Started in 2008, an artisan hub for designer information and fashion resource, Assembly New York is a boutique on Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, focusing on international and otherwise hard-to-find luxury labels alongside curated vintage objets d'art. Many of the articles are the result of collaborations with designers and are exclusive to the store. In 2009, Assembly introduced the in-house collection, designed by owner Greg Armas. All garments are handsewn in New York City. Greg Armas arrived at New York fashion week with a fully fleshed-out point of view. He has been developing his menswear line for some seasons now, and the collection he showed at his début presentation seemed more like an encapsulation of his establishment than any kind of statement of new intent. That's a good thing, inasmuch as his ambitions as a designer mostly relate to the detail of his clothes, which are way more fussed over and thought through than their slouchy silhouettes would suggest. Consider, for instance, the fine wool blazer in tan and black that, upon inspection, proved to have banded seams in place of traditional lining; as the designer explained, it was exponentially more work to finish the jacket that way, but the technique made it easier to layer. Other examples : the crinkly rust-colored denim pieces, which were made from organic denim and given a squid ink and persimmon overdye, and the collarless tan jacket with covered buttons and a subtle cutaway hem. The typical Assembly ensemble -soft suiting layered with tenderized tees, chunky hand-made knitwear and rakishly oversize outerwear- is emphatically grungy. Varied blacks in wool, cupro, flannel and cotton denote a wardrobe pieced together over time. Hemlines are left unattended as trousers gather around worn leather boots. Nomadic amulets in copper and brass hang low around the neck with leather caps to shade the eyes and negate identity. But the success of the look is down to the precision of Greg Armas' methods and his fanatical attention to material and cut. Which is not so bad at all.
