Engineered Garments (Q3038)
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Engineered Garments is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Engineered Garments |
Engineered Garments is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Like Ernest Hemingway, Daiki Suzuki is a man of the world, and draws on his life experience to create his masterpieces. It was fitting, then, that the designer had taken the late American writer as his inspiration for this Engineered Garments collection, citing Hemingway as “one of our admired heroes.”Rooted in rugged military staples and American workwear, this season felt like a confident return to the kind of clothes Engineered Garments is best known for. Suzuki intended this particular outing as “a new city safari.” Still, these clothes are more destined to mooch around the local farmer’s markets of New York and Tokyo than they are to fish for marlins or traverse the Serengeti (though you could wear them to do it all should you wish). It’s that sense of authenticity mixed with adventure that keeps the label’s offering fresh and relevant each season.Plus, Suzuki doesn’t just rehash his references; he reinvigorates them by adding his own brand of irreverence and playfulness, tossing in a vibrant print—see the leopard-print cagoules, trippy jacquards and madras jackets—or an unexpected mix of fabrics: the futuristic silver nylon, pleasantly anachronistic next to the fine floral corduroy. Most charming of this season’s artsy flourishes, however, were the twill jackets and fatigue pants that featured line drawings inspired by the pastoral scenes in Hemingway’s oeuvre. They were Picasso-style, and apparently done by a member of EG’s in-house team.There was fun to be had in the silhouettes too, with hunting jackets elongated almost down to the knees, full skirts with adjustable gathers at the hem, and imposing military doctor coats with straps to tighten at the neck or the sides—or, as in the look book, to hang from the shoulder like a backpack. The outside world beckons.
27 September 2024
Gianni Versace, Yohji Yamamoto. Dries Van Noten, Rei Kawakubo, Giorgio Armani. This Engineered Garments collection sees Daiki Suzuki pay homage to the designers who inspired the formative years of his career back in the ’80s, all in his signature magpie aesthetic.A collage of two tones of paisley shirting together in one style feels reminiscent of Van Noten’s knack for print mashups, and an eclectic geometric repeat pattern nods at Versace’s playful yet alluring sensibility. There’s funky jacquards, iridescent twills, and a couple of great wool suitings. The impressive assortment of fabrics here paint a great picture, but they don’t tell the full story.More compelling are Suzuki’s novel and meticulously err…engineered tailoring inventions. A tailored jacket is bisected at the torso and partitioned around the neck by a couple of zippers. The result allows the wearer to unzip the collar and shift it sideways, as it is worn in this lookbook, in a way that recalls Yamamoto’s brilliant and often puzzling tailoring experiments. Another tailored style comes with a pair of lapels—one peak and one shawl—that unbutton at the facing and are interchangeable. One could presumably wear the two, in the spirit of Kawakubo’s Frankenstein-esque fabrications, or not. That these pieces contain both the complexity of the work of Suzuki’s muses and the straightforward pragmatism of his own is the true achievement of this collection.
30 January 2024
Prior to hip hop’s embrace of Tommy Hilfiger, before the jock style craze of the Marky Mark years at Calvin Klein, and preceding the boom of the all-American boy-next-door image of the Abercrombie rebrand, there was the Northeastern prep of Brooks Brothers and Ralph Lauren. Preppy Ivy League style has inspired countless designers over the decades, and taken many forms. Up next in the long history of collegiate prep reimaginations is Daiki Suzuki of Engineered Garments.“The roots of my clothing style are deeply influenced by the Ivy League style of 1960s America,” said Suzuki of his spring 2024 menswear collection. The designer explained that his youthful attraction to Ivy prep eventually transformed into an embrace of the Heavy Duty Ivy style that emerged in Japan in the ’70s—which merged Ivy elements with outdoor gear. Much of this has been folded into the sartorial language of Engineered Garments over the years, but never as evidently as in this collection.Chalk that up to Suzuki rediscovering Charles Hix’s 1977 bookDressing Right, in which the formerGQandPlayboycolumnist broke down prep style and offered advice to men on building a wardrobe with pieces that suit their body types, while explaining the differences between collar sizes, lapel cuts, and the like. The tome followed Hix’s best-selling bookLooking Good: A Guide For Men, which advised men on grooming and perfecting their appearance through a set of…let’s call them steamy images by Bruce Weber. In hindsight, this quiet men’s style revolution in the ’80s gave way to the sartorial overhaul that arrived later in the ’90s—the more you know!Dressing Right also broke down styling techniques by designers, Lauren included, and explained the nuances of dressing up and down for men. “It shattered my preconceptions and revealed to me new ways of wearing clothes,” wrote Suzuki. That sentiment was encapsulated in this collection, which combines classic Engineered Garments styles—camp shirts, cargo shorts, utility parkas—with preppy seersuckers, windowpane and buffalo plaids, and oxford stripes.Where Suzuki struck a chord here was in the blending of his eclectic prints and graphics with more traditional elements of prep. Conspicuous layering remains key to building an Engineered Garments look, and the same can be said about menswear today. Take a page out of this lookbook and try to find its street style equivalent in the real world—you’ll find more than one faithful interpretation.
