BIG ON BROWN
Pantone may have chosen Classic Blue but the menswear market says brown is back!
“It’s the most misunderstood color in menswear,” asserts designer Joseph Abboud of the color brown. With his lifelong passion for rich earth tones, Abboud is delighted that browns are making a comeback for fall 2020. “It reflects the zeitgeist of our era, a connection with nature and the earth. It’s organic and inclusive, incorporating a broad range of shades from rust to chocolate to taupe. And it beautifully blends with other neutrals: blue, gray, camel, black. There’s just something magical about brown.”
Peerless VP/creative director Eric Jennings whole-heartedly agrees. “In our fall ’20 forecast, the big color callout was brown! We saw more shades of brown from the European mills than we’ve ever seen,” he relates, stating it’s directly related to the ‘70s trend in fashion.
Peerless president John Tighe notes that brown looks especially beautiful in rich luxe fabrics: velvets, corduroys, cashmeres. “To varying degrees, Peerless is showing brown in all our collections for fall/holiday 2020. Smart retailers will focus on brown as a major fashion statement: in catalogs, in store windows and online.”
Not a bad idea, especially since a brown suit (or clothing in a pattern that incorporates brown) might be the one thing not currently in a guy’s closet and the best reason for him to buy a new suit.