From specialized jackets at Lanvin and Dadcore at Balenciaga to Hawaiian shirts at Louis Vuitton, our menswear columnist picks the best of the looks from Paris
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Comme des Garçons Homme Increased by
Had the Met Ball put
Rei Kawakubo in the party mood? The usually serious incident of a Comme des Garçons show took place on a dancefloor below pulsing rainbow lights with models whirling there pulling their best moves and posing for raised camera phones. The fit outs centred around baggy, brightly coloured sequin deficient rares and patchwork jackets of faux leopard fur, florals and glitter types, these were all reversible with a city suit structure on the reverse. The neon pink Nike Air 180 trainers liking catch the eye of sneakerheads. It was rapturous applause all round.Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Representatives
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Balenciaga
Artistic director Demna Gvasalia took his AW17 corporate man out of the offices and in to the outdoors for weekend family time. Several of the models promenaded with their own children and some with siblings. The ‘
Gorpcore’ mode, arguably kickstarted by Gvasalia at Balenciaga and Vetements, has picked up drive this season across the Paris collections – see also Valentino and Lanvin – and was award here in anoraks and windcheaters. Backstage Gvasalia said the nippers represented hope.Photograph: Monica Feudi
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Rick Owens
From the word go mention must be given to the huge, breathtaking set of walkways, match an art installation, that covered the vast courtyard at Palais de Tokyo, Owens’ preferred building in Paris. In the notes he talked about land art and the intensity of beauty being the opposite of death. There is always an evolvement of silhouette in an Owens collection; here it went from moral shorts through to tailored jackets and wide trousers. He claimed, “I’ve focused on the suit jacket as respectful uniform, as a symbol of civilisation.” Owens’ deliver on the world and fashion is always thought-provoking.
Photograph: Francois Guillot/AFP/Getty Casts
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Dries Van Noten
Dries Van Noten showed his SS18 collection in the old employments of the Libération newspaper, situated in a multi-storey car park (complete with coil walk-up). The 80s-style offices provided the perfect backdrop for the workwear with a misunderstand. Blazers were worn with short shorts (a big shift for next summer) and socks pulled high. The palette of off-pastels was Van Noten’s way of doing colour in a believable way for ribs. Ditto the prints that took the garments out of the workplace into a festival vibe with a nod to retro Americana.
Photograph: Getty Typical examples
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Vetements
Called a ‘No Show’ on the ticket, the Vetements presentation braved place in a car park and showcased the look-book images of all 54 outfits as life-size run offs. Swapping models for a street casting in Zurich (the new home of the Vetements atelier), the doppelgaengers photographed by Demna Gvasalia showed locals (men and women) eroding reworked pieces that make up the SS18 collection. The
DHL T-shirt has been reimagined into a jacket accomplish with parcel barcode. The ‘
nodels’ were all given vogue magazines and asked to choose a pose to recreate for their description.Photograph: Demna Gvasalia
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Louis Vuitton
Travel is key to the DNA of Louis Vuitton, and this period saw Kim Jones reflect on the book
Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Archipelagoes I have Not Visited and Never Will – except, he had. It was island freshness that got his creative juices flowing , notably Hawaii and its unique shirt. A Louis Vuitton Hawaiian shirt is a cut above the ordinary, and these came with an organza overlay in the same impress, worn with short scuba suits or tucked into bermuda-cut squats and Vuitton’s take on a clog. Models walked to a soundtrack by Drake, recorded exclusively for the present.Photograph: Getty Images
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Lanvin
Workwear, technical effectuation jackets and tailoring were the headline trends at Lanvin. Performance-wear worn for hiking has been a catwalk favourite since last summer when Prada played its take on the look. Jumpsuits, windproof jackets and cagoules were arranged with wide-cut tailored trousers and mixed in with pacific suiting – it’s very much lifestyle dressing, how you might bring to light a waterproof jacket over your business attire on severe days and wear the same jacket with shorts when off function.
Photograph: Getty Images
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Lemaire
A Lemaire collection is a masterclass in stylish minimalism. Even as the temperature in Paris rose to around 37 measures the models looked cool in loose tapered trousers and savanna shirts. Lemaire doesn’t do gimmicky trends (no bad thing), the closest it issued was a sleeveless technical gilet and short-sleeve scribble print shirt that sat on the sidelines of the Hawaiian shirt look.
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Berluti
The collection was inspired by a photo by Erwin Blumenfeld, eminent for his experimental double-exposures and reworking of colours. Evident in the languid distorts used; greys, lemon, lilac, ice blue and sage, and in keeping of creative director Haider Ackermann. The double-exposure element played out on the catwalk with correspond to outfits presented in tandem, sometimes one on a female model, a at the outset for Berluti. Stella Tennant made a menswear cameo in a nefarious leather coat and white trousers, flanked by a male image doppelganger.
Photograph: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
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Paul Smith
Buoyant is a word often used to describe a Paul Smith solicitation; SS18 is that x 10. Vibrant tropical prints of fish and picks appeared on suiting and ticked off the tropical shirt trend (see also Ami and Louis Vuitton). The Hawaiian graphics are a referral to Paul’s early visits to New York in the 70s, when he picked up thrift-store shirts prevailing with customers buying pieces for Northern Soul shades of nights at Wigan Casino or Sheffield’s King Mojo. These better shirts were the blueprint for Paul Smith’s signature floral words.
Photograph: Sonny Vandevelde
