After debuting his first men’s and women’s RTA collection in New York for pre-fall, designer Robert Liptak has landed in Paris with his first dedicated menswear collection for the L.A. brand.
“I lived there for nine years so it’s — I’m excited to be going back to the city with something to bring,” said Liptak who arrived at RTA in September after working as senior designer for women’s ready-to-wear at Tom Ford, and before that in positions for Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello and Rick Owens.
For fall, he continued to take the clothes in a more playful direction and elevate the details, inspired by gaming, he said.
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That translated to labyrinth-like nylon quilting and embossed leather, maze-like silk prints and denim and corduroy with optical effects.
Liptak worked a “Fight Club” meets “Leaving Las Vegas” aesthetic, giving the collection a luxe feel grounded in a streetwear spirit, with puffer parachute pants, logo tank tops and bombers, silk shirt and short sets, colorful knits and motocross leathers in a palette of Dijon yellow, cherry red, black and white. T-shirts have UV reflecting ink patterns that change when exposed to the sun, or cartoon graphics spelling out, “If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying.”
He’s introduced tailoring, and this season’s was rendered in lambskin or suede, and includes a tuxedo in au courant chocolate brown.
Another aspect of Liptak’s vision is to release collection videos. (For pre-fall he tapped an impressive team, including Ricardo Gomes to art direct, Honey Dijon for sound design and Madonna’s stylist Rita Melssen for styling.)
The fall shoot had to be scrapped because of California’s historic rain storms. “We’ll shoot it later as we go so we have a campaign when the collection comes out,” he said.