As it happens, Suzuki’s take onDressing Rightthis season is more chronicle than explainer.
31 July 2023
There’s been an endless amount of reporting on style subcultures dominating the online fashion discourse. Many of these, like “Cottagecore,” “Barbiecore,” “Clowncore,” “Gorpcore,” are rooted in a type of cosplay. Dressing up in costume decontextualizes the sartorial codes, and what this does does is remove a level of authenticity from these looks. This is why many of the folks leaning into these trends prefer to buy “the real thing” over the fashion reimagining. And this is what makes Daiki Suzuki and his Engineered Garments a worthwhile proposal: It’sfashion-able outdoor apparel, yes, but you could actually wear it to the outdoors.The source materials in question are the outdoor life magazines Suzuki has been collecting and looking at since childhood, particularlyOutdoor Life, but also sister titles likeField & Stream and Sports Afield. Suzuki spent his childhood out in nature, so this fall finds him ruminating on this feeling and revisiting his magazine collection, which were the original impetus behind Engineered Garments.In come a range of silhouettes, from simple relaxed blazers and hooded pullovers to multi-pocket vests and backpack-strapped parkas, in faux suedes, plaid suitings, thick wools, heavy nylon ripstops, and canvas. The more utilitarian styles in this lineup speak well to Suzuki’s inspiration, but it’s the addition of relaxed and approachable tailoring that round up the collection. Most compelling in the lineup were less expected riffs on the utility angle, like multi-pocket cargos cut in thick corduroy, or ankle-length shirt dresses in heavy nylon. This liminal between true-to-form outdoorswear and everyday-wardrobing is where Engineered Garments is at its most believable.If the last seasons have seen Suzuki lean heavily into a broad array of prints, fall saw him exercise restraint, cutting down the volume to a handful of checks and plaids, a wooden texture, and two floral and leafy graphics. What this absence does is allow the collection to be grounded by texture and fabrication, and let the distinct layering that has become signature to his label take the spotlight once again.That Suzuki combined his outdoor-inspired apparel with ties, beanies, varsity jackets, and a couple of tote bags speaks to his awareness of who his customer is.
The Engineered Garments person is likely not going fishing in these multi-pocket vests or fisherman pants, but is partaking in the high-impact outdoor sport that is commuting to work, and they’ll look good doing it too.
22 February 2023
The work of Senegalese artist Issa Samb was the starting point for Engineered Garments designer Daiki Suzuki’s spring collection. It was Samb’s installation work specifically that inspired Suzuki, particularly that of a wooden plank covered in found objects, most of them fabric.How this piece informed the collection can be seen through the ambitious, and sometimes overwhelming, combination of patterns and prints. In paisleys, patchworks, and embroidered motifs, plus a classic green camo (a first for the brand; during a preview a member of the team explained that they had shied away from it in the past as it felt too predictable), the workwear-inspired utilitarian silhouettes created a stimulating visual story similar to that of Samb’s installation.A run of different sashiko-stitched (the traditional Japanese embroidery technique) fabrics was one of the collection’s most compelling groups. The shorts, bombers, jackets, and pants cut in the patch-worked fabric decorated with colorful naive motifs are the kinds of things that differentiate Engineered garments from its peers.But as eye-catching as the prints are, especially the florals made in collaboration with Manabu Gaku Inada, it’s in the solid-color linens, crepes, and cotton poplins where Suzuki’s distinct cutting stands out. Most believable was the range of trousers, from straightforward cargos to classic tailored slacks and a run of dropped-crotch pants. The most noteworthy were a pair of extra-wide pleated bontan pants, inspired by the oversized trousers Japanese gangsters used to wear in the ’80s.What makes Engineered Garments interesting as a proposal is that its pieces stand out even more as part of a full look. They feel made to work with each other, idiosyncratic proportions in complicity.
