Cuba keeps providing inspiration for menswear designers. A few seasons back, David Hart was inspired by the Cuban nightlife of the 1950s, while this season Nick Graham created a fantastic runway presentation inspired by Cuban culture replete with scantily clad Samba dancers. And Carlos Campos was also influenced by Cuba, more specifically the culture that emanates of its tobacco plantations.
Then again, Carlos Campos, a fashion designer who deems himself a cultural nomad, usually references Latin themes and motifs. For his fall 2016 collection, Campos referenced the “Forastero, or the outsider, a common theme in Latin American literature.
That said; there was a quiet elegance to Campos’ fall 2016 collection that was missing in this spring 2017 collection. Though there was a restrained sophistication to this spring 2017 collection, as we have come to expect with Campos, with a few exceptions, overall this outing was underwhelming. Perhaps, like many menswear designers this season Campos was aiming for clothes that had an obvious retails value, causing him to extract some of the wow factor that has worked for him in previous collections. Whatever the reason for the rather pedestrian look of Campos’ spring 2017 collection, if he had only turned the volume up just a smidgen this collection would have been on target.
In this collection Campos reinterpreted the traditional Cuban guayabera shirt, elongated in Campos ‘Jackabera ‘ version. There was even a reinterpretation of the male jumpsuit with cargo pant–like pockets—unfortunately, Campos’ male jumpsuit slightly resembled an garage attendant’s uniform. True to form there was Campos’ penchant for a monochromatic color palette of Campos’s signature navy blue, whites and military olive.
Image courtesy of fashionreverie.com/Ken Jones
Still, with the exception of some of the graphic print separates, this collection fell a little flat. Better luck next time!!
—William S. Gooch
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