After traveling to Mars last season, Nick Graham brought his collection for spring back to earth — or more specifically, into the ocean.
Using Atlantis as the theme, the designer prefaced his show with images of a pristine beach, schools of fish and other sea creatures.
Graham said because Plato’s original work on Atlantis was written in 360, he used a Donovan song of the same name from 1968 to modernize the collection.
“It was based on a mix of psychedelics from the Sixties,” he said, pointing to a marijuana-printed shirt shown under a bright green suit, “and colors based on corals.”
As a result, the tailored clothing collection was chock full of bright hues that included reds, blues, oranges, golds, pinks and a rainbow of other tropical-themed shades, many of which were accessorized with oversize seahorse lapel pins or parrots on the shoulder.
The dress shirts were also colorful and wildly patterned with paisley, polka dots and wave patterns complementing some more-traditional stripes.
While a few of the designer brands this season — Todd Snyder and Perry Ellis among them — showed an oversize silhouette, Graham’s fit remained slim.
“American men are still in the slim business,” he said.
Graham also showed a few women’s looks — colorful, patterned sundresses that worked well with the men’s wear, as well as a couple of pairs of underwear.
While the collection didn’t break any new ground and some of the exploded stripes looked more like prison uniforms and the exaggerated plaids were, well, too exaggerated — the use of playful colors and patterns provided a welcome distraction from today’s stressful climate.