29 July 2022
In the 2019 movieThe Lighthouse,you can watch Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe play lighthouse keepers who slowly lose their minds while stranded on an island. You can also watch them wear some great sweaters. Outfitted in chunky knits, Pattinson and Dafoe look like they could handle both a shipwreck and a trip to New York Fashion Week. In other words, the movie offers to utilitarians whatPhantom Threaddid to Charles James stans. And it’s not surprising that a menswear brand like Engineered Garments would use it as inspiration for a collection.Designer Daiki Suzuki is known for his stylish-yet-functional outdoor wear, and was inspired by Robert Eggers’s film when a friend recommended Suzuki watch it during the pandemic. “For this collection, I wanted to incorporate the film’s stylistic nuances to Engineered Garments’s staple uniform, work, and utility pieces in a cynical and twisted way, mixing in unexpected materials and textiles; adding an element of craziness to the classics,” he wrote in the collection notes.He achieved his goal. The knee-length overcoats with fireman hook closures, floppy, wide-brim hats, and the prerequisite chunky knit sweaters evoke wild, blustery days on the Atlantic. The prints and varying textures add depth throughout the collection, including a blue seagull print, plaids, herringbone, and a ditsy floral for women. As for the aforementioned “element[s] of craziness,” the multi-sized pockets and draped pieces are, if not quite wild, at least unexpected and fun. Knit vests, ponchos in bonded fleece and polyester, and a women’s raglan quilted jacket read almost blanket-like. They give the effect that you’ve grabbed whatever textiles were closest in an effort to get warm. This isn’t a collection you buy one piece from; the garments look best layered on top of each other to create a whole effect. Bon Voyage.
25 January 2022
Engineered Garments is known for marrying utilitarian garments with eye-catching textures and fabrics, and the spring 2022 collection continues this mission. Last season, Daiki Suzuki looked to American classics—think plaids and C.C. Filson jackets—but this time, he was inspired by “the beautiful imagery and vast range of cultures of Africa,” as well as “the work of several brands in the ’80s, including Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ralph Lauren, Willis & Geiger, Ruff Hew, and British Khaki, who drew from African imagery in their collections.”In 2021, citing a continent of 54 countries as inspiration will feel outdated and trivializing to many. Safaris seem to have guided the silhouettes: jackets and vests with ample pockets, jumpsuits in khaki and brown plaid, and cargo pants. Some of the prints were a bit too on the nose, such as the cheetah-spotted windbreakers and the many giraffes that appeared throughout the collection. But more concerning was a blue and yellow motif closely resembling the Ghanaian textile kente cloth; Suzuki is a Japanese designer, and it could come across as culturally appropriative. Meanwhile, the decision to style some of the looks with pith helmets, a hat that’s become increasingly controversial due to its association with European colonizers, felt legitimately tone-deaf.Suzuki said his goal was to “[highlight] the need to restore [Africa’s] wilderness to help stabilize the global ecosystem,” and the profits from the stuffed animals featured in the lookbook will be donated to help “make clean water wells in Africa.” Even so, this collection would have been served by a more specific starting point. For the most part, designers have come to view collections inspired by cultures other than their own as misguided, especially if the clothes weren’t made in collaboration with the artisans or designers who belong to that community. Had Suzuki gone the extra mile to partner with weavers or makers in Africa, this collection may have felt more genuine.
27 July 2021
Classic outdoor clothing with a stylish twist is the crux of the Engineered Garments proposition, and for fall 2021 designer Daiki Suzuki is doing his most reverent, all-American collection yet. The immediate references for the season are C.C. Filson jackets, Woolrich plaids, and old Field & Stream catalogues. It’s the sort of heritage stuff an Engineered Garments customer respects as a citation, but prefers to keep as that, favoring Suzuki’s new proportions and innovations. He delivers tenfold, adding backpack straps to nearly every coat as well as pockets square on the wearer’s back. (I’m promised they are functional, though I can’t quite work out how.)For all the clever tricks, Engineered Garments’ Suzuki is at his best not thinking too hard about improvements. An interpretation of an Italian Air Force pant offers just the right size wide leg and slouch, while a Barbour collaboration is remixed to a precise degree, with quilted jackets and trousers. Even a leopard suit feels nicely judged, not too fussy. The good news is that for every overwrought Western shirt, the fabric collaged into different directions of corduroy on the yoke, front, sleeve, and back, there is a no-nonsense fair isle mohair knit robe coat suited for an all-American life at home or outdoors.
