It’s undeniable that while at Milan menswear the difficult financial climate generated a sombre and serious atmosphere and often resulted in collections that featured high quality garments but also a boring and unnecessary uniformity, Paris has brought back on the catwalk a bit more fun, art, interesting inspirations and variations.
The presentation for Yves Saint Laurent Homme opened with a 5 minute film, “Your Skin Against My Skin”, by photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin that featured American actor Michael Pitt.
The short video showed Pitt's reactions to a sensual female voice describing the menswear collection. The woman's words hid a double entendre ("I want to lick this animal skin that falls, well-cut, from your round shoulder...I want to fondle this grey flannel jacket double breasted classic on your slightly puffed chest"), revealing also the main theme of the film, the erotic power of fashion and the way it generates and arouses desire. And Pilati generated enough desire, using different materials and moving from classic tailoring to younger and dynamic outlooks featuring black wide ankle-trousers layered over leggings-like trousers and paired with cropped jackets and shirts.
Hugo by Hugo Boss was a bit of a surprise. Belgian designer Bruno Pieters had quite a big responsibility being this the label’s first menswear show in Paris.
Though the first models that strode down the catwalk clad in sharply tailored skinny suits and little black sunglasses called to mind the clean, rigid and robotic aesthetic of Kraftwerk, there were references in the suits and coats with black and white geometric motifs to optical art, but also to the early prints of the Bauhaus.
Indeed the diagonal, herringbone or grid-like motifs reminded of the tapestries, carpets and textiles made at Bauhaus’ textile workshop.
Pieters also updated the classic civil mess jacket, introducing a grey or black slim mess jacket characterised by a very modern and slightly architectural cut paired with high-waisted lightweight trousers and stiff shirts. The uniformity of the collection was pleasantly broken by two outfits featuring a tailored camel coat and jacket, both worn with a bright red turtleneck jumper. Number (N)ine’s Autumn/Winter 2009-10 collection struck my attention as its designer, Takahiro Miyashita, seemed to take inspiration from the fabrics used in 17th-18th century menswear for his doublet-looking jackets, though as he revealed, inspiration actually came from the fixings he saw in a hotel room.
Yet the yellow colour, a popular shade for fabrics and embroideries in the early 18th century, and the cut of some jackets with their characteristically rococo flower motifs, the shape of their pocket flaps and the fine buttons on the cuffs hinted at precise historical references. Even the simple white shirts that models wore at the very end of the catwalk called to mind the 17th century linen nightgowns that usually featured minutely pleated folds on their front.
Armani wore a Barack Obama badge at his Milan menswear catwalk, but Jean Paul Gaultier went further, celebrating black power throughout his collection and adding to his catwalk his trademark fun. Models, among them also cute children, sported Afros while the soundtrack blasted tracks from bands that represented the 2 Tone movement interspersed with The Clash. Straps that crisscrossed shirts, jackets and trousers were a rather punkish reference, but Gaultier balanced it with his usual well-cut suits, coats and trenches.
A trend has emerged at the recent Milan menswear catwalks: wearing underwear as outerwear. Come next Autumn, long johns might be all the rage, but Yohji Yamamoto has taken this trend further, sending down the catwalk men clad in striped pyjamas, robes and slippers or wearing boxers featuring prints of animals on top of trousers.
Lines were relaxed, knitwear was oversized and looked extremely comfortable and the vivid shades of the lining of a few coats worn inside out brought some much needed colour to the collection. The best pieces though were the ample and fluid samurai-like trousers worn with long jackets and coats.
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