Billy Reid
Stop a random fella in Florence, Alabama and tell him one of their native sons is the darling of the Manhattan menswear set, and you got yourself one surprised Southern man. Since opening his shop on Bond Street in 2008, Billy Reid has we city boys drinking moonshine, listening to swamp folk, and pining for some good fishing. The Dixie stereotypes end there, though, as Reid has continued to grow as a tailored designer; his Spring collection is his sharpest and most focused effort to date. The high-waisted pleated trousers, double-breasted linen jackets, club collared shirts, and saddle shoes all point directly towards classic deconstructed Southern gentlemanly style. While tailored trench coats and three button shrunken sports jackets move the collection away from costume territory and into the sleeker, unforced style city folk are keen on. A sneaker collaboration with K-Swiss wasn’t completely awful either. Who doesn’t want a simple, perfect navy or off-white canvas sneaker in the summer?

Gilded Age
Gilded Age designer Stefan Miljanic isn’t a stranger to the 1930s. His Fall ’08 collection mined the breadlines of the Depression before chambray became a requisite closet item. For Spring 2011, Miljanic returned to the decade to show us how the other half lived – this half being those wealthy enough to island hop the South Pacific on flying clipper ships. Brown leather jackets (of both the motorcycle and hunting variety) and an abundance of khaki added a sense of colonial adventure while muted swim trunks took care of the functionality bit. Vintage-print Hawaiian shirts lent some irreverence to a collection dominated by the beiger shades of brown.