William Rast, the contemporary fashion label by Justin Timberlake and longtime friend Trace Ayala, marched a parade of biker styles down the runway at New York Fashion Week Wednesday night in a collection dubbed “New America.” It was a combination of denim, leather and military styles largely inspired by the sights, sounds and people you'd see on the open roads between the Mississippi River and the West Coast, Timberlake said. “We had this idea of discoverers ... and what does the modern-day discoverer look like?” he said in an interview earlier this week. “Biker culture brought the word `nomadic' to mind, which brought the word `bohemian' to mind.” Timberlake actually took a road trip of his own last week, from Los Angeles to Wyoming, and it confirmed the direction of the collection that he wanted to mix the desert landscape “with the pine forests and snowcapped mountains.” Somehow, though, Timberlake and Ayala got the message from the other designers in New York that layers, fringe and those contrasting sleeves - interpreted here as a sweatshirt with leather fringe sleeves and, for men, a denim jacket with black leather sleeves - would be key looks. Other takeaways from the show: a zip-up leather jumpsuit, officer coats and the snakeskin treatment on jeans. When it was time to take the bow, Timberlake did an exaggerated wipe of the brow for the cameras - and in front of Jessica Biel.