5 February 2021
How do you make clothing with purpose in a time that feels so purposeless? For 20 years, Daiki Suzuki’s Engineered Garments has labored to eliminate effort in menswear, building flak vests and cargo pants that do the work for their wearer through functional fabrications and an abundance of details like straps, pockets, snaps, and zips. Now, with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no need for those dozens of pockets, what kind of engineering did Suzuki get up to at his flagship brand?The answer, he wrote in a press release, has less to do with the science of garment making and more to do with the joy that clothing can bring into one’s life: “One word came to mind when thinking about this:décontracté,which is to say casual poise while maintaining a level of comfort and relaxation. To me it meant focusing on designing more casual styles, while still incorporating military-inspired details.”Instead of bundled and tactical, the models in Engineered Garments’s spring 2021 look book appear carefree, unrestricted by their clothes. Through a global array of materials and patterns, ranging from Indian florals and madras to Breton stripes, as well as lightweight, elegant polyester twills and nylon-cotton blends, Suzuki fashioned lively clothing that alleviates stress. French army pants and jackets came in slouchy silhouettes, with a new drawstring trouser in a pintuck plaid that epitomizes EG’s workwear-as-loungewear proposition this season. There were also new “overpants”—think of them as even bigger, baggier pants that can be worn over other trousers or the brand’s summery printed shorts.If you must leave the house, an olive ripstop trench with no shortage of buttons and belts will offer the protection from the outside world we are all desiring. (Perhaps pair it with a new bucket hat featuring, of course, a pocket on its side.) A collaboration with K-Way birthed outerwear, coveralls, and hats in packable nylon. The basket weave dobby fabric of Suzuki’s tailoring shimmered on the screen of my laptop Zoom, but don’t let the festive styling fool you. Engineered Garments’s clothing is still doing a lot of work for its wearers. This season’s job is spreading some good vibes.
17 July 2020
“Funky, mutated workwear” is how a team member at Engineered Garments described the label’s core offering. It’s a brand renowned for its pockets; consider a trouser-and-jacket combination for fall with a total of 19 pockets, and that’s not even taking into account the potential styling options with backpacks, tote bags, and a shoulder harness bag that has had another new pocket added to its design. Nonetheless, fall 2020 finds Daiki Suzuki smoothly sliding into new territory.Inspired by the masculine grace of the jazz musicians that once haunted the Village Vanguard and the Blue Note, Suzuki (mostly) swapped his multi-pocketed cropped shapes for a luxurious, romantic silhouette here. Wearers might find themselves literally strapped into a shearling-lined coat or new harness accessory, but in these longer, away-from-the-body silhouettes, they will feel more free. Of course, the looseness of jazz doesn’t mean Suzuki has given up on rigor. The genre actually makes quite a nice metaphor for the way he works: Know as much as possible, dig as deep into the weeds of one’s craft, and then beautifully freestyle. “Balance and tone” reads one graphic, and so Suzuki has balanced his new Lawrence blazer made in a custom pinstripe navy wool from American Woolen Company with new iterations of cargo vests, gigantic wader overalls, and a chenille aviator jacket. “If you know how to wear it,” the team member says several times about flood pants, hospital gown jackets, and nubbly tweed bucket hats the size of planters, “it looks amazing.” If you get it, flaunt it—and freak it a little with that layered harness.
29 January 2020
How do you make clothing with purpose in a time that feels so purposeless? For 20 years, Daiki Suzuki’s Engineered Garments has labored to eliminate effort in menswear, building flak vests and cargo pants that do the work for their wearer through functional fabrications and an abundance of details like straps, pockets, snaps, and zips. Now, with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no need for those dozens of pockets, what kind of engineering did Suzuki get up to at his flagship brand?The answer, he wrote in a press release, has less to do with the science of garment making and more to do with the joy that clothing can bring into one’s life: “One word came to mind when thinking about this:décontracté,which is to say casual poise while maintaining a level of comfort and relaxation. To me it meant focusing on designing more casual styles, while still incorporating military-inspired details.”Instead of bundled and tactical, the models in Engineered Garments’s spring 2021 look book appear carefree, unrestricted by their clothes. Through a global array of materials and patterns, ranging from Indian florals and madras to Breton stripes, as well as lightweight, elegant polyester twills and nylon-cotton blends, Suzuki fashioned lively clothing that alleviates stress. French army pants and jackets came in slouchy silhouettes, with a new drawstring trouser in a pintuck plaid that epitomizes EG’s workwear-as-loungewear proposition this season. There were also new “overpants”—think of them as even bigger, baggier pants that can be worn over other trousers or the brand’s summery printed shorts.If you must leave the house, an olive ripstop trench with no shortage of buttons and belts will offer the protection from the outside world we are all desiring. (Perhaps pair it with a new bucket hat featuring, of course, a pocket on its side.) A collaboration with K-Way birthed outerwear, coveralls, and hats in packable nylon. The basket weave dobby fabric of Suzuki’s tailoring shimmered on the screen of my laptop Zoom, but don’t let the festive styling fool you. Engineered Garments’s clothing is still doing a lot of work for its wearers. This season’s job is spreading some good vibes.
