Nick Vinson reports on all the action from the autumn/winter menswear shows in Paris, highlighting the key looks from the catwalks and analyzing trends.
Louis Vuitton
The show was held in the Espace Louis Vuitton above their mega store on the Champs Elysees. Access, not for the faint-hearted, was via a ‘sensory deprivation lift’ by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson (imagine a lift with no lights on and you have some idea of how scary that is). Upstairs the space usually used for art exhibitions was fitted out like an underground station, with neat white tiled walls, and black lacquered salon chairs. Perhaps in the Vuitton utopian world even subway stations are spotlessly clean and have tiny white Bose speakers discreetly attached to the walls, playing the Eurythmics.
The collection had specially developed and engineered luxury fabrics and construction techniques, like the double-faced wool and cashmere trench coats that opened the show and a laser cut raincoat made of traditional thermo-sealed waterproofed fabric bonded to cashmere (on the outside). Like Prada in Milan, Vuitton engineered cloth in a degrade effect, for tailored suits and coats (seen twice so its now officially a trend!). Of note were the Derby shoes, in calf leather or raspberry or green velvet with a contrast white welt.
Of course this being Vuitton, there were some great bags. After too many oversized alligator man bags in Milan were we ready to say ‘no more!’ until we saw the mini cruiser bag in matt blue degrade. But in the end what made it to the top of the wish list (apart from the bonded cashmere trench) were the mini cruiser bags and the hold-alls in calf, inserted with multi-coloured leather ‘ribbons’.
Yohji Yamamoto
Knitwear has been strong on most of the runways, mainly oversized with longer cuffs and roll necks quite visible under coats and jackets. At Yohji Yamamoto, signature oversized tailoring was shown not only with oversized knitwear, but the knits themselves were incorporated into the jackets and coats, inserted into panels, sleeves and backs. Treating the knitwear as cloth also resulted in some novel cardigan coats. The by now obligatory short pant and boot combo, was here with either ribbed cuffs (more knit) or turn-ups.
Military influences, which were so strong in Milan, showed up in outerwear, such as frockcoats, tailcoats, duffle coats and parkas.
Best of all were the parkas and military style coats in washed wool; a long double-breasted frock coat over short slim pants with boots.
K Karl Lagerfeld
The visiting fashionistas joined the hip cool Parisians to party on
Friday night at a well-attended bash thrown to debut the denim line K
Karl Lagerfeld. The designer (who has been rarely been seen wearing anything but jeans since he slimmed down) exclaimed, ‘T-shirts and jeans are the base of modern dressing.’ As if modelled on a silhouette taken from Lagerfeld’s own inimitable personal style, the jeans come in slim, extra slim and straight leg. Fabric treatments are key with washed cotton sateen, hand-waxed cotton and black denim with a pearl effect print giving a tough edgy look. The collection at around 250 pieces, is not all about 5-pocket jeans, but includes blazers, sweaters and coats as well as trousers (skinny of course) in a palate of black, white, grey and blue.
Like Marc Jacobs sharing the limelight for Vuitton’s menswear with Paul Helbers, the creation of this collection has been credited to both Lagerfeld and executive creative director Maurice Ohayon, the man behind cult jeans brand Notify. This open acknowledgement of collaborative design is very modern, and is seen also in design with Hella Jongerius and Jongerius Lab and in architecture with Antonio Citterio and Citterio and Partners, and what with Lagerfeld’s other day jobs at both Chanel and Fendi, makes perfect sense.
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