NEW YORK CITY — Fashion designer Neil Grotzinger has unveiled a new collection under the Nihl label that includes images from gay adult films on select pieces.
The collection was unveiled during the 2019 Men’s Fall Collection shows in the Big Apple. “Grotzinger said he likes to ‘queer-ify’ things,” notes Aria Hughes for WWD.com. “Last season, he looked to uniforms worn by police officers, football players and Wall Street brokers and made them more effeminate, dynamic and, in some cases, beautiful, via intricate embellishments and ethereal knits."
"He maintained that approach for his fall 2019 show, shifting his attention to the American gamer in the Midwest and constructing a narrative around this identity, down to the fictitious basement full of objects and symbols, and a strict father upstairs."
Grotzinger “transformed” a gamer’s usual attire into “low-cut, wide-leg khaki pants paired with lace tops or spandex T-shirts and leotards cut to reveal portions of the chest, back or hips. Some garments featured film stills of gay porn,” Hughes observed.
"Army and Navy dungarees were another preoccupation for Grotzinger, who relied heavily on leather to subvert these pieces. He updated leather pants with exposed zippers to lend a touch of eroticism… Grotzinger has a clear mission with his collections, which is to expand the confines of masculinity, but he also has the skill required to make clothes that surprise, delight and stand out."
Click here for the complete WWD.com article and a photo gallery of the collection.
"Business casual it was not, but the collection injected a stylized subversiveness to menswear, with the key theme seeming to be exposure. The theme did not just relate to skin; details like zippers were left in the open, too,” wrote The Daily Beast.
"I like to make the garments feel very sexually charged," Grotzinger told Paper magazine about the collection. "It was all about finding the right intimate moments in the male body that I feel are less highlighted or less accentuated. Embroidery and beadwork has always been at the crux of what I do. It's something that highlights all of my male garments and transforms them into something very queer."
Follow Grotzinger’s Instagram handle here.
Image source: WWD.com.
