Romeo Hunte RTW Fall 2021
During lockdown, designer Romeo Hunte reflected on his childhood and creative origins, which influenced him to design a fall 2021 collection that was both nostalgic and modern, with a nod to New York style and the Aughts. The collection follows his fall 2020 collection, which incorporated archival looks from Tommy Hilfiger (who has been a longtime mentor of the designer); the Romeo Hunte x Tommy Hilfiger capsule is now available for preorder on Hunte’s e-commerce site.
The look: A mix of prep, street and tailored bourgeois layered and twisted into Hunte’s signature mixed media garments.
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Quote of note: “I was thinking about the time I was working at a cafe during college, it was right by NYU; each morning students would run in for coffee and I used to get into their looks,” Hunte said over Zoom, recalling memories of the past he reflected upon in lockdown. “Mary Kate and Ashley [Olsen] were regulars, paparazzi always used to wait outside. Everyone used to love their looks, and they were very effortless — ballerina slippers or versatile shoes thrown together with sporty, luxe, street all in one. Now that things are opening, it reminded me of that era — like with Lenny Kravitz, the whole bum-chic era.”
Key pieces: The best hybrid garments melded varsity prep with street essentials, as in classic gray hoodies with playful “Romeo Hunte University” logos and classic prep V-neck sweater details and patchworked fur cardigans; waffle knits rendered into long-john-esq stirrup leggings worn with leather and denim bodysuits and puffed jackets; new interpretations of mixed media outerwear (fur, denim, leather, bomber-meets-trench), which the designer continually pushes through new collections.
The takeaway: Hunte’s fall collection offered a playful sensibility with a New York edge (seen through the look book, photographed inside of a subway station in Brooklyn, N.Y.), mashing up tailored, preppy, street and loads of outerwear in ways that felt fresh for the brand.
Launch Gallery: Romeo Hunte RTW Fall 2021
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