Fashion Week
S/S 2013 Menswear

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Day 1

Raf Simons

Day 2

Kolor Rick Owens Walter Van Beirendonck Louis Vuitton Dries Van Noten

Day 3

Junya Watanabe Man Ann Demeulemeester Kris Van Assche Comme des Garçons Homme Plus Givenchy Berluti

Day 4

Kenzo Maison Martin Margiela Acne Dior Homme Hermès

Day 5

Lanvin Paul Smith Thom Browne

Raf Simons

Who wears short shorts? Raf Simons' lads do. Or will, in all likelihood. Because Simons, who continues his namesake menswear collection even while taking the reins at Christian Dior, can slice, slit and sew in a way that few can rival. But while models with Scissorhands hair showed a lot of leg, Simons ensured that attention remained on longer jackets with trapezoidal back seams and crisp white shirts, some with a tiled eyelet. Hits of lilac and marigold plus a cubist face print (by Brian Calvin) offered an arty counterpoint to the robo trainers. Several riffs on a tailored coat - pleated floral down the back, nuanced tartan from the front - struck a subversively feminine chord. It was gender bending from all the right angles

Raf Simons

Kolor

Japanese designer Junichi Abe merges materials the way DJs make mash-ups; what shouldn’t make sense – a suit jacket rimmed with a silky fabric– somehow does, and relatively seamlessly. Jumpers and shorts were also subject to this mixing treatment, though often as a trimming detail. His breezy, unstructured style would make an ideal travel wardrobe, with rolled-up trousers, cardigans and windbreakers covering off a checklist of pack-friendly pieces. Incidentally, his colour palette was limited to a coastal range of wet sand, mossy green, cloudy grey and hazy blue – punctuated with hits of lifebuoy orange

Kolor

Rick Owens

The heavy-duty chains around the models’ wrists could be interpreted as Marxian in a 'You have nothing to lose…!' kind of way. More likely, however, this was just Rick Owens introducing a substantive counterpoint to the lightness of his gauzy monastic robes. Padded toga-style tops and parkas in shades-of-grey prism patterns expressed volume in unconventional ways. As usual, the designer played with layering (skorts and long second-skin tops); what proved far more unexpected were the slouch socks paired with clogs (some, open-toed) that clip-clopped like horses hooves

Rick Owens

Walter Van Beirendonck

In any other scenario, top hats covered in dripped wax and paint and other neon debris would distract from the clothes. Yet this was not the case at Walter Van Beirendonck, where a certain dark flamboyance is the designer’s calling card. Formal dress by way of lightweight tartan and sherbet-striped suiting gave way to various states of undress – exaggerated untucked tuxedo shirts, chest-baring chemises and sock garters. A harness constructed out of tubing mellowed out as a t-shirt print motif and, more cleverly, as a ruching detail. Van Beirendonck also riffed on ruffs that undulated around necks with toothpaste thickness

Walter Van Beirendonck

Louis Vuitton

Whether the leather life jacket makes it to stores is of less importance than the fact that it made it to the runway. It’s the type of showpiece that confirms the brand's whimsical way of showing off its savoir-faire. Louis Vuitton’s menswear style director Kim Jones sent out a collection that was very much inspired by life at sea, from the splashy yachtsman (fine navy suits accessorised with charm brooches) to the workaday mariner (denim patchwork). The theme extended to cashmere sweaters cut like scuba tops, shagreen (stingray) buttons, semaphore motifs and white deck shoes in Louis Vuitton’s signature Epi leather

Louis Vuitton

Dries Van Noten

You could call it his camouflage print moment. But Dries Van Noten’s approach always demands some degree of decoding. What if he was removing 'cam' from its loaded associations and turning it into something beautifully blobby and daresay relaxed? Applied to wide-leg trousers and jeans alike, this was the character it assumed, even more so when matched with slim mango trousers and lacy crew-neck tops. Van Noten’s answer to the bulletproof vest: a softly quilted layering piece. There were suits and tailored jackets, too, in rusty iridescent and peaty hues – all worn with outdoorsy sandals

Dries Van Noten

Junya Watanabe Man

In the right hands, 'nostalgic' is not necessarily a dirty word. And so it was that Junya Watanabe appeared to combine such starting points as the Beatles and Savile Row into a collection that emphasised a soft, boyish approach to suiting. A variety of windowpane checks in sunset blue and pink hues were cut into slightly shrunken jackets, occasionally featuring strips of solid coloured trim; trousers and jeans were cropped or rolled accordingly, some with visible button fronts. It was a retail-friendly look – a Japanese spin on sartorial – that evoked picnics and puppy love, rather than boardroom braggadocio