17 July 2020
At Engineered Garments, Daiki Suzuki has both the best materials and the best production—but it’s not enough for the menswear icon to simply rely on quality. To really be the best, you have to innovate. Season after season, Suzuki tweaks the pieces core to the Engineered Garments lifestyle: The chore coat, the carpenter pant, the button-down shirt, the suit, and the jumpsuit. The updates are so small they wouldn’t register to the untrained eye: say, a spread collar instead of a tab collar or a wabash stripe instead of a railroad one. But this closer-than-close attention to every element of clothing is what makes Engineered Garments so coveted by menswear obsessives.For Spring 2020, Suzuki and co. have underwritten their functionalism with a bit of French esprit. The blue of France’s famous workwear jackets appears throughout, as does a new five-pocket jean style with a wide thigh and slight taper to the leg that is an homage to François Girbaud. Elsewhere a handmade cotton bouclé jacket with double pockets is a nod to Coco Chanel,bien sur. But these are the most literal examples of Suzuki’s Gallic references. A hibiscus Hawaiian print appears on cotton; a random, all-over Madras runs through the shirting; and there is, of course, lots of Engineered Garments’s universally beloved ripstop separates and cargo pants. In describing the overall mood of the season, a brand representative used words likefunandjoyous. Sure, they might be two of fashion’s most common bon mots, but in this instance they actually do apply.
25 July 2019
Here’s a crazy idea: What if everything just worked? What if all the so-close-but-not-quites of modern life evaporated and the cuff of your pants hit perfectly above your sneaker, and the chest rig vest fit snuggly under or over that corduroy blazer? Wouldn’t that make life easier? That is the general principle of Engineered Garments, a brand that takes its commitment to function so seriously, it’s literally in the name. With workwear on the rise, and on the backs of everyone from Daniel Day-Lewis to Brooklyn Beckham, the moment is right for Engineered Garments.What sets designer Daiki Suzuki’s vision of supreme functionality apart from more mass makers of painter pants and button-downs is his artistry and devotion to materials. This season, Suzuki drew from the New Romantics, cutting a loose silhouette in velvet, wide-weft corduroy, and rich brocades alongside the more standard-fare cottons and a custom double-face dull satin inspired by army fatigues. A jacket comes with a button detail pulled from Tyrolean coats, while another outerwear piece is a supersize take on medical gowns. It’s all just peculiar enough to stand out but just normal enough to qualify as everyday wear—and it all fits together like a garmento’s jigsaw puzzle. Trends would point to Engineered Garments as a must for this season, with leopard spots and patchwork trousers, but the simple suiting and sloped-shoulder bombers are worthy of mention, too. Put simply, they just work.
29 January 2019
Following his color-rich, if eye-scrambling, nod to Jamaican culture and Rasta spirit last season, Daiki Suzuki took a trip through his own heritage for Fall. Not so much for nostalgia’s sake, just a look back to move forward. Like so many designers of late, he felt compelled to return to his roots in search of those qualities that are quintessentially, inarguably Engineered Garments. In other words, traits that can’t be faked. The refocus comes as the company finally outgrew its Garment District space and set up roomy new digs in Long Island City, joining forces with its main factory along the way.Suzuki is nothing if not loyal to his factories and mills. Specifically, Woolrich Woolen Mills, the oldest maker of outdoor apparel in the U.S., with which he has been working for 15-plus years. Woolrich produced the bulk of the homespun wool, flannel, canvas, and corduroy in the latest offering. It was, however, its buffalo plaid—in blinding red and black, inspired by Mark Rothko and Barbara Kruger, among other art-world greats—that packed EG’s now-expected punch. Suzuki scaled it up to outlandish, abstract proportions before unleashing it all over suits, balloon pants, blanket capes, butcher’s aprons, and chaps buttoned at the sides.But those twisted tartans were just the beginning of an exhaustive collection that also saw tweaked Western shirts, corduroy moto pants, multi-check knit vests and blazers, faux fur lining (it’s always faux at this label), and the return of an erstwhile unexplained loop detail between the front pockets of a jacket—turns out it’s for birders to hold their binoculars. Much of it was topped with a snappy new cape and anorak collaboration with British brand Barbour. Suzuki also showed his tailoring prowess with several items constructed from one piece of fabric, their seams reduced to darts. As for shoes, they came as loafers, lace-ups, work boots, and another collab with Dr. Martens, this time with red thread. Finally, it must be noted, there is now a women’s collection, essentially a softened, less burly version of men’s but every bit as outlandish and outdoorsy.
