David Hart (Q2880)
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David Hart is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | David Hart |
David Hart is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Baggy streetwear, neat tailoring, ’70s glamour, 19th-century cowboys; David Hart has come to realize that most guys’ wardrobes don’t center around one single trend or mood. Instead, it’s often a messy, dynamic mix of all of the above, plus some ’90s grunge and 2010s basics thrown in for good measure. As a ready-to-wear designer with a growing bespoke business, Hart has had to learn to pivot between decades and tastes while still offering a cohesive, relevant-feeling collection during the bi-annual New York Men’s Day.His tightly edited fall 2020 collection was more or less his view of what a modern man wants to wear. It opened with a camel suit embroidered with wildflowers on the lapels, a nod to the zeitgeist’s “yeehaw agenda,” followed by a look that combined extra-roomy trousers with a camp shirt printed with duct-taped bananas. It was a tongue-in-cheek riff on Maurizio Cattelan’s now-infamous $120,000 plantain (and the many virtual reinterpretations of it on social media). Hart said he was inspired by Cattelan and other artists who worked in ready-mades, like Marcel Duchamp: Akin to the latter’sFountainorBicycle Wheel, he wanted to reinterpret and elevate things that exist—the pilot jacket, the Western shirt, the tweed blazer—rather than reinvent the wheel. The concept worked best in the case of a few silky, floral-embroidered Western shirts, which took Hart in a more feminine and louche direction than we’ve seen in the past.
3 February 2020
The floors of David Hart’s studio space at New York Men’s Day were striped with caution tape and chalk outlines of bodies like a crime scene. It was a cheeky introduction to Hart’s big news for Spring 2020: an official partnership with the International Center of Photography and Weegee Estate. For those unfamiliar with the photographer, Weegee (formerly known as Usher Fellig) rose to fame in the ’30s and ’40s for documenting emergencies and crime scenes; he often followed the ambulances and sirens to be the first man on the scene.Hart was inspired by the push-pull between art and journalism in Weegee’s work, and transferred some of his most iconic black-and-white photos onto his more casual items like button-downs, oversize coats, and cropped jackets. One look combined a short-sleeved shirt and short printed entirely with a famous Weegee photo of a Coney Island crowd, while a rounded coat featured the voluptuous curves of a nightclub dancer Weegee famously photographed.That graphic sensibility seemed to fit somewhere in between Hart’s last collection—a purposefully sparse, no-frills lineup of just five suits, hardly enough to qualify as a “collection” at all—and the maximalist, Lurex-flecked tuxedos he’s more commonly known for. There were no embellishments or sparkles here, and save for the shoes—jewel-toned sneakers by Christian Louboutin—it was almost entirely black, white, and gray, with two lapis suits for good measure. The “’90s boy band” proportions of Spring carried through, but those bold Weegee prints lent a touch of eccentricity guys (and girls) are searching for in their clothes—even in basics like a suit or camp-collar shirt.
6 June 2019
As a New York menswear designer, David Hart has the privilege (and sometimes the curse) of sitting back and watching hundreds of men’s shows happen in London, Florence, Milan, and Paris way before presenting his own line. This season, the experience likely reassured him that, for the most part, his instincts to cut his pant legs a little bit wider, draw his color palette from the ’70s, and experiment with new textures were on point. At his presentation in the Financial District, Hart said he was thinking about the Watergate scandal—or at least what everyone was wearing at the time: patterned suits with XL lapels, colorful knit polos, silk foulards, and suede boots.The men’s shows in Europe were marked by soft tailoring, “feminine” fabrics, and a new sense of elegance, which is good news for Hart, who has always focused on suiting—not streetwear. In fact, his business is largely comprised of made-to-measure red carpet suits. The East Coast gents who come to him for jewel tone tuxedos will either be thrilled or a bit confused by the bolder, brighter, groovier stuff here. Will they dare to wear the bell-bottoms? What about the sparkly embroidered brooches, a collaboration with Celeste Mogador? Where Hart diverged from the European pack was in those really fanciful, piled-on looks, which might prove too retro for most guys—particularly the baby blue suit and ruffled blouse, which veered into Gucci territory. Instead, Hart’s clientele should zero in on the simpler pieces with just a touch of ’70s warmth: The rust and chocolate-brown knit polos were strong—they’re a Hart specialty—as were the silky button-downs, which emerged as a surprising street style trend last month.