Junya Watanabe Man

Ann Demeulemeester

This season, Demeulemeester used a cream and coral rose wallpaper-style print as the fabric for tapered trousers; in addition to a fancy purple patterned silk which she applied to suiting and coats. Such rich colour – very much interiors-inspired – came across as a romantic twist to the designer’s canon. Wrapped tops and loose shirts were contained with slim jackets as if the men had awoken from well-dressed slumber. Striped pyjama trousers and flat slipper boots in corresponding hues (including apricot and peacock blue) continued the decadent, dreamy theme

Ann Demeulemeester

Kris Van Assche

The Kris Van Assche show invitation read 'TEE' but more accurate would have been 'SLEEVE', because the designer devoted nearly all of his efforts to repurposing the short sleeve as a visual flourish beyond its basic, arm-bearing role. This resulted in white dress shirts with one cuff positioned mid bicep and another at the wrist. The black jackets adorned with white sleeves were even more yin-yang clever. Then Van Assche applied his sleeve trick to outerwear, creating a continuous cape line. A thick elastic waistband on trousers and shorts added another dressed down element to dressing up

Kris Van Assche

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus

We rarely get to see rock stars backstage; but it’s inevitable, even if unintentional, that they’d have a certain dressing room style. Rei Kawakubo seemed to contemplate this moment, interpreting it as a progression of swagger-factor coats that played out like long-form remixes of the classics. There was the one in hooded grey sweatshirt fabric, the white terrycloth biker robe, the double-breasted peachy velvet number – Kawakubo manipulated these and more to badass effect. What was underneath? Finally, the models with their Kool-Aid orange hair and thick black headbands doffed their coats to reveal head-to-toe pyjama ensembles in tartan, camouflage print and satiny gold

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus

Givenchy

More and more, Riccardo Tisci is occupying the hallowed ground reserved for designers who can vault clothing to era-defining significance. He seems aware of this, too, as evident in the religious tones of the Spring collection. There were the overtones: haloed portraits, some with eyes censored out with black bars. Layered as a t-shirt with his signature bomber jacket, one of these became a haunting triptych image. Then there were the undertones: panels of long fabric swinging out from shorter tops, sheaths and tunics that were conservative in principle yet still revealed skin. Jackets appeared sculpted rather than structured. And what to make of that pink so pale and pure, it challenged cardinal red?

Givenchy

Berluti

Berluti's presentation in the Palais Royale gardens invited guests through a series of tableaux vivants depicting worldly gentlemen and their urbane pursuits: rose cultivating, butterfly collecting, film directing… reading James Patterson. Leisure class luxury - sans the conspicuous consumption - was clearly top-of-mind for artistic director Alessandro Sartori who, in his second season with the heritage leather goods brand, has proposed a ready-to-wear range of supple jackets, knits (panelled with suede, fine-gauge polos) and raw silk tailored evening suits, notably in deep teal. Fringed loafers and two-tone brogues were artfully antiqued in brick red and blue; ditto the roomy carryalls and briefcases

Berluti

Kenzo

'We decided to go to the jungle ourselves to see what it meant to us,' said Humberto Leon, describing the inspirational trip to South Asia that he and co-creative director Carol Lim took to research a collection that pays homage to 'Jungle Jap' - a store opened by Takada Kenzo in 1970s Paris. 'It wasn't just the jungle but the villages that surrounded the jungle that inspired us,' he said, going on to describe a very functional collection that, across 42 looks, took the safari suit as a baseline to explore mix-match textures, technical detailing and a 1970s-inspired colour palette. Bright, clashing prints and patterns, a signature of Kenzo, have been embraced wholeheartedly by the new creative directors, who sprinkled busy, speckled camouflage across T-Shirts, button-downs, baggy skater shorts and wide-brimmed baseball caps. Another survivor from the Kenzo archives is the tiger, which appeared embroidered across sweatshirts and stitched onto collars in glass beads

Kenzo

Maison Martin Margiela

Soft leather slippers paired with suits are a trend for next summer and they appeared in white, gold and peach at Mason Martin Margiela. White led the colour palette on the runway, accentuated by touches of mushroom, barely-there peach and silver. A lightweight yet fat corduroy was the first fabric onto the runway, while swathes of cool cotton, cut into dinner suits, were made louche and laidback via pairings with scoop-necked T-Shirts, unbuttoned shirts or loose-fitting waistcoat jackets. Drawstring waists on suit trousers gave another nod to a current theme upon which many designers are toying with, applying sporty detailing to an elegant classic

