Three wildly contrasting and excellent shows – by Loewe, Hermès and KidSuper – staged Sunday were a reminder that when it comes to creative menswear, Paris remains the epicenter of the planet.
Loewe: Reined-in panache and feathered faces
Reined in and very focused, yet starring a great new silhouette, the latest Loewe menswear collection was the most coherent and cool moment so far on European runways.
With one day left in the 13-day season that began in Florence on June 11, it felt like the show and collection everyone had been waiting for. A superbly concise statement about avant-garde tailoring; scene-shifting detailing; and all around cool.
Beginning with great lean and mean tailoring on models with wildly elongated shoes. Gone were the transgressive traits of recent Loewe shows, in came precise manly looks, and punchy graphics. Like the bold-face new take on the logo seen on white or Orange Order orange shirts with high funnel necks.
Or great metallic green tank tops, echoing the show invitation.
While whirling dervish pants in light, spongy Aran cable knit silk mohair were pretty remarkable. As were the voluminously twisted pants, gathered at one side of the waistline with a leather logo, the better to ripple as you walk.
“I wanted something restrained, finely cut, and a silhouette that was elongated,” explained Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson. A show staged up in the rafters of the main glass roofed riding ring of the Garde Républicane, the key cavalry regiment of Paris.
Every single model’s face was dissected by one or more long feathers – real, metallic or dipped in gold paint – that hung down to their pants. By cutting or hiding the face creating a striking optical illusion.
At times, the collection felt like a modern school uniform for colleges that train teams of Avenger-worthy artists. Or some advanced military fashion forward platoon. Where creative director J.W. Anderson’s smartest trick was finishing aertexes with leather belts, which could then be attached to trouser waistlines.
“Military coats that are brought to the front and buttoned through… Last season was about morning suits, this is more about wearing trousers back to front but reengineering them,” he quizzically explained.
Backed up by intense droning and hypnotic synthesizer soundtrack by William Basinski, this was a great fashion statement. Earning Anderson the most intense applause of the whole season.
Hermès returns to the sea
All about embracing the sea at Hermès, the latest house to reference the call of la mer in its menswear show.
Following on from the like of Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana and MSGM in Milan, whose entire collections looked destined for Portofino or S.t Tropez.
Yet, somehow, this Hermès seemed more likely to be worn in the better hotel, the more exclusive beach and terrace. For this was subtle summer men’s fashion at its best.
The whole palette was aquatic – Pacific blue, ocean, foamy ecru, with a dash of beige and sand, suggesting a sunset drink on a strand.
Rarely has leather looked lighter: from the sleeveless lambskin biker jackets to the wide-cut second-skin cabans. A mood made easier by the drawstring trousers and pajama pants. Or the very loose summer cotton trousers that finished well above the ankle.
Every model strolling around in wide-strap sandals inside the Conseil de Surveillance, a huge Rationalist-era structure in the 16th arrondissement.
Though the finest hour was reserved for a great series of silk shirts in sea blue equestrian prints of bridles, saddles, horse-bits and harnesses. Seen on silk sweatshirts or cocktail hour tops. Patterns that were even tattooed onto on a model’s legs, another’s torso.
“A collection about la douce France and lightness and a metaphor about the sea and the memories that it leaves. And just the idea of enjoying a party on a beach,” explained Hermès menswear creative director Véronique Nichanian.
KidSuper partners with Le Cirque de Soleil
“Magnifique!” That’s what the audience shouted at the end of the magnificent KidSuper show, staged in collab with the Cirque du Soleil.
The concept: a gang of sad puppets electrified by lightning stage a dance performance and parallel fashion show.
The first looks – prints of the puppets hand-painted on to suits and sheathes in this co-ed show. Each model marching with their wrists attached to strings held by a giant hand eight meters above them that guided them around the stage.
Staged inside the Trianon, a recently renovated theatre-meets-rock club in funky Montmartre. Thousands of kids pleading for entrance into the show by KidSuper’s designer Colm Dillane.
Though the action opened with one dancer staging an eye-boggling spinning performance, looking like she was attached by her mane to a rope stretching up to the ceiling.
Before Dillane’s brilliant cast of characters – many finished in prints painted by the New York designer – appeared. Though styled like children’s puppets with lace collars, fringes and soft boots, the actual clothes were cool, edgy and wearable. Like a great patchwork chalk-stripe gangster. Or several fab’ wool redingotes embroidered with historical characters, dandies and fops.
Often featuring volume tailoring in bright jacquards, over painted with clowns, poets and aristocrats; or natty leather jackets embroidered with felt human profiles or intarsia pimps.
Finishing with a wound-up doll model, huge key in her back; a tragic clown on three-meter stilts and a headless figure, in a beautiful staged show courtesy of producer extraordinaire, Thierry Dreyfus.
Two years ago, Dillane designed one collection for Louis Vuitton in the gap between Virgil Abloh’s passing and Pharrell Williams appointment. And it was an excellent show. Someone should really hire Colm to guide a major brand. Doubly so after this performance.
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