SPIN

Menswear designer Robert Geller didn't happen to spin songs by defunct '80s English band the Sound during his New York Fashion Week show by chance — he tells SPIN the band's music was a core part of his process while he was crafting his Fall 2012 looks.

"The collection ended up being my interpretation of English style, stuff you'd want to wear on a rainy day," the New York-based designer says backstage at Manhattan's Pier 59, minutes before his models began striding down a dirt catwalk. "The whole thing started because I discovered the Sound. They had this sense of romance and the lead singer has a really beautiful voice."

The nonstop soundtrack might have irked his employees, but it successfully launched him into 1980s England. Pulsing riffs from the band's "Where the Love Is" served as a fitting opener for the show as models showed off thick wool trousers, fitted knit sweaters, and dark, dapper caps with bursts of color splashed between earthy tones.

"I think I'll have to shelve the band after this," Geller (pictured above right with pal Scott Mou, who DJ'ed the show) laughs. "Everyone in my office will kill me if I don't. I need to find something new to listen to. On Monday we start the new collection." — Alyssa Noel

A sneak peek at Geller's Fall 2012 collection on paper.

"I really I grew up being a huge Cure fan," Geller says. "The Sound is the same vibe, but it’s sort of like between Joy Division and the Cure. It has that sense of romance. And the lead singer has a really beautiful voice."

Geller says he listens to music “all the time” when he's working and showed off an 85-song YouTube playlist.

The mix CD that played during Geller's Pier 59 show.

"Bands need to be aware of the way they dress and look," Geller adds. "Designers need music to be inspired to set a mood. Everything is connected.”

"I usually [get inspired by] a place and time, whether it’s Berlin in the '60s or Vienna at the turn of the century," Geller says. "It often comes from something musical. It allows me to research the music, architecture, fashion everything else in a place and time."

Geller says the general aesthetic of his new collection is "dark romance."

"When I was growing up and really stated listening to music it was Depeche Mode, it was U2 back in the day, R.E.M. Those are things I go back to," Geller says.

"Once in a while an album will come out, like the xx, that I fall in love with," Geller says. "A few years ago it was the Kooks."

“I just discovered the Sound for myself about five months ago and I haven't stopped listening to them since," Geller admits. "All day everyone in my office is getting sick of it."

"Everybody that I know that’s a designer is heavily inspired by music," Geller adds.

"Going to see shows, listening to music in the office, the way bands dress," he says, "all those things in a way create an aesthetic world."

Instructions for each of Geller's looks.