Later this year, The Elder Statesman will be opening a store in New York City. Naturally, the fall collection was inspired by a specific vision of the Big Apple—particularly the people in their high-powered corporate jobs that fill (or used to fill) the city’s skyscrapers. The Elder Statesman vibe is decidedly not corporate, which is perhaps why their experiments yielded such interesting results. Take the pinstriped suit, which appeared to be made from two different colored suits—one beige and one chocolate brown—that had been sliced vertically and reassembled. Zoom in on the images though, and notice that the pinstripes are irregular embroidery instead; a mix of machine and hand embroidery. The Elder Statesman take on a plaid suit, meanwhile, had an airbrushed quality to it but was instead tie-dyed in-house. “It’s 100 percent cashmere that’s dyed, then tie-dyed, then the pattern is added with a screen,” said creative director Bailey Hunter explained about the laborious process that yields a “chill vibe” look. The typical businessman cotton poplin button down shirt was remixed into a nifty anorak shape—worn over a matching collared shirt and tie, it was a fresh take on the shirt-on-shirt layering we’ve seen elsewhere this season. Another version of the button down, cut oversized from an extra-cozy sherpa-wool blend yarn in a shade of office-gray (but not drab at all), was paired with matching oversized Bermuda shorts and paired with a blue and white tie-dye tie. There was also a distinct Working Girl vibe, in the nubby ballet-style wrap cardigan worn over a matching polo paired with a ribbed pencil skirt, and the off-the-shoulder ribbed tunics and matching pencil skirt sets that opened the lookbook.
The signature Elder Statesman humor came in the pieces done in collaboration with Arend Alfiyanto, an Indonesian artist with an “early digital style,” as Hunter called it, who created graphics that were patchworked or intarsia’d into the knitwear. These appeared on pieces like a vest filled with clip art-type objects and figures that read GENUINE at the top, and the cashmere crewneck and matching pants that bore the message LEADING EXPERTS TELL YOU TO HOW TALK TO SPACE BEINGS, along with the patchworked silhouette of a human emerging into a new dimension: no doubt that’s how one would feel after being immersed in The Elder Statesman’s supremely positive, groovy energy.