Catch up on the highlights from Paris Men’s Fashion Week here
- TextAnother Man
The men’s shows are over. Maybe you were there, maybe you were watching from a afar via Instagram, or maybe you deleted Instagram entirely to escape the near-constant posting (we wouldn’t blame you). Whichever applies to you, we’ve provided a rundown from the last leg of the fashion week tour: Paris. It was an exciting season in the city, featuring first timers, strong fashuns and appearances from Frank Ocean. Here, in no particular order, are our highlights...
Undercover
Undercover was fairly epic: based around Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, the collection merged Alex and Caravaggio in a collision of 17th-century fashion and contemporary streetwear. The show itself mixed fashion and theatre, with masks, walking sticks which emitted lasers and a Beethoven via Wendy Carlos soundtrack. Drama, drama, drama.
Dior Men’s
Dior Men’s was another highlight, thanks to the sheer elegance of the show. Exchanging a traditional runway for a huge, 70-metre-long conveyor belt, Jones combined tailoring and haute couture in a wearable and inexplicably luxurious way. Jackets and coats features sashes that wove in and out of the garments, while one beautifully beaded jacket took 15 people over 1,600 hours to make. Jones delivered what was, for all intents and purposes, haute couture pour homme.
Read our interview with Kim Jones here.
Givenchy
Over at Givenchy, Clare Waight Keller staged a very small and very intimate salon-style presentation in what was her first official men’s show for the house. Channelling 70s silhouettes and 90s individualism, the collection had a kind of loucheness to it; the sharp tailoring, flared trousers and bright colours, made for a very convincing – and refreshing – proposal.
Rick Owens
In stark contrast to the quiet salon style presentation of Givenchy, Rick Owens delivered a loud, raucous ode to glam heavy metal that was, according to the designer, about “the glory of lust and vice”. Bearing the darkness and feminine-but-still-reeking-of-testosterone energy of Kiss, models powered down the runway in big-shouldered tops, skinny-legged trews and high-heeled hooves. As always, it was all a bit kinky.
Raf Simons
Raf Simons staged his first show since leaving Calvin Klein, which featured amazing and dramatically long coats, a 10-minute interlude before more amazing and dramatically long coats, and a front row appearance from Frank Ocean. The designer said he wanted to create something “abstract and beautiful and elegant and proud and sophisticated,” which he succeeded in doing. Did I mention Frank Ocean was there?
Louis Vuitton
At Vuitton, Virgil pulled out all the stops, erecting a copy of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean set in the middle of the Tuileries Gardens and enlisting Dev Hynes to soundtrack the show. Live. Having walked in the show last season, this time he jammed in the background before taking to the catwalk himself, still strumming his guitar, and then finishing off the show by improvising on a piano in the middle of the set. It was a privilege to see him perform.
Berluti
Kris Van Assche made his Berluti debut, presenting his first ever collection for the house since his appointment in June. His starting place? The brand’s shoemaking heritage – specifically, some white marble tables he discovered at its factory in Ferrara, Italy, which were flecked with stains from dyeing the leather. He took these patterns and turned them into prints and used them to inform the colour palette of the collection. It was a strong start for the designer.
JW Anderson and Loewe
In two more firsts, Jonathan Anderson staged his premiere Paris show for JW Anderson and his first ever Loewe men’s show (he’s previously showcased Loewe men’s collections via lookbooks). The JW Anderson collection featured “components that are not meant to go together, socks that don’t match, shoes that don’t match,” symbolising the mess and division in society and politics at the moment, while Loewe’s drew inspiration from “gaiters and fishermen”.
Ludovic de Saint Sernin
Cementing his status as the industry’s sleaziest designer, Ludovic de Saint Sernin put on a flesh-flashing fashion show inspired by the idea of the supermodel. Staying true to his minimal-but-sexy signature, he debuted lace-up briefs, low-cut bottoms, cut-out tops and ceramic pieces cast from the “sexiest places of the male body”: “the abs, the chest, the bicep, the bottom of the back where it meets the butt.”
Celine
Hedi Slimane meanwhile made his official Celine menswear debut with the house’s first ever menswear-only show that was pretty much what you’d expect: subcultural classics done in the most luxurious way possible. And while it trod some familiar ground for the designer, the clothes will doubtless have his fans reaching for their wallets.
