September 6, 2008

The message on the flags stuck into the tiny marzipan cakes that awaited guests was "Eat me." The psychedelic resonance of such a suggestion ("Go ask Alice, I think she'll know") was borne out by a gray linen jacket colorfully embroidered with slogans like "Turn on, tune in, drop out" and "Is there life after youth?" Swaim and Christina Hutson said their inspiration was cults and communes, and, to a live soundtrack from a scruffy, cult-ish looking crew called Stars Like Fleas, they presented their vision of a fashion utopia: men and women in complete harmony, wearing adaptations of the same idea.

The way it worked in practice was more a feminization of menswear than an androgynous middle ground, but the results were impressive. Among the key words that cropped up in the show notes were "faded," "blurred," and "hippie." Apply those notions to the Hutsons' lace tops, floppy linens, and washed silks, and you've got fashion's equivalent of the freak-folk movement. Obedient Sons shares that natural eccentricity, which is also the wellspring of the label's wit and charm. Still, outfits like a floral-printed linen shorts suit, a little tailored coat (on Queen Elizabeth's daughter, it would be called a "princess coat"—I'm not quite sure what it's called when her son is the one wearing it), or that embroidered jacket would be merely dippy if they weren't so beautifully crafted. The same thing applied to an "evening" suit of jacket and shorts in a silvery jacquard. Obedient Sons love their bare legs.

— Tim Blanks