The clothes themselves included long, drape-y asymmetrical sweaters, mismatched print dresses, and coats with patterns resembling Native American designs that are popping up everywhere. Yet perhaps what made it feel most like these girls were plucked straight from their dinner at Marlow and Son's was the styling choices. The models sported mussed, ratty hair (and did their hair also look intentionally greasy?) and almost no (visible) make-up. Adding to the whole Brooklyn vibe was a bass-heavy soundtrack that would rival a set by Skrillex. The bass throbbed so intensely that it literally made the bleacher seats vibrate and I couldn't help but wonder what Anna Wintour and Grace Coddington were thinking a few rows below. 

Usually, it's never linear. It's a feeling, a memory, an emotion. And there are a lot of different things. I let it sink in for a couple of months, and see if it's valid and something I should explore further. It can be from a newspaper article, a scene from a movie or a social or political occurrence. 

I trying to be healthy -- I drink lots of water, meditating. I try not to freak out. 

Jean Baudrillard and Michael Jordan. 

Everyone who doesn't want to be a celebrity. 

No, unfortunately not. She gets too excited, and she flirts too much. 

You will see.

Below: Behind the scenes at his SoHo studio, one day before his fashion show:

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Siki Im inspires me. 

The audience, many of them with DogFish beer in hand, couldn't help but be entranced by the Florence (that would be Alabama, not Italy) based designer's latest work. This was, after all, his first runway show, and with this bold leap, he seems to have left behind many of the elements of country nostalgia that added a certain boyish twang to his earlier collections. Instead, he embraced a definitely glamorous, though definitely still nostalgic vision.

The collection was a study in the subtleties of gray--heather grays, charcoal grays, and icy grays, being just a few. With these shades, he both balanced the crisp lines of a double-breasted flannel suit and refined the slouchiness of a pair of wool herringbone slacks, leaving a sense of softness throughout. Add to this his pastel palette--the dusty orange of a distressed suede coat, the hint of bronze orange in a shawl lapel, the sky blues or the soft lavenders--and we see that in Reid's hands and with the correct balance, even a man's man can wear pastel, and that the darkness of winter need not be dark at all. The double-breasted coats with shawl collars were the stuff that dreams are made of; this outerwear, even with its with rugged overtones, retained its elegance. I'd be remiss in not mentioning the light cashmere dinner jacket that closed the show, or the navy and brown cardigan, especially as it was paired with the blue velvet trousers and wool hopsack jacket. 

Reid's womenswear moved from the casual study he presented in previous seasons into Old Hollywood-esque territory--all the while still maintaining his unique sartorial vision. Exaggerated proportions of the lapels on a trench coat and the cardigan with a peter pan collar all had a distinct Reidian feel to them. On full display was his sense of edgy femininity, as seen in the blue and black pencil skirt matched with an inspired black leather motorcycle jacket. His various frocks and creations certainly weren't boy's clothes being worn by a girl, or the vision of a menswear designer dabbling in a women's world; they were, quite simply, his take on what women in Billy's world should wear.

Thoroughly steeped in a sense of nostalgia, the music choice was highly appropriate. Mr. Obana cited Ernest Hemingway as his point of reference this season, specifically, the novel Old Man and the Sea. "In Japanese, the book reads very differently," he explained. "It's still very moving to me." Through this lens of translation, any number of influences--old photographs of Leon Trotsky, the early film work of Leni Riefenstahl, the handsomeness of Swiss mountaineers--kept coming to mind. In working through these images, Mr. Obana's latest work seemed to be bounded by two elements: 

By Land 

With heavy ranch coats and wide-gaited slacks, there was an agrarian, proletariat aesthetic to the collection--and not just because most of the models were bearded or mustachioed, like various incarnations of Papa Hemingway himself. This proletariat appeal could especially seen in a charcoal gray half-coat, its neck buttoned and its waist cinched by a wide black belt. Khaki army parkas paired with gray slacks and brown rain boots almost seemed sepia-tinted, like Mr. Obana was colorizing an old black and white photo using his imagination alone. 

By Sea 

As the show went on, a checkered gray suit with three pockets and a 1920s Parisian look about it gave way to mariner stripes and navy pea coats, slouchy denim overalls, and a zig-zag of vintage blue, as seen on a blouson and shorts. We were now at sea. But a drab this journey was not. With beige high-neck cable sweater and mustard yellow fisherman's coats and rain slickers, Obana tinted his work with a hint of Tintin-like playfulness. No matter what the source of the collection, or the lens of translation, the clothes were extremely handsome, and as masculine as the fisherman on Mr. Obana's old record.

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Related: All of our New York Fashion Week coverage, in one spot!

Related: All of our New York Fashion Week coverage, in one spot!