Consistency may be the bugbear of trends, but ultimately, it’s a virtue in design. It’s worth remembering as you click through Tim Coppens’ latest collection. Coppens’ star is unquestionably on the rise. Since launching on the New York runways three seasons ago, he’s been scooped up by Barneys (where his clothes reportedly fly off the shelves), Isetan, and Dover Street Market. His look is stringent, which is not to say austere. He favors hard lines, zippers, and high necks—buttoned up to the hilt, even for Spring—in fine, occasionally unexpected materials, like rubberized napa, quilted leather, and sateen twill, offset with nylon and poplin. Sport is never far from the equation (he’s making some seriously desirable track pants), and neither is uniform, particularly military uniform. This season, he explained, he’d been thinking of fighter pilots, with their “certain glamour.” He’s built his house, in part, on the strength of his bomber jackets, the flyboy standard, and these reappeared, with their contrast sleeves and gleaming zips, on the runway today. (The utility belts: pilots’ parachutes.)

If the color story was new, with its steel blues, hazmat oranges, and hunter greens, many of the shapes had a familiar feeling. But familiarity bred content, not contempt. “I’m sure at some point I’ll change, but right now I only have these 20 looks, and I really want to show what I can put in all these pieces,” he said. What he showed was a strong, cool collection, far from classic, but steadfastly wearable all the same. A deeper dive into suiting, like the double-placketed, panel-sleeved suit that closed the show, was new. So was a bit of wit: A wordless blast of Giorgio Moroder’s “Take My Breath Away” slipped onto the soundtrack—the love theme from Top Gun.

See Jane Kratochvil’s full photo gallery after the break.

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