Fashion mail: the brightest and boldest show invitations from the men’s S/S 2016 season

(Image credit: press)

last updated 11 October 2022

Prada: Miuccia Prada’s alluring S/S 2016 invitation comprised a trio of acetate sheets that created a lens effect when moved over each other. Ensuring their safe arrival was a black plastic envelope with a press effect

Dior Homme: M/M (Paris) quoted Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung – ‘in all disorder a secret order’ – on its illustrated poster-sized invitation

Paul Smith: Sir Paul Smith championed an ‘independent mind’ for S/S, with this mantra adorning a luxurious, black cashmere handkerchief

Yohji Yamamoto: The designer set the tone for his Paris show with a brown paper bag invitation. On one side, a sketch of a near-naked man clad in hot pants declared ‘I’m for rent’, with show details on the reverse

Louis Vuitton: Louis Vuitton delivered its spring/summer show details on a grey mountboard, debossed with its signature monogram pattern, and names elegantly scribed overleaf in navy blue ink. Kim Jones also enclosd a second invitation – letter-pressed with a blue rope motif and edged in blue - that summoned us to Paris boutique Colette to view the house’s A/W 2015 collection drop in store

Saint Laurent: The work of American artist and sculptor Billy Al Bengston was the latest to grace the next edition in Hedi Slimane’s sleek series of booklet invitations. The 81-year-old artist - best known for his soft-focus, geometric paintings and association with surfing subculture - offered up the perfect visual prelude to Slimane’s southern Californian soujourn

Wooyoungmi: Woo Youngmi and Katie Chung joined a number of designers looking upwards to the final frontier for inspiration this season. Their invitation, printed on textured card, depicted the moon in different phases

Kenzo: A mirror-effect duplex mountboard alluded to Carol Lim and Humberto Leon’s interplanetary space race. Housed in a taupe envelope with the house’s name printed in a pleasing, mint-green foil, the invitation was our one-way ticket to the cosmos. We have lift-off!

Alexander McQueen: The prologue to Alexander McQueen's S/S 2016 show was the vintage, black-and-white portrait of a tattooed man on the front of each invitation – later referenced on the runway through silk scarves in a tattoo print and complimenting cuffs. Printed on textured card with a UV-varnish, the invitation arrived in a ghostly tissue paper envelope

Coach: Stuart Vevers opted for a heavy, mountboard invitation, edged in purple, to announce his debut LC:M show. An abstract graphic – clouds billowing over a rocky texture – hinted at the psychedelic medley of textures and hues that were to come

Neil Barrett SS 2016 — **Neil Barrett:** The Milan-based designer alluded to his newfound focus on pattern with a camouflage motif screen printed on Perspex

Oliver Spencer: The London menswear brand has us seeing shapes – shapes drawn from the oeuvre of American minimalist sculptor Richard Serra to be precise. Its invitation riffed on Serra’s large-scale sheet metal works, featuring a medley of red, interlocking circles and triangles on off-white card

Umit Benan: The Turkish-born designer whisked us to Havana by way of Paris, envisioning Fidel Castro and Che Guevara celebrating their victory over the dictator Bastista with Cuba Libres and cigars. Salud! — **Umit Benan:** The Turkish-born designer whisked us to Havana by way of Paris, envisioning Fidel Castro and Che Guevara celebrating their victory over the dictator Bastista with Cuba Libres and cigars. Salud!

**Gucci:** From Gucci came an elaborately illustrated invitation. Framed in black, the textured card was bedecked with classical Roman motifs

**Hardy Amies:** Creative director Mehmet Ali marked his galactic spring offering with a debossed grey triplex card and edged in a lemon yellow

Piquadro SS 2016 — **Piquadro:** The Italian leather goods company commanded our attention with a laser-cut aluminium invitation

Versace SS 2016 — **Versace:** It was an Arabian roll call at the Italian house, which announced its summer 2016 outing with a whistle (in gold, of course), delicately chained to a patterned black card. Details appeared on the reverse in gold foil

Richard James: Heralding the Savile Row tailor’s trek to Las Pozas – the pseudo 'ancient ruin' created by eccentric English poet and surrealist Edward James – was a triplex card, illustrating the silhouette of one of Las Pozas’ concrete structures emerging from the rainforest

Junya Watanabe Man: The Japanese designer’s theme this season was ‘Faraway’ – more specifically Africa. To wit, a poster invitation transported us there pre-show through an image featuring a figure standing tall over the lush, exotic landscape

**Salvatore Ferragamo:** Massimiliano Giornetti’s striped invitation foreshadowed his collection’s polished colour palette

Raf Simons: Mr Simons’ simply elegant invitation – a subtle, white card with names handwritten and the show details printed overleaf – gave nothing away. Who would have guessed he had a blitzing techno-rave in store for us this season?

Margaret Howell SS 2016 — **Margaret Howell:** Ever refined, Margaret Howell sent out a pared-down invitation that echoed her crisp but casual collection

Issey Miyake: This season, Issey Miyake’s menswear designer Yusuke Takahashi was enamored by photographer Yoshinori Mizutani’s series Tokyo Parrots. Alluding to the collection's theme of urban nature, the invitation featured one of Mizutani’s vibrant images

Santani — **Santoni:** Spring was in the air for the Italian shoe brand, which sent through a poster-sized invitation illustrated with a Technicolor collage

**Bally:** The Swiss brand sent forth a quadruplex card in a royal blue hue, with show details printed in white foil

Paul Zileri SS 2016 — **Pal Zileri:** This invitation predicted Mauro Ravizza’s riff on technology, with a circuit board-inspired geometric motif on multi-layered, die-cut card