New trends in menswear this season include casual slides and ankle socks

At the John Varvatos show, models did not wear grandpa socks with their sandals. But they were among the few.

This is a trend for spring 2017. It is not necessarily an awful trend. There is something comforting and proudly nerdish about walking around in black ankle socks and a pair of casual slides. There’s charm in brightly-striped socks matched with floral-print sandals.

But it is a trend. And trends can look like affectations — especially in menswear. There is nothing worse than a guy who walks around with his polo collar popped and a tennis sweater tied around his neck or one who has his pants hanging “just so” off his hips. This may well be the footwear equivalent of fashion posturing. So really, tread carefully.

Or take a cue from Varvatos. Skip it altogether. Thursday evening he was the last designer to show his spring 2017 collection here and he squeezed his audience into a Tshaped nightclub in the bowels of a downtown hotel where everyone sat at cocktail tables and perched on bar stools. Waiters passed rosé and vodka gimlets and a gruff-voiced rocker provided the soundtrack.

Varvatos has always loved music and the crowded, dark halls where it is performed. He allows both to serve as his inspiration, and this collection — in shades of charcoal and dove gray with splashes of tomato red — was an eloquent expression of the style that the culture associates with musicians. To be clear, it’s not the flamboyant stage attire or the self-conscious dishevelment that is the hallmark of pop stars. It’s what we associate with pure musicians: the guys who play their own instruments, write their own songs and worry more about melody and lyrics than whether they’re in sync with their backup dancers.

Varvatos doesn’t change his style from one season to the next, which is not to say that his work is static. He emphasizes different notes and plays different chords, and for spring there are longish jackets and beautiful textures. Varvatos dubbed the collection “urban romantic,” which really just means that the clothes look at home in the city but have a softer, slightly worn appearance. There are no sharp edges.

Varvatos makes menswear look easy. It is easy to imagine a fashionloving man drawn to his work, but it is also possible to see a more fashionhesitant gentleman find something enticing about it, too. His clothes have a reassuring familiarity: A man will not have to steel himself for possible stares if he wears them into his favorite dive bar. But there is also something about them — something subtle — that sets them apart. They are not business as usual.

The best collections here proudly focused on just the clothes. The designers were confident that was enough. At Orley, the designers were inspired by the Detroit-born artist Mike Kelley. One of his last works, before his death in 2012, was “Mobile Homestead,” a faithful recreation of his childhood home. The designers, Alex, Matthew and Samantha Orley, loved the timeless quality of Kelley’s work, the sense that an image could be from the 1950s or from today. It’s an aesthetic that drives their own work, Alex Orley noted.

They worked with a group of Italian mills to create the fabrics used in the collection, which is rooted in shades of pine green, sky blue and red. The weaves recall straw baskets and nylon shopping bags. The colors are muted. The feel of each polo shirt, pullover or jeanstyle jacket is lush. The menswear shows here have been dominated by small brands and young designers who are still searching for their voice. Ralph Lauren, for instance, presents his collection in Europe, as does the influential Thom Browne. Tommy Hilfiger showed here, but it was a new version: Hilfiger Edition. Now in its second season, it was unveiled in a static presentation rather than an attention-grabbing runway show. The more subdued format allowed the company to make a nuanced argument that the brand can move away from its mass-market, muddled aesthetic into something with a stronger point-of-view that speaks to its all-American roots without turning every sweatshirt and T-shirt into a giant flag.

And rising talents such as John Elliott, Rochambeau, Stampd, Tim Coppens and Siki Im could shine. They all are focused on modern sportswear: merging athletic and street influences with luxury fabrics and streamlined tailoring. They make jackets, not blazers. Elliott and Rochambeau designers Laurence Chandler and Joshua Cooper incorporate more athleticism into their work. Stampd designer Chris Stamp worked in a darker palette and his clothes have a season-less quality, particularly the heavily detailed flight jackets. Indeed, three of his looks were available for purchase immediately following his show.

Coppens has long been a proponent of looking at street style with a designer’s eye. This season, he was inspired by antique kimonos, not because he is a collector or because he is enamored with their history but because of his interest in Japan and it’s blending of high tech, pop culture and aesthetic traditions. “In the ’80s, they had this punk culture and there’s this street culture now,” Coppens says backstage after his show. “It’s super strict, but there’s also a fluidity in the aesthetic. It’s a zen-ness. That intrigues me.”

Siki Im’s work is the least influenced by athleticism but it has a street-wise sensibility that gives his models the look of urban nomads — folks who live their lives in constant motion. Instead of a runway show, this season, Im showed the work in a small presentation that had three groups of models standing nonchalantly in a large, empty loft with the sunlight streaming through the windows filling in for massive spotlights. His models included friends and mentors, including Maxwell Osborne — half of the design duo at Public School and DKNY.

“It’s about good products and my friends who wear them,” Im says. He makes it sound so simple. THE INDEPENDENT