10 July 2018
David Hart’s eponymous label is known for its relatively old-fashioned niceties: colorful suiting, color-blocked polos, and an overarching mid-century ebb and flow that feels anachronistically quirky, yet often quite current in tandem. But, for Fall, he jumped right in with a much more pointed, not quite as easygoing, statement: “This collection is really inspired by the mass exodus of American brands leaving New York to show in Paris. . . . and is mashed up, a bit, with French New Wave cinema.” There were also pins that readUgly Américain—meant to sort of comment on (or poke fun at?) the stereotypical tourist who refuses to speak French and demands the bill and wears fanny packs. One couldn’t also help but think that Hart is embarrassed by much of what is going on in our country right now, like many of us.The results were mixed. The collection didn’t come off as astringently as the sound-bite, but it did seem a little confused, which may have been purposeful, given the turbulence that continues to shake the fashion complex and its calendars. Painted jeans were styled with tees and berets, a cardi-blazer was worn over candy-hued stripes and cuffed trousers, and some models even had tote bags with baguettes, which was too literal a styling trick. The same goes for sweatpants that had#NYFWParisprinted on the leg.But there were high points where a clearer line of thought and edit cut through the dough: “One thing we thought about was, how do you make the [French staple] Saint James striped sweater cool again?” Those aforementioned multi-stripes beneath the cardi were one example; others included a jumper in the gradients of a sunset and another with a red-and-white scheme in varying widths.
6 February 2018
David Hart’s Spring gent is a traveler in Cuba. Or, at least, he’s a traveler in Cuba inspirit. The designer had been planning to visit the island, but the trip never occurred. Nonetheless, he channeled the panache of Habana Vieja, mixing a quiet mid-century swagger (something Hart is great at) with a lighter, broader sense of contemporariness.There were: striped blazers, buttoned high, over Huaraches made with Toms; neck scarves worn sash-like; pocket squares and Panama hats; banana prints; and knitted polos. The most memorable piece was a pink Guayabera—it touched both sides of the Straits of Florida as something distinctly Cuban, but reinterpreted through international hands. Hart also had some women’s looks in his roster—high-waist pants styled with little tied-off shirts. Easy. Breezy. Stroll-on-the-Malecón ready.If there’s a criticism, it’s that Hart’s inspiration and subsequent interpretation was mainly superficial (a lot of the boys carried cigars, for example); perhaps when that visit does happen, and who knows what’s going to go down with President Trump’s pull-back on the prior administration’s Cuba policy, Hart will find more to explore. Worth mentioning, though: All of his models today came from Anti, a new group founded by employees who left Trump’s modeling agency.
10 July 2017
“Men are getting more attention than ever on the red carpet,” said David Hart today at his Fall presentation. “And my business has really evolved into made-to-measure territory—I’ve been doing a lot of celebrity dressing.”What that means: full tuxedo court press. Every look that Hart showed was some rendition of the formalwear fixture. On one end, perhaps for a Jared Leto type or similar, there was a bubblegum pink shawl-lapel option complete with an allover ruffled shirt of the same hue. “I want to make ruffles cool again,” said the designer. At the other, a tartan plaid example. This, too, came with a shawl collar, but it was more abbreviated, more youthful. And at the core, the tuxedo in traditional black—albeit accessorized with a dandy touch, as is Hart’s strength, via a larger proportion bow tie and a tasseled scarf.The fact that this collection wasn’t exactly consistent might not matter—Hart was illustrating what he can do, from the classic to the conspicuous. And he’s smart to recognize that the red carpet is, indeed, increasingly a territory where men are sartorially experimenting.
30 January 2017
David Hart’s three-year-old suiting label is made for the modern gentleman, but nostalgia is his secret sauce. A little Bauhaus here, a bit of ’70s prep there, and natty tailoring have made Hart a designer to watch on the New York menswear scene, boosted by his spot in last year’sCFDA/VogueFashion Fundcompetition. For Spring ’17, Hart riffed on surf culture in the ’60s, particularly the photography of LeRoy Grannis, whose work shaped the world’s perception of California as an optimistic, sun-soaked land of possibility. Almost 50 years later, we still see it that way.Hart interpreted those free-wheeling vibes with palm-tree prints, Hawaiian shirts, and batik jacquards, but a new emphasis on sportswear and casual staples spoke to a greater shift. Hart launched his brand as an American source for colorful tailoring, but men these days are just as interested in refreshing their off-duty weekend look. Blame the enduring appeal of streetwear and athleisure; for guys who don’t feel comfortable with those trends, Hart’s clothes might be a refreshing alternative. He reported his knit polos have already been a hit with buyers, and fans ofFast Times at Ridgemont Highwill appreciate his airbrushed T-shirts scrawled with Jeff Spicoli’s famous line: “You dick!”
15 July 2016