-out and reworked as its exterior. As the first brand outside of adidas to work with the hyped-up new silhouette (to say nothing of Bristol Studios’ sleek, upscale take on the original design) these sneakers are going to be a major part of the Crazy BYW’s legacy—all while giving onlookers even more reason to keep an eye on this emerging LA label.

For guys in the know (not to mention regular Dry Clean Only readers), Abasi Rosborough has been a hidden gem of the largely lackluster New York fashion scene. Made up of Abdul Abasi and Greg Rosborough, the duo have taken their shared experiences—working with names like Ralph Lauren and Nepenthes—and tapped them to create collections whose futuristic aesthetics are matched by the garments’ modern ability to appear borne from both the past and present simultaneously. Blade Runner’s blended “Hong Kong-meets-Los Angeles” techno-dystopia has been used as a starting line for plenty of designers in the last few seasons, but it’s labels like Abasi Rosborough who’ve been tapping into that sense of a fused-cultural futurism since the brand’s inception—all without feeling inauthentic or forced.

Layered outerwear is an Abasi Rosborough signature, and its Fall/Winter 2018 collection was no exception. With kimono-esque coats (some boast zippers but left open, others belted with thin rope-like string) subtly showing off the brand’s Japanese influences, the real power of the pieces lies in the drape and tailoring (many of these look more like remixes of the traditional white collar blazer or topcoat) as much as their ability to invoke a style that intersects between East and West. Of course, if one was looking for something that tapped into Japanese sartorial influences more directly, the label certainly has those individuals covered too (shout out to Looks 5 and 12).

New York staples like the paneled double-zip bomber jackets, or the drawstring parkas—in a rich reds, deep cobalt blues or vivid golden yellows—would be coveted by even the most casual of menswear fans, but it’s the layered styling—still plenty accessible paired with hoodies (see Look 19) and turtlenecks (Looks 20, 26 and 29)—that elevates the already intricate individual pieces into equally intricate ensembles.

In total, this is one of the brand’s most considered offerings yet—and you don’t even have to take my word for it. Serving as the brand’s first official runway show, the collection was as much of a public debut as it was an affirmation: Abasi Rosborough is not one to miss.

Fresh off a design break (Geller chose not to show last season while “restructuring [his] company,” according to Vogue), Geller is back with more garments that pick up right where the designer left off. This season, Geller went back to his youth in Hamburg, Germany, dreaming up a fictional football (soccer to us American heathens) club—F.C. Charlottenburg—and imagining what the team’s players might wear on and off the pitch. More than just athletic uniforms, the pieces were also inflected with details inspired by uniforms of the German army in the 1980’s. At a time when footballer favorites like Stone Island are finding global crossover success, Geller’s collection seems right on the pulse of what’s popping—even if it’s still done in his own aesthetic language.

Geller’s faded hues—eggplant purples and hazy blacks—were due to enzyme washes, giving the line a distinctly vintage look. It wasn’t just the clothing that was nostalgic either; Geller tapped a former colleague from his time at the now-defunct Cloak to accent his garments with removable felt badges. Even though the vintage-looking results are engineered by the designer and his team, the aesthetics are also the result of some serious thought. Considering that the entire collection is made in Japan—with fades “accomplished with lots of hand-rubbing”—the garments may look worn, but their quality should hit high marks.

It’s not a collection that’s going to knock anyone’s (soccer) socks off (the arm-badges on Look 4’s topcoat and Look 8’s shirting draw clear and obvious comparisons between Geller’s soccer fan and the Stone Island-clad “casual”), there’s more than a few pieces that will slide comfortably into a contemporary wardrobe. The team-branded parka (Look 18) and track jacket (Look 12) are just two of the clear winners in this refreshingly concise collection. Either way, whether F.C. Charlottenburg takes the pitch proper or not, you can consider us a fan of the squad.

Daiki Suzuki’s Engineered Garments may very well be the best, most consistently incredible brand in New York. There, we said it. But is that even that even that surprising a statement? The cultish brand (who has recently decamped from the city’s historic Garment District to a burgeoning space out in Long Island City) is damn near a staple among the Big Apple’s menswear aficionados, with practically every guy in that lane owning at least something from EG—be it a pair of olive drab cargo pants, a hoodie from the offshoot “Workaday” line or one of Engineered Garments’ collaboration Dr. Martens. If you stop and think on the label’s stalwart status, it’s fitting that Suzuki and his team took a look back into the brand’s heritage for Fall/Winter 2018.

