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"  You would be forgiven, after looking at Fashion Week&amp;#039;s menswear offerings here in New York, for thinking that most designers in this town had given up on anyone over the age of twenty ever being interested in clothes again. Such has been the volume of hoodies and skimpy, flimsy shorts on the runways. But last night, Michael Bastian put forward another opinion. And it was highly refreshing. Bastian&amp;#039;s collections have always been about a luxury take on American sportswear \u2014 for his devotees, dressing down is every bit as thought-out as dressing up. And his training (as the men&amp;#039;s buying director at Bergdorf Goodman) makes him well-versed in simple separates that you can throw together any which way with barely a thought. What holds it all together (apart from always reliable quality and materials) is the perfectly-cut, slim-fit summer blazer, which we saw yesterday in a myriad of cloths and colors, thrown this way or that over swim shorts, cut-off chinos, or even (really?) a hoodie. To nail home the luxurious, grown-up mood, Bastian teamed up with legendary Swiss watchmaker Piaget to deck out several of his spring-collection models in watches worthy of the toniest plutocrat. Hard-times chic? Hardly. RELATED LINKS:  MORE FROM MICHAEL BASTIAN: The Designer on His Laid-Back Fashion Week "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a6357/michael-bastian-spring-2010-menswear-091509/>