Fashion & Beauty

Public School

The inexplicably chic name “Public School” was enough to pique interest of many, but the presentation itself drove it home by delivering one of the coolest, most precise menswear collections at New York Fashion Week.

The clothing could have been pulled from the closet of any downtown dweller (including Bradley Soileau, who modeled the line fresh off his liaison with Lana Del Rey in the “Born to Die” video). But absent were your stock grungy flannels.

Instead, shirts came in cotton cashmere, trousers in ponte knit wool, and jackets in duchesse satin. The refinement carried through in sharp tailoring offset by easy styling, affecting each ensemble with a vibe neither thoughtless nor forced. Overall, Public School proved that a label doesn’t have to send seventy looks down a runway to communicate a lucid brand identity. That was managed exceptionally well with just 12.