ModaLisboa: BRVTVS Fall/Winter 2013

Under the eye of designer Richard Andrez, BRVTVS’s Fall Collection premiered last week at ModaLisboa, Portgual’s answer to the larger Fashion Weeks. This season Andrez’s work takes elements from classic men’s suiting (pleated pants, trench coats and oxford shoes) and shuffles them with active wear details (high-tops and sweatpants) and an exaggerated eye (oversized sweaters, elongated hook and bar closures and ski gloves) that results in a stunning collection that reads almost as a hybrid between Y-3 and mid-90’s Hugo Boss. That’s a good thing.

Moving out from the details, there is, though, a sense of tension between the work and its presentation environment. BRVTVS’s collection has an inescapably young English streetwear feel to it, and looks such as the dark grey jersey shirt-dress with tasseled zippers, or the color blocked cross-paneled leather sweater over matching leather trousers seem almost naturally fit to be shown in London – between a Xander Zhou and Richard Nicoll show.

The observation comes not to disvalue the Portugese Fashion Market, but rather, to ask, is this the style that things are progressing towards at ModaLisboa, or even, in the country? In a monochrome collection that was based off a poem that describes man’s “superimposed and hyperreal geometry of bones and muscles” and innate opposition to nature, perhaps Andrez’s intent is a subtle comment on the urbanization of his home country, by comparing it to one of the most industrious ones. Or, maybe he just really likes English clothes.