Men seeking inspiration from the Paris menswear shows in full swing are apt
to find themselves looking at geometrical clothes with a sporty bent — or,
in one case, outfits proudly displaying their
manhood.
Nod to nostalgia
Looking back to the 1980s and 1990s is proving something of a trend in a lot of the men’s collections, especially with suit jackets. Celebrity-wise, nobody incarnated the retro vibe better than former
supermodel Kate Moss and singer Bryan Ferry, both of whom attended the Louis Vuitton show.
The artistic director for the brand’s menswear, Kim Jones, used the show to pay tribute to Christopher Nemeth, a fellow British designer who died in 2010
after achieving cult status for his work in London in the 1980s. Camel and grey colours dominated on the catwalk, while a Nemeth print, showing the close-up fibres of a rope, was ubiquitous.
Going commando
Rick Owens took one look at the menswear brief — to dress men for the chilly tail end of this year — and decided to throw it away. The briefs,
that is. Some of his male models paraded with no underwear in black or beige dress-like outfits that had the crotch area cut away. The creations may not be widely seen or even copied, but it got an online
buzz going for the attention-hungry US designer.
Japanese highlanders
The label doing the most to marry structural design to fashion was the Japanese house Issey Miyake, which brought out a collection paying homage
to a Scottish architect and artist Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who died more than eight decades ago.
Tartans draped shoulders and silk scarves adorned necks in a parade notable for sharp, dark suits boasting ovals and grids, and set off with splashes of
red and purple. And everywhere was a rose motif — a Mackintosh trademark picked up by Issey Miyake designer Yusuke Takahashi.
Concrete raver
In a gritty underground parking garage off the Champs-Elysees, the label Andrea Crews injected edginess into proceedings with a display of streetwise fashion.
The collective, headed by designer Maroussia Rebecq, had attendees file past a couple of laser-lit cars and a dancing girl to get to the improvised
catwalk, where industrial-grade German techno music throbbed and shrilled.
The theme of the collection, showcasing urban outfits tending towards space-age tracksuits in contrasting silver and blacks and whites, was “Race
and Rave”. The man being dressed “is feeling silver like his hubcaps, black like his leather interiors, orange like road safety alerts,” read the production
notes.
Winter soldier
Dries Van Noten took over a Paris municipal warehouse to show off his conception of the winter soldier, replete with ornate coats and kilts, and
with dashes of punk and Chinese styling. “We really worked on clothing embellishments, which are sometimes military,
sometimes protective, sometimes also ethnic,” the Belgian designer told AFP after the show.
Boy Scouts
German-Iranian designer Boris Bidjan Saberi was sold on solid colours — mostly in orange, brown, black and white — with a consistent three-quarter
length to his supple jackets. Calf-cut pants lent a boyish air to the ware, emphasised further with rolled-mats slung Boy Scout-fashion on backs.
(Marc Burleigh, AFP)
Images: British
Vogue
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