Everything Cool Was in the Women’s Section

Mishka NYC—the New York streetwear label built around an eyeball logo, occult graphics, and the overall aesthetic of a horror comic found at a yard sale—dropped their Fall 2013 women’s lookbook and it was, genuinely, very good. Standing at my desk scrolling through it I felt the specific low-grade envy that men who like fashion occasionally experience when the women’s section of a brand they respect is simply doing more interesting things than the men’s.

Streetwear for men exists in a kind of voluntary constraint: hoodies, graphic tees, cargo, bomber jackets, all rotating through the same few templates in new colorways. Mishka did it well—their "Keep Watch" eye appeared on enough things that I wore at least three of them—but the women’s Fall 2013 pieces had cut and shape and intention that the men’s line rarely matched. A Mishka eye on a fitted jacket with actual structure is a different object than a Mishka eye on a boxy crewneck. Same graphic, different relationship with the body wearing it.

I went through the whole lookbook twice. I wanted most of it.