Everything
A German, an American and an Italian walk onto a baseball field… Not a joke, but instead the setting for the most recent collaboration between Hugo Boss and Russell Athletic for a collection that dripped with Americana and nostalgia.
If the choice of a baseball pitch (actually the Kennedy Sport Centre in Milan) that became the runway didn’t hint at what was to come, the first looks made it clear what the agenda would be.
The joy of being part of a team, of being able to come together again and share space. From cheerleaders to the marching band, you could hardly miss message that BOSS and Russell Athletic were just happy to have the family back together again.
How that gets translated into clothing… You may not play the game itself, but the motifs of baseball are a familiar presence in menswear. Here, BOSS and Russell Athletic simply turned up the volume to a hundred.
Bomber jackets and sweats emblazoned with logos written in the iconic Indiana script font were layered with BOSS’s traditional sharp-edged tailoring. Colourways that contrast neon brightness with simple, elegant neutrals made sure that the balance between fun and formal was maintained.
This melding of aesthetics has become increasingly common in fashion PC (post-COVID). Lifestyles are no longer marked out in clean sequences of office, home, play and the future is a world where the three blend.
It’s an aesthetic that BOSS had already been playing at for years but feels particularly fresh today.
Departing from the usual seasonal preview, the entire collection was also made available to purchase at the time of showing. There’s been growing support in the industry to follow a model where runways would actually be shown in the season they represent.
It’s a smart response to a world where immediacy is our biggest addiction. Due to social media and digital markets, the old ways of runways mean that by the time the clothes reach the store, they’re no longer new in our short attention spans.
Snaps for being on the ball when it comes to understanding customers!
