The Rake
KA/NOA was featured in The Rake:
A new breed of smart casual
Bruno Grande’s KA/NOA brand is redefining ‘smart-casual’ so you’ll never have to scratch your head at the meaning of the term again.
There was a time not so long ago that 'smart' and 'casual' were two mutually exclusive tribes. You were either in one or the other, a demarkation that presented acolytes of both with no little confusion when asked to an event for which the dress code was 'smart casual'. For members of the former, that perhaps meant dropping the suit for separates and switching out the Oxfords for loafers, while for the latter, well, they were in a right fix. Upgrade the sneakers? Tuck in the polo? Throw a jacket over the hoodie? For my mind, dressing down the smart proves far easier than dressing up the casual.
And yet, recently, there has been something of a coming together of these polarities that just feels right. It's not so much that casual has raised its game, nor that smart has dumbed down. Instead, smart has evolved, creating a sub-species of tailoring with comfort as its modus operandi. Don't worry - we're not about to advocate wearing clumpy kicks with pleated trousers. The new breed of smart-casual's tenets are taken firmly from the canon of classic menswear, with a little plagiarism from the book of casual, creating what is essentially a palimpsest of extremely wearable, versatile and comfortable clothing made with passion and consideration.
Of the proponents of this new wave of menswear, KA/NOA is hands down the standout creator.
