Last season, Ronnie Fieg launched “&Kin,” a new brand under the Kith umbrella with a focus on tailoring and elevated materials that’s also a reflection of his personal style tendencies. “Launching &Kin really forced me to think differently about everything because that collection did really well for us,” he explained on a Zoom from a Brooklyn studio where he was in the middle of a shoot. “So I’ve changed the priorities and the order in which I have designed in the past and I’m using &Kin to lead the evolution and the maturity of the brand. It’s supposed to be the most sophisticated, elevated, and expensive portion of the brand, but it’s really made me think differently about the fabrics, the construction, and the fits of what we do in the mainline as well; so the bridge has gotten even shorter between our mainline and &Kin.”
But don’t let the all-black look of a sober tropical wool overcoat, silk scarf, and woven leather rucksack in look 1 fool you; this isn’t a pivot to quiet luxury, just a more luxe view of Kith’s tried-and-true signatures. Fall is a season made for layering, and there are several terrific jackets in this collection: like a tonal patchworked explorer jacket (available in equally luxe shades of brown or indigo), or the devastating turquoise and emerald washed velvet zip-up jacket that is as soft as a dream. “I’ve been dipping a lot into what would typically be women’s fabrics because I like the way they drape,” Fieg added. Drape came up a lot in our conversation, especially as it relates to pants. This season the pants are slightly narrower and less stiff; a bit more adult. A navy vintage satin double-breasted jacket cropped right below the hips with collapsed shoulders is paired with pleated trousers that elegantly skim the legs and pool just-so on top of the shoes (a quasi-chunky gum-shoe Clark’s from an upcoming collabo). Even a pair of cargo jeans gets special attention, with darts at the knees and semi-rounded seams that add soft ease throughout.
Elsewhere, it was all about textural details: classic track jackets in the softest suede layered over a suede shirt, knitted hoodies with contrasting blanket-stitch trims, mesh football jerseys made to be layered over button-down shirts or worn under suits, chunky dégradé fleeces, honeycomb chenille separates, and tonal jacquard shorts.
