Eytys’s spring 2023 Eurotrash T-shirt got a lot of mileage last year. A sort of wearable meme, it tapped into the same vein of kitschy, tabloid glamour that Balenciaga mined for its show in LA. For its fall 2024 collection, Max Schiller, Eytys’s millennial creative director, looked back to the late ’80s and early ’90s—fashion’s current sweet spot—and romanticized the Concorde and its high-flying clientele. Part of Schiller and team’s research involved looking at airport style from that time; they also went to a lot of effort to imagine the social mix on the commercial airplane that carried what today would be private jet clients. Back in the day, you could find supermodels and suits, rockstars and real estate honchos on board.
As is the Eytys way, this translated into a high/low mix, only this time around with more polish and purpose. A hearty wool was used for tailored jackets and coats that gave them a luxe feeling, and the dense stretch knit really emphasized the body-con silhouette for women. Given the time period the team was looking at it’s no surprise that Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko was a reference, yet in an ingenious way, the suit pants and creased track pants in the collection are closely related, and that work/play dichotomy is where fashion is at right now. Building on the flying theme, there’s a chic pull-through puffer wrap that Schiller calls the “travel pillow”; two pairs of fold-up shoes, the ballerina and the Aero sneaker; and travel T-shirts. On one tee that reads Stockholm the red circle of the Japanese flag also appears. It was inspired by the idea “of supermodels who would travel to three continents and six cities in one week, and in the end would have no idea where they are anymore. They’re so blasé.”
The hero piece of the collection is a pair of trompe l’oeil stone-washed jeans to which metal studs of various sizes have been applied to create the look of patina. A related piece in the collection is the button-down with all-over clear sequins with business, not casual, vibes. Schiller had been thinking about the rise of yuppies, and the “era of decadence,” they ushered in, in relation to today.
“I think we’ve been living in a decade of decadence now,” he continued, “but in contrast to now, the decadence of the ’80s looks and feels so much classier.” The creative director also appreciated the dressiness of that time. “I think we have come to a stage where flying has been so democratized in many ways that you dress down to travel, and I remember a time when you used to dress up to travel. I missed that.” With options to accommodate either approach, this collection makes a smooth landing.