club chic got a bastard’s backhand at the Timo Weiland Spring 2013 show, held on the evening of Sunday, September 9th in the Studio at Lincoln Center. Design partners Timo Weiland and Alan Eckstein constructed classic American leisure wear but subverted any preppy connotations by incorporating punchy brights, exaggerating the shape and size of patterns typically associated with high-brow style (among them herringbone) to give them more of a downtown edge, mixing and matching prints, and relying on urban-flavored graphics inspired by the late, New York -based artist Keith Haring, whose work has become synonymous with ’80s street art.

The Keith Haring inspiration was subtle at times: zigzagging and squiggly lines with drippy dots in green, yellow, red, and gray popping up in short-sleeves sweater tops, PVC raincoats and PVC skirts, and babydoll dresses, mirroring the strokes Haring used to create maze-like scenarios in his paintings and illustrations; slightly tribal-flavored, black-and-white triangle shapes popping up on the banded waistline of a glamorous black circle skirt garments; and chevron patterns in electric shades of pink, yellow, red, orange and brown. In other instances, the influence was more readily apparent, as with a golden brown pencil skirt featuring space invader-like shapes resembling those made by street artist Don Leicht in the early ’80s, or with a patchwork-style short-sleeved sweater top featuring a graphic reminiscent of Haring’s classic dog symbol.