5 February 2018
Fashion editors love an unexpected color story, and we sure got one at Engineered Garments. For Spring, the New York men’s label that typically throws its lot with the monochromatic, conceptual ilk embraced rich tropical hues with abandon. Hues that, even stacked on hangers, drenched the Garment District showroom with vibrant jolts of gold, royal blue, jungle green, and crimson red. And, is that a pink flamingo print? Why yes, yes it is.The idea sparked into being when Daiki Suzuki suddenly recalled, as designers are wont to do, a bright green schoolgirl uniform he saw on a trip to Barbados several years ago. That impression jibed with his current obsession, the obscure 1978 Jamaican filmRockers, a Robin Hood story of plucky reggae musicians who get even with unscrupulous gangsters. His interest isn’t in the plot; rather, it’s the island style so quintessentially, authentically Rastafarian. Suzuki pulled out a behind-the-scenes book of photos—produced in Japan, oddly—as evidence of the film’s rich visual appeal.It would be the understatement of understatements to say that this EG collection is unlike any other. Yet hanging right there was a whole host of reggae-inspired, African-sourced prints, some of them patchworked together for the more daring of the label’s customers—and, by all accounts, they’re a daring bunch. Fabrics were lighter and thinner, with more of an emphasis on Cordura and other synthetic materials. Brand spokesman Angelo Urrutia paused at a super lightweight coated cotton jacket, a key piece, and he all but cooed over “memory plastic,” a carryover from early Comme des Garçons fabric development. He demonstrated its wrinkle-resistant durability with a strong squish of the hand, watching as it sprang back to form.Suzuki’s much-anticipated shoe collaborations ranged from Timberlands—either with the top of the sole sawed off or with brogue detailing—to rather straightforward Dr. Martens fastened with a strip of kids’ velcro. Towering bucket hats, knit ties, and the return of the label’s own riff on Ikea’s Frakta bag, which it started years ago, directly referenced the unmistakable shades of the Jamaican flag and other Caribbean islands. We’re in.
11 July 2017
Daiki Suzuki’s cult-followed collections for Engineered Garments—the label he launched nearly 20 years ago and still makes in New York’s Garment District—exist in a universe all their own. More engineered than designed, as pledged right in the name, they’re simply tweaked from season to season, rather than conjured anew, to create an oeuvre forever in progress. Fall was no exception, a robust, evolved, considered product of the Japanese-American designer’s clever imagination, all the more so worked within a traditional menswear framework of suits and coats. Shown to press and buyers just a week into a certain, if totally uncertain, administration, it also served as a welcome respite from the turmoil engulfing the outside world.Which isn’t to say there wasn’t a political element. It was just of the symbolic variety, such as a pin-striped jumpsuit borrowed from an old photo—vintage black-and-white photography was a theme—of the tyrant slayer Winston Churchill in a similar jumpsuit and snakeskin loafers. Lose the snakeskin, and the look feels remarkably current, even on a group of silver-haired models cast locally, as in neighborhood shops. Elsewhere, a recurring workwear vibe took on renewed urgency, in the form of heavyweight duffle coats, olive overalls, long aprons, ponchos and parkas, rumpled denim and corduroy, drifter hats, and blankets worn over coats. One of those blankets,a re-creation of the Stars and Stripes in gray scale, struck an appropriately ominous tone.Suzuki is an experimentalist by nature. He loves delving into twill serge, worsted melton, double-face sateen, and other heavy-duty fabrics—much of them hailing from Woolrich Mills in Pennsylvania, where he once acted as creative director—in order to subvert their original purpose and find new applications. For Fall, sleeve linings had been turned inside out, so that the shiny quilted part was on the outside, unhidden. One coat liner was worn sans coat, and a Prince of Wales pattern had been deconstructed and enlarged to jumbo proportions. High-tops and boat shoes in collaboration with Timberland were fitted with chunky lug soles, in one of several footwear collabs that also included Dr. Martens, Danners, and Tricker’s. A sense of controlled randomness permeated throughout. Fabrics, from block to floral prints, were cut arbitrarily from the bolt, meaning they wouldn’t line up perfectly, or at all, on any given piece, making each one unique.
This is exactly Suzuki’s method: to find rhythm and order amid chaos and disorder.
