It’s always an exciting moment at fashion week when you walk into a room & see before you a new star glowing. This is precisely what happened as we entered the Teddy Vonranson presentation at Canoe Studios during the group showing event that has been coined of late as simply NYMD (New York Mens Day). The twice yearly event has become the go to for spotting the latest & greatest of new talent American menswear has to offer. Few new talents are as bright, however, as that of Teddy Vonranson.
Hailing from a 15-year stint in the design room at Ralph Lauren, where he rose all the way to Sr. Designer. He then developed the clothing collection under the Frye label, the iconic boot brand, before finally launching his own namesake collection a few seasons ago. Since then, he’s been steadily on the rise. Judging from those in the room, he’s turning more heads than just ours.
The designs were a celebration of classic mens silhouettes, but elevated in detail & fabrication to rise to the much deserved level of designer. Fabrications ran the gamut from twills & gabardines to some truly striking jacquards that evoked feelings of Santa Fe sunsets & more than one in the room was heard saying “Navajo” when they saw the grouping being referenced. The collection concluded with a vignette of shearlings that were sheered or clipped to result in a texture that was more akin to sheared Mink than Lambskins. This grouping too included one of the overall trends of the season, the leather pant for men, but in Vonranson’s deft touch, were done in a finest of Black lambskin that rivaled even the best versions from European labels more rooted in luxury than sportswear.
While none of the pieces shown this season will catapult this collection to the level of iconic or single-handedly seismically shift the landscape of American menswear to places yet known, what was accomplished, however, was that Teddy Vonranson succeeded in unveiling yet another chapter of the story he has to tell… & one we are anxious to consume. Vonranson seems content to continue to move the needle incrementally, which over time will earn him a place amongst the greats of American fashion. This business model, is, after all, the very embodiment of what American Sportswear defines.
Teddy Vonranson is a label on the rise & a star in the making. He’d be wise to start planning his acceptance speech now… the awards are just over the horizon.
- R. Scott French & Vivian Kelly ( @thefashionhistorian )
