East Village revolving pop-up store Den seems to be moving increasingly upscale in its offerings. Starting with affordable Swedish sportswear resource Cheap Monday, they then moved to the more upscale Rag & Bone. Now they are featuring the relaxed but luxurious collection of menswear designer Tim Hamilton. One of an emerging group of American menswear designers, Hamilton, like Tony Melillo and Michael Bastian puts his own sumptuous spin on familiar, basic items. In other words, why make a wool sweater when you can use cashmere? Hamilton's approach is a casual one, so his gray herringbone tweed jacket is soft and unconstructed. Matching pants are also available, but perhaps to be worn on their own rather than as part of a suit. Everything is washed and rumpled for a lovingly worn effect, including jeans (with selvedge seams, of course) which are given a light rinse for softness but, thankfully, no self conscious distressing and whiskering. Hamilton's knits are particularly notable including featherweight striped t-shirts for layering without bulk. As a young designer label, however, Hamilton is unable to take advantage of the economies of scale available to larger brands, so small production runs keep prices at the upper end of next-door parent boutique Odin's scale. $1,200 seems a bit high to us for a lightly constructed tweed sportcoat, but that is one of the pitfalls of young designer collections. If, however, price is less of an object, there is much to like about Hamilton's line which is given a much better showcase (however temporary) here than it can get in bigger multi-brand stores.
Next up for Den are Karen Walker (the New Zealand born designer, not the "Will & Grace" character) and Menswear designer Robert Geller.
Tim Hamilton at Den 328East 11th Street between First and Second Avenues, East Village
