For the season Spring Summer 2020, Chris Leba’s fascination of the “other America” continues as he explores the mood and attitude of the kids at the skate park near his home on this daily commute to and from the R13 office.
The challenge was how to express such a familiar and beloved archetype in a new and exciting way without losing its irreverent essence To this end, Leba played with mixing and combining different iconic patterns such as zebra, leopard and flames in bright colors and contrasting it against classic menswear suiting.
The mix of high and low remains the language that Leba uses to express the esthetic of R13 as he pairs proper mens tailoring made by Hickey Freeman and Southwick, two of the oldest makers of mens suiting still operating in America, with a variety of re-imagine iconic American classics in surplus and denim styles, skater shorts and platform skate sneakers.
Shoes strings as belts (a staple among the skate kids), tipped gym socks, bucket hats in unexpected patterns, laced trimmed boxers and freyed lining peeking through the hems of shorts serve as finishing touches to each look. At the root of the collection, Leba’s love for timeless and iconic American sportswear is alive and well and can be seen through out the collection if one is to look carefully.
