Gentlemen, during the past year Stylistocrat by R&R has yapped and talked about Andre 3000’s menswear line-Benjamin Bixby. Why many asked, well quite simple we were happy to exclaim the line is incredibly gorgeous!! Style meets structure is the best way to explain the infant menswear line.

Benjamin Bixby defies the design commonalities celebrity-turned-fashion-designers normally inculcate. Honestly, we are way over the wacko designs celebrities choose to empower! Lets just Say Andre hits a grand slam with last line! Andre Benjamin (a.k.a. André 3000) likes short shorts. Short basketball shorts, that is, the kind players wore back in the seventies, the kind that end perilously high up the thigh, the kind most NBA basketball players would say make them feel “violated”. This mix of application and instinct carries over to his personal style.

It takes a certain serenity to rock the resplendent Bixby outfit he recently wore to a Fashion Week party: wide-brimmed fedora, green waistcoat, buttery brown leather riding boots (”vintage”) that pushed his pants up, jodhpur style. He looked more like a wealthy, eccentric caballero than a thirties jock toff, but then, he wants the line to tell stories. It’s hard not to call Benjamin a Stylistocrat, but the word doesn’t quite go far enough-he’s more experimental than that. He’s worn pretty much everything during his OutKast career, from garish plaid to polka-dotted bow ties to pimp furs to turbans to leopard hats to military gear to golfwear.But as he grows older-”In the hip-hop world, 32 is like being an uncle”-he’s returning to his classical roots.

Other Benjamin Bixby pieces, like a pink sweater with a giant emblazoned B, continue a long-standing hip-hop fascination with preppy style that includes the nineties appropriation of Tommy Hilfiger and Phat Farm’s urban take on Ralph Lauren. Last season, Stylistocrat by R&R stormed into Neiman Marcus for the latest in designs already knowing that it was going to be on something completely different. What we didnt know was the Benjamin Bixby menswear soft launch at Neiman’s was well under way.

Before arriving we saw the specs from the line on Fashion Wire. That aloe left me hoping to see a fuller range than what I previewed earlier in the year. Indeed, Benjamin Bixby honored our hopes with a complete rollout of Benjamin Bixby perfection. The offerings included: Herringbone plaid Jodhpur pants; savvy braces; classic cotton polo’s (produced in varying designs); comforting shawl knits and cardigans; structured wool military pea coats; classic chinos; and luxe classic rugby’s. Growing up in Atlanta, Benjamin was part of a “prep crew” at school with noted butler Fonzworth Bentley. Tearing pages out of magazines as a kid left Benjamin with a reverence for English style: He fetishizes “timeless” clothes, name-checks old-school brands like Turnbull & Asser, and calls his own style “classic spontaneity” or “rebel gentleman.” What this means, in effect, is doing a little remix. “There has to be something inventive about it,” he says. “But not so inventive that it’s a turnoff. So that some of the greats, like Beau Brummell or the Duke of Windsor, would nod and say, ‘Well done.’ Those guys killed it.” Now, that’s real hip-hop.

There was no starstudded attendance when we first walked in the collection last year, no true who’s who in the world of fashion, but during this recent launching Andre’s line has inspired and impressed everyone.The resounding munificent comments you are sure to say about the collection will flow continuously and hopefully since the merchandise is exclusive to Neimans at this juncture, you will manages to make your way over to your closest one and see this new classic designer in America’s highest end chain store.