Designer Uma Wang spent eight days in Bhutan last summer and was bowled over by how stylish men looked in their traditional robes, known as a gho, and striped fabrics galore. She also noticed they never carry bags, tucking their phones and other necessities into the folds of their tightly wrapped clothes, or in capacious pockets.
In addition, they mix traditional garb with T-shirts and sneakers and she found that “more than interesting.”
She translated all of this into her soothing spring men’s collection, employing thick linens with the rumpled texture of burlap for suits, flowing rayon for loose pants and tegos — the loose jackets worn under a gho — and wax-coated drill for utility vests with enough pockets for a mountaineer to pack at least half a dozen sandwiches.
Shanghai-based Wang has been quietly making menswear for a decade, selling it to about 80 wholesale clients and building it up to about a fifth of her business.
She decided to host a presentation for the first time, inviting retailers and editors to her year-old Milan store with its rugged hardwood floors and industrial shelving.
Imperfections are her thing, like a loose rayon fabric upon which she stitched strips of linen. “The fabrics don’t like each other, it seems like a mistake,” she said as a way to explain the rumpled appearance of the stripes, which pleased her to no end.
She develops all of her fabrics in Italy, including a gray pinstripe realized with brown yarn that blobbed here and there, reminding you of when the Grinch was stitching his Santa suit and the tail of his dog Max entered the sewing machine by mistake.
Wang also tried her hand at a gho, developing a lustrous jacquard based on a tiny swatch of fabric discovered at a museum, and at thin-soled sneakers, which could bring zing to many summer outfits.