EXCLUSIVE: Engineered Garments Serves a Delicious Ivy Gumbo For SS24
Founder Daiki Suzuki goes back to the well for Engineered Garments SS24, brewing up his signature gumbo of outdoor gear, American tailoring, and vintage militaria in an expansive co-ed collection full of old favorites and delicious new treats.
In the seasonal notes, Suzuki cites familiar Engineered Garments influences. He reveals that this collection is heavily spiced with Heavy Duty Ivy cues, for instance, accented to taste by the kind of idealized prep that was once disseminated by pictorial style bible Take Ivy.
All pretty classic but Suzuki also cites Charles Hix's forgotten menswear guidestone Dressing Right as a key flavor specific to Engineered Garments' Spring/Summer 2024 collection.
Dressing Right "featured detailed explanations of the imagery and styling techniques of renowned New York designers at the time, as well as advanced dress-down and dress-up concepts," Suzuki explained.
"It shattered my preconceptions and revealed to me new ways of wearing clothes. From there, I embarked on a quest to find my own original way of dressing, and all of that exploration has been encapsulated into Engineered Garments."
Hix's influence is visible in nearly every Engineered Garments collection, but also in curatorial Instagram accounts that collate the lost art of good taste. The throughline isn't any one piece of clothing but a generalized attitude towards wearing clothes.
Like Suzuki, Hix disdained trends, instead encouraging readers to flesh out the quirks inherent to their own personal tastes without sacrificing versatility. Dressing Right also dived deep into the sort of nerdy garment details (ascot tying, collar measurements) in a way that preludes Engineered Garments' own fastidiousness.
In the same way that a chef might thrill to dish on the finer nuances of ingredient prep, for instance, the average Engineered Garment enjoyer likely needs little prompting to launch into a discourse on the finer points of pant-shoe interaction and idealized pocket shapes. Come to EG for the wearable clothes, stay to obsess over the minutae.
Anyways, per Hix's own fascination with classic clothes, Engineered Garments SS24 really emphasizes those ivy league motifs. Hence why you've got a renewed emphasis on sack jackets, casual blazers, Oxford-collar button-downs, and pleated slacks, though Suzuki's other disparate influences are similarly well represented.
Classic Engineered Garments fare arrives in friendly new forms for SS24. You've got the Andover Jacket in windowpane pattern, the Loiter Jacket cut from a faintly plaid beige linen, and a bevy of cargo-pocketed vests that wear everything from a graffiti-inspired print to delicious floral jacquard.
Among the new items this season are some pieces that take ivy inspiration literally (the Ivy Blazer and Shirt), a knee-length version of the many-pocketed FA Pant, and a kiltie-wearing Clarks collab, amazingly enough the first-ever Engineered Garments x Clarks team-up.
This puts EG one more brand closer to collaborating with every footwear brand on the planet. Let's see, so far there's been EG x K-Swiss, Tarvas, Keen, Reebok, Paraboot, Superga, Suicoke, Dr. Martens, Vans, Alden, White's, Trickers...
Though Engineered Garments SS24 is all pretty classic, as far as EG goes, closer observation uncovers the Charles Hix influence that wafts in and out of the collection like a flavorful refrain.
Silhouettes are consistently reigned in, shapes are reliably uncomplicated, and the textures vivacious. Hix heartily enjoyed a statement pattern and Engineered Garments delivers with flowers, madras check, and no less than three types of patchwork: cotton lace, animal print, and corduroy.
All part of Engineered Garments' seasonal spread. Help yourselves.