Maison Martin Margiela

Acne

Creative director Jonny Johansson might have opened the runway show with looks made from denim - the DNA of Acne - but the two strongest statements of the collection were maxi stripes. Emblazoned in navy across cotton pyjama shirts, three-piece suits (worn with golden brogues) and vest tops, they also appeared on the uber wide-rimmed, white Panama hats created in collaboration with Italian hat manufacturer Borsalino. With rims so wide that they gently undulated around the models' faces as they walked, the effect was lightly feminine but striking, as if a girlfriend who had borrowed her man's shirt was returning the favour by placing her most treasured sun hat on his head

Acne

Dior Homme

Red, white and blue was the colour statement of creative director Kris Van Assche, in a collection that veered away from the cropped cigar-leg suit that's been a Dior Homme mainstay, towards a more slimline, shrunken silhouette. Blocking a rich, inky navy across 45 looks that explored the suit in all its permutations - double-breasted or thin-lapelled, high-waisted or voluminous - Van Assche then introduced a sharp tomato red via shoelaces and cotton shirts. Details included rope embroidery on lapels and heavy gold shoulder buttons, inspired by the colours of the seafaring navy. The marinière, or Bréton shirt, was proposed in three different models, ensuring those who prefer high-end fabrics at top-end price points can get their fix of the French classic

Dior Homme

Hermès

A canvas maxi Birkin bag got hearts racing at a runway show that oozed all the laidback luxury and light-footed finesse that Hermès menswear continues to represent. Creative director Véronique Nichanian chose to go sporty this season with a coherent collection that's very much about summer pursuits: kid-leather brogues or canvas pumps for padding across yachts by day and baby-soft leather slippers paired with cocktail dînatoire suits by night. Skin was displayed via trousers legs that stopped high on the ankle, stretched necklines on lightweight knits, T-shirts that bared collarbones and feather-light sailing anoraks with sleeves pulled up to reveal tanned forearms. Nichanian surprised us with absinthe-green on cotton trousers, bermuda shorts and speckled-knit cardigans, and a pimento-red that denoted the more urban section of the collection. At the finale came the pièce de résistance: slick Hermès suits in materials that make you want to lean forward and touch

Hermès

Lanvin

Lanvin menswear models often stride down the runway with tough eyes and a fast pace, making sure the colours - always romantic, bruised hues - never fall into whimsy. Among the key looks this season came a jumpsuit, more parachutist than car mechanic, with utility pocketing, sheer panelling and sleeves rolled up high. Another was a raised cobalt-blue flower print on a roomy T-Shirt and trouser ensemble. The styling was tough; a shaved-headed Byron in bovver boots sported a hang-chain earring and a slim-cut, shrunken-sized suit. Sandals, that quandary of men's fashion, featured wide strips of leather over brick soles and experimented with reflective brights. Silver suits with matching rucksacks appeared, as did a refrain from the soundtrack to Duncan Jones's sci-fi movie 'Moon'. The Lanvin man, according to his pace on the runway and technical detailing on his clothes, is always on the move. According to the futuristic soundtrack and those silver suits, the destination is the future

Lanvin

Paul Smith

Everything's gone green. Indeed, according to designer Paul Smith who was wandering around and happily chatting to guests before the show started, todays show was all about the colour mint green. A curious colour palette overall, the nearly white mint green was matched with blocks of mustard, coral pink, indigo blue, poppy red (a colour that's appeared on a few runways this season), aubergine and Prussian blue. Trousers were high waisted and the silhouette was a nod to the mod. Suits were largely double breasted and very colourful, but two coats of note were a peach, leather biker jacket and a paprika-coloured, fully waterproof, welded-seam rain mac. All the Paul Smith finishes abounded - polka dots on socks and button-down shirts, dark sunglasses framed by shaggy hair, Chelsea boots and another interesting proposal for footwear: the shandal. Part shoe, part sandal, if male super model Clément Chabernaud can't pull it off then what hope for the rest of us?

Paul Smith

Thom Browne

In a hurricane of very summery fierce pastels, Thom Browne, the King of Kook, detonated the seersucker bomb for his Spring collection. Mismatch, clash, layer and 'more, more, more' felt like the directives given to his design studio as models (with faces painted entirely silver) wore multi-layered ensembles rich in eye-popping detail. Oh, and throw in a bunch of whales and lobsters: the sea creatures were everywhere, appearing on jackets, sunhats, jumpers or as embroidered elbow patches on suits. The entire presentation was bonkers and fun, but peel away the tomfoolery and Browne proposed a very wearable and arguably safe (for him), smart collection