Hot, shirtless male models! (And other news from the Ezra Constantine launch)

Photography by Kira Crugnale

When your first sight is a quartet of male models in shiny trunks, fake tattoos and sandals paired with work socks (toes and heels excised for summer) posing by a pool spanned by Grecian columns, you know you’re at a Stephen Wong and Kirk Pickersgill production. The pair, known best for their women’s line, Greta Constantine, decided to throw a party to officially launch their menswear effort Ezra Constantine.

Though the pair offered up a sneak peak of Spring 2011, the fete wasn’t really a fashion show. “It’s an excuse to have a really cute party,” says Wong of Ezra’s first solo outing. (The line has been shown in concert with Greta for its first two seasons.) Other than cooing momentarily over the rotating, largely shirtless model foursomes the crowd did indeed keep in socializing mode. When one did glance at the clothes you’d spy a slick vest, a hooded jersey wrap, mesh pants or khaki versions of the excellent fitted trousers with oversized cargo pockets that Wong and Pickersgill created for fall. [See the Fall 2010 show on the runway.] More will be revealed at the runway show this fall, but in the meantime, the line is “taking off like wildfire,” says Wong. “Kirk and I love the clothes, but we never expected other people to like them.” Any nerves appear to be unfounded: “A lot of men are wearing them. A lot of women are wearing them,” he explains. “And looking fabulous.”

Meet the designers at the Ezra Constantine trunk show, tomorrow, August 14, noon to 5 p.m. at Holt Renfrew (50 Bloor St. W.)

Click the images below to see the clothes or objectify the models, as you choose.

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