Joey Samson makes the masculine suit the feminine

MANILA, Philippines - Joey Samson’s affinity for the Japanese is apparent to anyone versed in the designer’s archive of boxy trousers and white shirts. In his latest collection, the closing number for Fashion Watch, he tackled a recurring theme that’s already become a signature: “The Japanese term mitate, which means a new point of view or to see things in a different light,” according to the designer, served as his jumping-off point for his current treatise on the menswear trend.

In ensembles constructed from men’s suiting fabric in black and gray, as well as ivory and beige houndstooth, Samson served up compelling takes on the suit: a power suit cinched in the waist harked to the ‘80s, a three-piece version referenced Brit dandies, while a cropped knee-length trouser and elongated blazer spoke of the designer’s fondness for schoolboy uniforms.

A masterful mix of silhouettes, ranging from long and lean to slouchy with helpings of voluminous pleating and exaggerated tailoring, marked the collection. Highlights of which included a crisp tuxedo jacket with an extended tail and a jacket with sleeves slit up to the upper arm like a taut cape.

Shirt course: Joey Samson’s meditations on the white shirt culminated in a series of creative exercises on the uniform. A shirt with collars running down the front, like a re-calibrated rib cage done in folded paper sculptures, was particularly successful.

Samson’s constant contemplations on the masculine and feminine, and his deft ability to master the yin and yang of the style, is reflected in the fall of a shirt or the cut of a pant.

Genderless dressing, long a cause célèbre of Samson’s, makes the most sense here — where a man’s jacket is a meditation on politics, social dynamics and gender identity. He invokes a sense of play — particularly in the inventive styling of a men’s jacket fastened over a white shirt like an oversized bib simply with a belt — that doesn’t fetishize menswear dressing but, instead, proves that, in this case, women do wear the pants in this family.

* * *

Fashion Watch is presented by The Philippine STAR, Olay, Makati Shangri-la Hotel, Metro Pacific Investments, Preview, StyleBible, and StarWorld.               

Joey Samson