Welcome back, everybody! October is over, the leaves on the trees outside are turning a sickly sort of yellow, and William Nylander has somehow managed to make shades of gray clash, so you know what that means—it’s time for the first installment of PPP’s 2019-2020 Fashion Recaps. I’m back, not only because dissecting the apparel choices of 21-year-old multimillionaires isn’t a job, it’s a calling, but also because I am afraid of what would happen if I went back on my promise to continue this series. Some of you know where I live. It’s a risk I just don’t need to take.

Speaking of risks, it might be October, but the Maple Leafs have already started the season off with some Big Looks. Check out Mitch Marner, channeling a Georgian-era libertine in Garrison Bespoke:

The phrase “silk brocade leisure suit” goes from a pair of words I really love to a pair of words that make me break out in hives, but thankfully this is not a “leisure suit” in the classic, polyester, 1970s sense of the term. Unlike the archetypal leisure suit, the blazer is traditionally cut, which makes it look less like a horribly dated relic and more like a cool throwback. I also love the color and the texture of that fabric; raw silk is a fantastic fabric for suiting, and it’s great seeing it make its way into menswear, as it’s already a standard in women’s jackets and skirt suits. The sheen is gorgeous! More suits that can be described as lustrous, please.

Mitch also looks great in deep, cooler jewel tones (remember his purple suit? Because I sure do!) so that burgundy is perfect on him. The entire outfit is a lot of look, but it’s a look I love. Toss on a black silk tie to match the pocket square, and ride that vampire YA hero aesthetic as far as you can take it, Mitchell.

Meanwhile, down the hall at Garrison, Auston Matthews was getting fitted for this:

This coat is like if Cher Horowitz and Gomez Addams’s wardrobes had a baby. That gigantic, splashy houndstooth is mesmerizing. I’m still not sure how I feel about it—is it too stark? Am I simply not as brave as Auston Matthews and this attempt to mimic a geometric version of Cruella De Vil’s aesthetic? Why does staring at it for too long make my eyes cross automatically? The only thing I’m certain of is that I want him to wear it with his fedora and that deep red suit, because this is a coat so vivid and dramatic that you have to meet it with equal amounts of drama in the rest of your outfit. That blue suit he’s got on is very nice, and also looks terrible with that visual bitch-slap of a coat—the colors and patterns are too different. It’s the suit of a well-paid tax attorney and the coat of a business-minded Tim Burton character. Go blood red or go home.

Meanwhile, Frederik Andersen continues to have disturbingly impeccable taste. I really hope the person who took this photograph intentionally framed it to have the yellow couch—which looks fabulous with that shade of blue—in the background of this photo. This doesn’t look like a walk-in photo, this looks like a carefully staged “candid” picture posted by an Instagram influencer. I legitimately resent Andersen’s ability to look good in every single picture in the world, but then he goes and does things like matching a cream floral tie to his cream shoes with that gorgeous blue suit, and I just cannot stay mad at him. I’m not a fan of sneakers for the walk-in, and I stand by that take, but if one must, this level of coordination is the proper way to do it.

This is also an outfit that understands how to work both cream and white into an outfit, and it does it beautifully, by treating cream as a color, not a neutral. The fact that the white shirt and the cream tie are different colors doesn’t matter, because the tie matches the shoes, so it all looks intentional. If the shoes were a different color, the tie would stand out as the one cream piece, and the close-but-not-quite issue of the contrasting undertones would make everything look slightly off.

Also,

(Hair looks great like that, Fred. Keep it up.)

Quick Hits:

I know that this is theoretically the Maple Leafs fashion recap, but Toronto is the center of the hockey universe, and also Bob McKenzie is Mr. Worldwide, and just let me have this one, okay? Because this is so great. I probably would have gone for a plain shirt instead of a striped one, but that is frankly a minor quibble when one of the most respected hockey journalists out there is casually sitting on an intermission panel in fuchsia plaid. I love the tie in a darker version of the same color, too. Shouts to Mr. McKenzie for taking a risk and looking great doing it.

Mitch Marner is the third Maple Leaf to buy a green suit, after Kasperi Kapanen and William Nylander, and I have to say that I like Mitch’s the best. Pairing that green with a gray plaid waistcoat is such a great look, and is a great way to distinguish his green suit from his teammates’. That’s not the tie I’d have picked—the olive-ish green of the suit and the gray waistcoat are not colors that coordinate well with stark black and white, although I like the use of blue. Something with a gray-toned blue and a pattern would be aces.

Putting aside the debate about pre-distressed denim (I hate it, and also, it’s not an argument I’m winning with the world at large any time soon), it’s extremely comforting to me to see that the Leafs do actually get their jeans tailored. If I had the money (I do not) I would get everything I owned tailored, and I don’t even have a hockey ass. Those jeans look great on Kappy, and the seaming on the inner thighs looks considerably less like it’s about to give up the ghost than most jeans on hockey players.

We’re going to ignore that this is actually a photograph from September so I can gush about how absolutely perfect that shade of grayish blue is on Morgan Rielly. A thing I very much appreciate about Rielly’s wardrobe is that he knows how to dress his pale, low-contrast coloring—a lot of blue and brown and gray, because black will look harsh on him. He also has an exceptional coat collection.

Again, here’s Morgan looking stellar and serious in a dark charcoal gray three-piece. I have some questions about the tailoring of that double-breasted waistcoat that are not going to be answered by me squinting at this photo, and I do wish he’d chosen a more interesting tie, but the best part of this picture is evidence that a third Maple Leaf has acquired a pair of horsebit loafers, alongside Auston Matthews and Travis Dermott. I hope this is the Leafs’ version of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

This video is adorable! It also makes me want to chase William Nylander around with an iron, and get someone to adjust the tailoring on his shirt. That top button is doing an amount of work that is, frankly, cruel. That deep gray, on the other hand, is exactly the sort of neutral he should wear (much like Morgan, stark black is not his best color), and I honestly love the glasses. They’re weird but fun, and isn’t that what we want from hockey players?

Nothing in this picture clashes—nay, it all coordinates beautifully, except for the weird socks, which are weird socks and therefore receive a pass—and I have never been prouder of William in his entire career. I particularly like the mint green silk tie paired with that darker green suit, because the cool undertones match. It’s a great look!

Strong initial showing from Fashion Recap rookie Alexander Kerfoot, in a burgundy three-piece with a subtle plaid pattern. This thing is gorgeous, assuming that it is properly tailored and it’s just the bend of his arm making it look like one sleeve is an inch too short. While it is a bit matchy-matchy, I do think the solid burgundy tie is actually the right choice, although he could easily have gone a bit lighter. While I still miss Nazem Kadri desperately (he wore purple for me sometimes!), at least Kerfoot seems like he’ll have a fun wardrobe to watch.

That’s it for October; stay tuned for whatever these guys have planned for the month of November. Will Mitch Marner decide that silk is the best investment he can make with his new contract? Is Auston going to lean into his 90s revival and buy a yellow plaid suit next? Will Kerfoot continue to wear fun stuff? I’ll be back in a month to let you know.

Fashion