There’s a new duds-for-dudes label in town—because, at the end of the day, we can always use more $45 t-shirts—and it’s called Angry Genes! Whether this name is radder or sadder than fellow men’s wear line Unruly Heir has yet to be determined.
What is known, however, is that its two founding designers—Max Schulman, 23, and Jared Sternberg, 24—are the sons of Seventh-Avenue hotshots. The young men’s fathers, according to an Angry Genes rep, are co-owners of Zoomers Inc., a successful company that owns, among other things, a line of maternity clothing called Planet Motherhood. So, one could say Mr. Schulman and Mr. Sternberg are unruly heirs with pissed-off genes.
In any case, you may recognize the model in the photo above. He’s socialite Nick Fouquet. (Not to be confused with Nicholas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Isle, viscomte de Melun et Vaux—but he’s almost as fancy!) When this Mr. Fouquet is not modeling, he likes to host posh parties in Palm Beach, at Bar Martignetti and other neat places like that. To get a fuller sense of the collection’s overall aesthetic, we’ve included Angry Genes’ lengthy press release below.
From the press release:
The contemporary men’s ready-to-wear line “Angry Genes” was born out of a friendship between two second generation garmentos. Max Schulman, 23, and Jared Sternberg, 24, were practically raised on the cutting room floor as both parents have been business partners in the fashion industry for over 30 years. Their travels to manufacturing points around the globe presented them with a different sort of education than most emerging fashion designers. This extensive knowledge of production has inspired Max and Jared to create a brand that exemplifies the highlights of their international exposure.
Indeed, as young men, Max and Jared worked together in showroom sales for their parents’ produced and department store labels. Based in New York City’s Garment District, they have fine tuned their entire creative process. Max’s parents urged him to attend FIT to augment and enhance his formal education. Instead, Max bough a one way ticket to China, determined not to return to the United States until he had succeeded in creating and implementing an entire apparel line. Realizing that something was missing Max traveled to Western Europe to compliment his vision and realize his goals. Together with Jared’s experience in the Far East, the line’s sensibility was culled from a synthesis of both modern day Shanghai and Renaissance Milan.
Angry Genes is both the brainchild of Max’s initial ventures and Jared’s continued time immersed in the heart of the Garment District. It’s an amalgamation of style icons such as Wong Kar Wai and Edward Penfield—a blend that yields both exoticism and nostalgie in the brand. Undeniably the line delivers a diversity of fits and colors that reflects a jump from Penfield’s renderings of mid-twentieth century dandies to Wai’s cinematographic depictions of displaced oriental wanderers. While the line started with an emphasis on denim, Angry Genes now shows equal representation to hoodies, shirting, blazers, and overcoats.
Key pieces obviously include the jeans, with a focus on the stitching, cut, and wash rather than over-embellishment. Each pair has a unique diagonal front zipper and the subtle evil genius logo and signature interior graphics. Other standouts include contrast collar button-downs that have roll-up tabs emblazoned with the stitched-in Angry Genes script logo, as well as sleeveless hoodies with diagonal satin ribboning.
Retail price points for the twenty-six piece line estimate from $45 for t-shirts, $90 for button-downs, $80-$140 for hoodies, $160-$340 for blazers and overcoats, and $140-$170 for jeans. A list of retailers has yet to be confirmed as the Fall/Winter 2008-2009 collection will first be presented to buyers at Project New York, Jan 21-23, 2008.
