Highlights From The Menswear Presentations During Paris Fashion Week

On Tuesday last week, “Schitt’s Creek” co-creator Dan Levy, dressed in a Hawaiian-style Valentino shirt, kicked off Paris Fashion Week Menswear via video from Los Angeles. As a “lifelong lover of fashion,” Levy said how his experiences dressing the characters for his popular show, particularly the high-concept outfits he wore as David Rose, had given him an even greater appreciation for the importance that clothing play in people’s lives. “A well-constructed clothing may help you stand a bit higher, carry yourself with a little more confidence, and communicate who you are without having to utter a single word,” he added.

Long kilts and other gender-neutral shapes were combined with sportswear and traditional military cuts, monochromes, florals, and black-and-white animal designs on the runways. Many of the major trends exhibited over six days of presentations were unearthed from the 1990s, a decade that has become a fashion perennial, while a crop of younger brands based on sustainability and collectivity looked to the future. This season, only a few collections were shown live, with the majority of designers debuting their newest designs through short videos or digital presentations online.

Levy commented on how men’s fashion has changed, providing more variety than ever before, recalling a period when “menswear was consigned to the back of the store.” “We may now wear Thom Browne kilts instead of formal trousers and lemon-yellow sequined turtlenecks instead of button-down shirts,” he said.

Texas, Paris

Travis Scott seemed both pleased and relieved as he hugged his colleague Kim Jones, creative director of Dior Men’s, on the runway after the debut of the label’s newest collection. Jones and Scott’s collaboration was one of just a few live presentations during Paris Fashion Week, and it featured silky layered outfits in monochromatic whites, lilacs, and pinks, as well as vivid pairings of brown and dayglo green. Basquiat-inspired flourishes adorned smock-like blouses, and ’70s flares lipped over the much-anticipated skater boy shoes in the Cactus Jack Dior line, named after Scott’s record label and as a nod to his Texas origins. Scott’s native state also influenced the show’s surreal set design, which included overgrown cactuses and mushrooms sprouting from a fictitious desert environment. Backstage and outside the event, and apparently celebrity-deprived press pressed for access to Scott, one of just a few major names to attend fashion week despite the continuing epidemic.

Deeeeeep (house) 90s

Burberry’s sand-swept techno party, with deeply pierced models in deconstructed versions of the brand’s iconic trench coat, dancing to psych-trance band Shpongle, was one of several trends from the high waves of ’90s culture that received the high-fashion treatment this season. “So many of my musical memories transport me back to an amazing period when I was finding myself — my voice, my identity, my creativity — sharing my experiences with friends and sometimes even strangers along the road,” Burberry chief design officer Riccardo Tisci said in a statement. “It seemed like we were on a common journey, drawn together by a shared feeling of openness, acceptance, and possibility.”

And the ’90s were still there in Louis Vuitton’s flowery palette of brilliant yellows, greens, and so much purple. Creamy leather bomber jackets were covered in graphic designs and gradation patterns; wide-leg trousers with neon acid-house details drooped over slip-on shoes; shell suits were combined with earmuffs and high heels, and one head-to-toe outfit channeled purple Teletubby Tinky Winky. GZA’s famous songs from the Wu-Tang clan’s 1995 album “Liquid Swords” were used in the label’s 17-minute cinematic epic. “Amen Break,” directed by Virgil Abloh, creative director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, shows a succession of noble fights, from samurai swordplay to chess to bojutsu, and includes GZA rapping at a chessboard in a dojo, as well as drum and bass pioneer Goldie in, yep, a purple shell suit.

Models in camouflage bombers and colorful boxy shirts paraded through Antwerp locales to the tune of Primal Scream’s Britpop anthem “Loaded” for Dries Van Noten, and Loewe’s homage to club culture included eclectic bright-on graphic print and color combos photographed by David Sims, a regular contributor to the era’s style-defining publications The Face and i-D.

Stripe teasing

There were lots of monochromatic outfits and grayscale patterns suggesting a more muted take on spring during Fashion Week, which wasn’t all vividly blended party colors. For Burberry’s mixed-gender show, trendy zig zags and zebra stripes were spotted on bibs, haircuts, and as details on transparent raincoats. (There was plenty of womenswear this season, most notably Moroccan label Casablanca’s ’60s pop-inspired daywear, but Paris Fashion Week is not officially gender-neutral, unlike London Fashion Week.)

Rick Owens adorned short boxy and long tapering vests made of pirarucu fish leather with pixelated zags, while Ernest W Baker combined black-and-white stripes with polka dots on whimsical sweater vests to be worn alone or as part of a layered ensemble. Issey Miyake’s soft pleated jackets and trousers were comfortable and appealing in animal print, making them viable loungewear choices for the outside world.

Stripes were turned into advertisements in an 8-minute video by Jil Sander’s creative directors Lucie and Luke Meier. Front-pleated trousers were tucked military-style into tall combat boots topped with knee-length and longer trenches, with black-and-white leopard patterns covering fuzzy zipped jackets and long-billed baseball hats. The video, shot in a dreamy washed-out haze, depicts models going in and out of an unlucky hotel room, set to music by art-rockers. Suicide is intercut with a narrator repeating some terrible truths: “Here I was, back where I had begun — how long had it been this time?” A voice inquires. “How many days, weeks, months, or years? It’s difficult to tell since time is different on the inside. How many times does it go from bright to dark?”

The Future

Loewe’s use of cactus leather, as well as Danish stalwart Henrik Vibskov’s work with recycled plastic bottles, was noteworthy as more luxury companies turn towards new and more sustainable materials. Other labels projected the future – and the problems that society faces – in more conceptual ways.

Speaking to the “turbulence” of a “post-Brexit, Covid-limiting world,” Onye Anuna and Prince Comrie, co-founders of Gravalot, exhibited a collection appropriately titled “Staying afloat, barely” in a multi-story parking lot in London. According to a release, the title is a reference to the perilous situation that many small labels are presently in. Gravalot, which describes itself as an “Afro-Contemporary menswear label rooted in the historical exploration and progression of black cultures,” collaborates with local artisans and UK heritage fabrics to create carefully tailored, hand-stitched garments, which are available this season in a muted color palette that includes elegant checks and florals on button-up shirts and casual suit jackets.

During Paris Fashion Week, Another new label, Phipp, debuted “It Starts Now,” a sci-fi-inspired video showing men and women dressed in football jerseys, wrestling costumes, and tropical boy scout outfits, all set to the repeated cry “Equality.” While the message from Andrea Crews, a Paris-based “fashion art activism” group renowned for its one-of-a-kind outfits created from discarded textiles, was “Upcycle Yourself.” Skin-baring appearances were guaranteed by heavily torn trousers and tattered shirts on models who gathered together like a bunch of youthful buddies. The video caption stated, “We wear the fashion revolution on tall, petite, large, and gorgeous bodies.” “Fashion, like ourselves, is everywhere.”