While the sombre hues usually associated with menswear still prevail at this year’s Paris shows, fun print shirts in bold colours have been the key statement.
Yohji Yamamoto may have shown sheer gauze-sleeved creations in respectable charcoal, but he also put funky shirts with life-size portraits of Japanese film stars from the Forties and Fifties and ultimate style icon Miss Piggy – in a bikini – on the catwalk. Indeed, the message from many of the Japanese designers was one of modern masculinity given a frisson of excitement by graphic prints. As in many of the shows, at Yamamoto – where Roy Krejberg has taken over from the eponymous Japanese designer – the fun side of the collection lay in its juxtaposition of fabrics, colours and textures.
Kenzo scattered colourful technology iconography – echoes of pixilated dots and VDU logos – against straight urban chic, while Comme des Garcons’ Rei Kawakubo offered shirts bearing multi-coloured prints of leading European tourist attractions. At Dior, former Yves Saint Laurent designer Slimane, whose unconventional approach to cut and penchant for a figure-hugging silhouette have earned him something of a cult following, had softened the look presented at least year’s debut.
The collection still clearly bore his stamp, however, with Dior’s urban warriors defined by trim tailoring and hallmark detailing. Plunging v-neck tops with cap shoulders were cinched at the waist with obi-style belts and worn over thigh-clinging trousers. The warrior theme, driven by protest and combat, was echoed over at Raf Simon’s show where models, swathed mujaheddin-style, strutted in loose-fitting tunics and slogan-emblazoned t-shirts.
Tom Ford, on the other hand, was angling Yves Saint Laurent at city slickers, with black, grey, and white suits gleaming with silver thread, teamed with jazz-era trilbys. The YSL take on this season’s ubiquitous brightly printed shirt came strewn with wildflowers or with bold motifs.
Predictably, at Louis Vuitton the look was streetwise but pure luxe as Marc Jacobs explored the frontiers of spending power through cotton cigarette-cut jeans paired with sanitized cotton and zip-spangled leather jackets.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