One of the brand’s longest running partners and fabricators—Woolrich Woolen Mills—has been working with Engineered Garments for the last 15 years, not to mention being the oldest outdoor apparel producer in the United States. Woolrich’s buffalo plaid—blown up and cut-and-pasted across a variety of garments (as Vogue noted, à la Barbra Kruger and Mark Rothko)—is a key component of the overall collection, taking up the first half of the brand’s lookbook (Engineered Garments largely avoids doing runway shows and releases a lookbook during New York Fashion Week instead). But it’s not just plaid that Woolrich helped out with; much of the flannel, canvas, corduroy and wool were sourced from the historic mill as well.

At first glance, the collection is as much a mash-up as it is a classic Engineered Garments collection; mixed prints—not to mention aesthetic and sartorial influences—intersect on a single look (note Looks 19, 20 and 22) in a way that can be dizzying or flat-out unappealing to the unfamiliar viewer. But upon closer inspection, it’s about dissecting a single look into the individual pieces that create it (not unlike scoping a lookbook from sister Nepenthes brand Needles)—that’s where you’ll find the true treasures. Pieces like a Native American-influenced jacket (Look 16), a faux fur vest (Look 24, a corduroy suit (Look 23) and buffalo plaid tearaway trousers (Look 7) are all standout garments in their own right; its pieces like these that present a blended aesthetic that’s equal parts quirky originality, historical sensibility and nostalgic charm. It’s that vibe that’s gone on to define a brand like Engineered Garments into what it is today. Suzuki’s tailoring abilities are also on full display here, with Vogue pointing out that several items are constructed from a single piece of fabric, swapping seam construction for darts.

But if the brand’s more eccentric items aren’t your speed, you can always rely on Engineered Garments collaborations, which this season include a cape and anorak from Barbour and shoes—adorned with red thread—from regular partner Dr Martens.

As equally beloved brands like Abasi Rosborough enter the New York Fashion Week fray, we’re wondering if, and when, Suzuki and company will bring Engineered Garments to the runway. But...if we’re honest, that off-the-calendar charm is one of the many reasons why we continue to come back to Engineered Garments season, after season.

“Raf is really dark but there is a scarf that just says ‘Drugs’,” noted Jacob Gallagher, Men’s Fashion Editor at “Off Duty” from The Wall Street Journal shortly after experiencing Raf Simons’ Fall/Winter 2018 show. It may sound silly, but he’s not wrong. It’s clear that Simons’ topic of choice centered around recreational drug usage and the dangers of addiction. Considering that Simons’ recent collections have telegraphed the designer’s interest in tackling topics connected to his newly-adopted American homeland, it’s hard to ignore the fact that he was likely contemplating the opioid crisis currently plaguing the country.

In a literal sense, several garments were adorned with panels marked with the letters “LSD”, “XTC” and “2C-B”—all substances attached (however loosely) to ravers, a regular source of inspiration for several Simons collections. The most literal perhaps were the items branded as Gallagher described. In a more indirect interpretation however, garments like the chunky false sweaters (otherwise known as dickeys) and slick vinyl gloves hinted at something simultaneously disheveled and synthetically sterile—descriptors that could very well apply to addicted users and the substances they abuse. If you happen to be a German film buff, perhaps you’ll be more readily familiar with the stills from Christiane F., a loosely biographical film based on the real life tragedy of its eponymous protagonist. Simons cites the film (and the book it’s based on) as a de facto drug abuse PSA he was exposed to in high school.

But outside of the collection’s inspirations, it’s Simons own, rapidly-expanding fanbase that will likely suffer the worst side-effects from this new collection. It might not be the conceptual knitwear that flies off the shelves (even though we’re confident those sweaters will make their presence known in future street style galleries), but the squared-shoulder suiting and outerwear—with its abstract-yet-accessible large pockets and shifted proportions—remind us exactly why Simons has been a cult favorite for decades.

It’s no secret that Simons is currently serving as New York Fashion Week’s saving grace. With a show that served up spectacle alongside its style (tableside views of fully-set feast scored by pounding dance music is sure to dominate social media feeds for the next 24 hours), it’s nice to see that Simons knows how to embody both sides of his unofficial duties. Whether he’s showing abroad or right here in New York, one thing remains clear: no one wants to skip out on trip that is the Raf Simons show.