30 January 2017
Daiki Suzuki isEngineered Garments’s founder and designer, the man behind every curtain for nearly 20 years. Never far from his side, the company’s de facto spokesperson, Angelo Urrutia, is the man who can elaborate at length about Suzuki’s seasonal concepts. Or non-concepts, as it were, as the Spring collection was. “This season is about going back to our core and staying loyal to our customers,” he demurred at the label’s Garment District showroom. “Basically tweaking the items they love.”That, for Engineered Garments, has always been workwear—essentially updated jeans, overalls, field jackets, and assorted outdoor apparel, often laundered for a rumpled, worn-in feel. Sometimes there are very clear shout-outs to classic American sportswear labels, like Carhartt or Wrangler, or sometimes a subtle nod to Ivy League or the art world, as in Ralph Lauren Western shirts or Paul Smith polka dots. Suzuki is hardly guarded about his influences or, for that matter, the provenance of his fabrics—for example, classic prospector denim that hails from Levi’s supplier of a 100-plus years or other workwear materials sourced from Woolrich Woolen Mills in Pennsylvania, where Suzuki formerly served as creative director.A couple of tonal tiki prints did manage to make it into Spring, but that was the exception in a collection otherwise ruled by familiar EG markers: chesterfields with snap-on hood, dovetail parkas, anoraks in coated linen, painter’s pants in corduroy, knit blazers with shorts, rounded collars and corners, zip and button vests, dickies on shirtfronts, bucket hats, mismatched socks, the occasional madras or seersucker, and always a darkish palette of worker blue, mud gray, and army khaki. The idea is that every piece is tested and trusted—much considered and highly detailed, but nothing fancy.
18 July 2016
Daiki Suzuki is as committed as ever—committed to his Garment District digs, his brand’s home for nearly 20 years, and committed to his evolutionary take on menswear. Each new season is but a fine calibration from the last, slightly reshaped or re-fabricated to reflect the subtlest of changes in his inner temperature gauge. Every bit as pragmatic and direct as the nameEngineered Garmentspromises.In the showroom today, Suzuki’s right-hand man, Angelo Urrutia, did the talking, explaining the new Fall collection and its raft of exacting details while busy buyers swirled about the racks. Some details, Suzuki doesn’t expect his customers to ever notice except upon microscopic inspection. Even then, they may not register, for instance, the three kinds of weave in one wool blazer (herringbone, horizontal, homespun). Or that only the dull backside of a sateen fabric is used in a utility jacket. Or that the buffalo plaid of a heavy coat is randomly placed, meaning it’ll be different on each coat made. Same with the fabric-maker’s seal stamped on the inside of another coat.For Suzuki, fabric is everything. Or rather, fabric authenticity is everything, like the denim he gets from Cone mills in North Carolina, Levi’s supplier for over a hundred years. But it’s Woolrich Woolen Mills—a heritage mill deep in Pennsylvania, where, not coincidentally, Suzuki used to serve as creative director—that’s become synonymous with Engineered Garments. Many of their fabrics for the label are custom-made, like an eye-popping polka-dot jacquard blanket fabric used in a variety of jackets and pants, as well as a best-selling scarf-cum-shawl that can be worn in many more ways than two, as Urrutia demonstrated. Other accessories of note included a snap-adjustable pointy felt hat and a peculiar bit of leather jewelry, an actual fly-fishing pole holster worn around the neck.Suzuki likes to pull ideas from his quotidian scenery—and not just the silver-haired “real” men he casts in his lookbooks, plucked from local doughnut shops and the like. That’s how he allowed one pop-culture reference to nuzzle its way into the collection. He’s been listening to Moon Taxi, an emerging Tennessee indie-rock band set to play Coachella this year. He’s particularly taken with their latest album,Mountains Beaches Cities, which informed the collection’s earth-navy-gray palette.
It’s a little amusing to think of a Japanese-born designer and founder of a New York avant label bopping along to neo-country music, but if his throngs of loyal fans are any indication, the curious cultural confluence is a hit.
1 February 2016
Approaching two decades in the menswear business (women's came along more recently), Engineered Garments is something of a holdover from the days when New York brands actually produced in New York—in Manhattan, no less. Back in the mid-'90s, designer Daiki Suzuki's minimal, non-Western cuts and shapes made them among the most interesting clothes around. You know what? His label hasn't changed a bit.The Spring collection began with fabrics, as does every collection at EG. Materials are not only created from scratch or painstakingly sourced (sometimes from forgotten '80s warehouses), but also laundered and hung to dry, giving the finished product a signature crumpled effect. A denim-like blue dungaree fabric reappears each season, favored for its workwear look; this time it was coupled with a navy dolphin camo print and beachy bucket hats. Suzuki has recently discovered surfing, hence the sea motifs, but he hasn't abandoned his strict work ethic or his tight four-block radius. "I oversee production," he maintains, "so I have to be close to everything." It's a mystery why he wasn't contacted by the organizers of the new men's fashion week, but he says he's on the schedule to stay.
