Brand: Digawel

Season: Fall/Winter 2021

Key Pieces: Tweed jackets, chunky sweater vests, collared shirts, and pleated trousers are cornerstones of dweeby prep, perfectly pairing with some oversized glasses and leather derbies for playfully uncool winterwear. Accessorize with a pocket protector or lanyard for maximum dorkiness.

Buy: Digawel, CULTIZM, Blue Button Shop

Editor's Notes: It's hip to be square, as they say. Each season, Digawel founder Kohei Nishimura incorporates disparate elements of Americana into his work, often taking cues from unexpected places. FW21 sees the designer drawing from retro professorial style, creating the wardrobe of a charmingly untrendy school teacher down to the cardigans and highwater pants.

Digawel doesn't really do irony; like so many other Japanese labels of its ilk, the brand is much more interested in an earnest recreation of its disparate source material.

So, when Digawel designs peak lapel blazers, fair isle knit sweaters, and creased slacks, it does so to faithfully recreate the garments that Nishimura imagines a '70s- or '80s-era teacher actually wearing. The main differences are that the clothing is tastefully designed and of heightened quality, of course.

Throughout, proportions are thoughtful — tucked-in tees and waist-length hoodies balance the fuller trousers — and subtle touches are used to keep the collection from straying into the realm of unflattering. Drop-shoulders and boxy cuts work to the benefit of the wearer's own proportions, while trim cut velvet tailoring helps avoid stodginess.

Preppy staples provided by Digawel's ongoing J.Press CRST line, meanwhile, deliver both ivy essentials (big blazers and crisp shirts) and timelessly out-of-time windbreakers.