JC Report / Trendsetter: Karlo Steel

[gnarjen]

TRENDSETTER: KARLO STEEL

DATE August 25, 2010
DOES Atelier New York, owner and buyer
WHERE New York

Karlo Steel founded cult New York boutique Atelier with partner Constantin von Haeften in 2002. A San Francisco resident throughout the ’90s, this New Orleans native honed his natural eye for acquiring and styling through various retail and stylist freelance gigs. He now dedicates his time to maintaining Atelier’s perennially perfect stock, while sharing business management duties.

What’s hot right now?
Discovering cities that are off the beaten path but still pack a punch in terms of culture. If you live in a metropolis like New York, visiting a small to medium sized city can be really refreshing. Places like Vienna, Helsinki or Munich have much to offer in terms of art, architecture and culture, but without masses of people. And they are not frozen museums—they offer all the choices and conveniences that one would expect from any modern city. In this age of cheap air travel, it’s a challenge to find a place of interest where one can move around with ease and not be bombarded with souvenir shops. If you know where to look, you’d be surprised by how rewarding a place that isn’t one of the “Top 10 Places You Should See” list can be.

What are your favorite menswear trends at the moment?
I’m really attracted to volume, fluidity and movement in men’s fashion. I find it very refreshing. And, to me at least, it seems to be the only logical place to go after over a decade of skinny strictness.

What brands should we look out for in the fall?
I loved the elegance of the spring/summer ‘11 Dior Homme collection and am very excited by Haider Ackermann’s menswear debut. Naturally, both will be available at Atelier!

[MikeN]

Wow, Dior Homme?!

[cjbreed]

[zamb]

Wow, Dior Homme?!

I saw that, but didn't want to say anything...................

[lowrey]

I was surprised as well, but to be fair, it was a pretty decent collection and I can certainly see Karlo's draw to it; nice use of volume and draping with refined fabrics.

[swami]

Karlo definitely has good taste and a great eye BUT lets face it that store is huge , The rent must be super high, to keep making a profit they have to diversify a little and give the main Clientele who are probably not as discerning and just need someone to bring them a well edited, best of whats in the market.

[zamb]

Karlo definitely has good taste and a great eye BUT lets face it that store is huge , The rent must be super high, to keep making a profit they have to diversify a little and give the main Clientele who are probably not as discerning and just need someone to bring them a well edited, best of whats in the market.

Agreed.
Haider is new, I didn't like his debut, but I think he is going to get better, so thats justified..............Also, like it or not Dior still has relevance, we may miss Slimane, but its still owned by LVMH, and I will never count out the impact of a brand owned by them...............

[Fade to Black]

Maybe it's just me but Dior seems to have gotten infinitely bigger and more popular since Slimane's departure. If anything I'd say the brand is doing better than it's ever been. K's recent collections have wisely gravitated towards balancing the expanding commercial scope in recent years with the more integral features that made the house under Slimane so critically covetable to begin with. It makes sense for Atelier to pick up DH at this point in conjunction with its own growth.

[Faust]

Well, it's certainly not KvAs doing but a typical cashing in on the brand going mass. It's jeans, tees, colognes, undies, whatever buttressed by relentless advertising. Anyone can sell that.