NEW YORK, February 12, 2012

By Maya Singer

Assembly designer Greg Armas arrived at New York fashion week with a fully fleshed-out point of view. Armas has been developing his menswear line for several seasons now, and the collection he showed at his debut presentation today seemed more like an encapsulation of the designer's established than any kind of statement of new intent.

That's a good thing, inasmuch as Armas' ambitions as a designer mostly relate to the detail of his clothes, which are way more fussed over and thought through than their slouchy silhouettes would suggest. Consider, for instance, the fine wool blazer in tan and black that, upon inspection, proved to have banded seams in place of traditional lining; as Armas explained, it was exponentially more work to finish the jacket that way, but the technique made it easier to layer.

Other examples: the crinkly, rust-colored denim pieces, which were made from organic denim and given a squid ink and persimmon overdye, and the collarless tan jacket with covered buttons and a subtle cutaway hem. The typical Assembly ensemble—soft suiting layered with tenderized tees, chunky knitwear, and rakishly oversize outerwear—is emphatically grungy. But the success of the look is down to the precision of Armas' methods and his fanatical attention to material and cut.