16 July 2015
Engineered Garments built its reputation on smart, sturdy revisions of familiar clothes—lots of workwear and military influence, with a smattering of the outdoorsy and the occasional nod to dandyism. Those who pay close attention, as the brand's cultlike following surely does, have noticed the small shifts in direction designer Daiki Suzuki takes with each passing season. Fall 2015 may be the most significant departure since he started in 2004, if for one simple reason: The color black, which almost never appears in Engineered Garments' collections, could be found throughout this season. (Interestingly, it also predominated at Prada and Saint Laurent.)That's not the only unexpected thing about the Fall '15 line. The inspiration came from New York and Tokyo in the late '70s and early '80s. Suzuki referenced legendary New York menswear shops Parachute and Charivari, two of the first, most cutting-edge shops to carry designer menswear from Europe in New York. Suzuki moved to New York in 1989, but before that he made frequent trips to visit these stores, so his version of the era mixes what he saw happening in both hemispheres. There are no big shoulder pads here, but trousers have more volume on top, are tapered at the bottom, and the textures—embroideries and wide wale cords—are very '80s."I start by finding fabric first," Suzuki says. "Whatever fabric I feel reminds me of the '80s, something I used to love to wear, then I start figuring out which are the best fabrics for the shapes we have. It's kind of a puzzle." He estimates that there are 100 different fabrics in the collection. But to reduce this collection to the inspiration of an era hardly does it justice. The mixing of fabrics—bouclé with embroidery with bonded cable-knit—made it something more unusual and interesting than what the '80s could ever conjure for most of us. Suzuki plays with length and proportion in a way that puts Engineered Garments soundly ahead of whatever the next layering trend will be. The color palette throughout was almost entire navy, black, and charcoal, done in countless different fabrics—mostly cotton, wool, and nylon—and as many different textures. One unique and particularly striking wool combined five different weaves—diagonal to homespun to herringbone to stripe to glen plaid—subtlety across one piece of fabric. A fishtail parka in blacked-out Hawaiian floral wool will surely be one of the most coveted items.
Inventive repurposing of the men's wardrobe, such as the fancy jumpsuit—a vest and trouser one-piece that pairs with a suit jacket to make a two-piece three-piece suit—kept things lively, a dose of good humor shining through the dark monotones."This is my own thing," Suzuki says. "The '80s—not for everybody, but the '80s I feel. Every season is from my experience. Every season is my private thing. It's all from inside of me."
27 January 2015
Since 2004, Engineered Garments has been the singular menswear brand in New York when it comes to vintage-inspired sportswear. With a discreet identity and an "if you know, you know" reputation for quality in fabrics and construction, there is as much mystique as there is obsession surrounding the label. The Spring 2015 collection is a testament to why.There is a story behind this offering: Designer Daiki Suzuki looked to the now-defunct brand British Khaki by Robert Lighton and the image of the British army in India, their khaki mil-spec gear commingling with bright colors and kalamkari and paisley prints. The result was a collection of contradictions. Khaki, olive drab, navy, and gray paired with bright florals, printed canvas, and jacquard; Nehru collars, harem pants, and long shirts alongside British officer jackets and double-pleated trousers. Military and workwear tend to be sober by nature, but here much fun was had in mixing and matching patterns, in unlikely fabric combos, and in the contrast between informal and exotic with formal and traditional. More challenging pieces like the wrap-and-tie wide-leg fisherman pants added irreverent fun to a jacket and tie. Numerous riffs on safari- and military-style jackets, all executed with a balance of nuance and convention, were never quite what you'd expect. Suzuki's design process begins with the fabrics, and so one of the greatest strengths here was in the materials—luxe tropical wool; soft, richly colored twill; bright nylon; linen blends; and more unique fabrics like a water-resistant striped cotton with poly backing.But the British safari narrative is somehow too confining for the clothes; it too neatly categorizes the collection. Above all, this is the vision of a sportswear mastermind. Suzuki doesn't design from historical archives or a template for what a collection should be. He finds inspiration and intuits his way through both vintage and entirely original designs. While there are staple pieces in the line—the brand's cult following knows them well, the Bedford jacket and workshirt, in particular—every pattern is new each season, constantly being tweaked to improve and adapt based on what Suzuki feels is right. "This is something nobody else can do," the designer said, standing in the showroom of his Garment District office. "Only I can do this."
16 July 2014