Style News

Paris Men’s Fashion Week kicked off last Wednesday with shows from some seriously big name houses, including Balenciaga and Valentino. What followed throughout the ensuing days was a fashion-forward, highly covetable roster of collections, ones that we can’t wait to see translated into store. Paris is where the fashion world’s heavy weights show their collections – designers from across the globe choose the city on the Seine as their annual show location. Widely regarded as the cornerstone of men’s fashion, the collections this season were diverse (reflecting the international nature of their designers), polished and at times pioneering. New shapes, silhouettes and cuts continued to emerge from the hallowed runways (as well as the ones in the grotty warehouses of the 1000th arrondissement), as around 50 shows spanning the city commenced. Although it could never eclipse the proceedings of London, Milan or New York, Paris Men’s is certainly a force to be reckoned with. Of course, we’re grateful for their croissants, Breton stripes and Beaujolais, but it’s the “je ne sais pas” they bring to the style stakes that we should really thank the French for. We’ve taken a closer look at the collections that have ensured, as always, Paris’ position as one of the great Fashion Capitals of the world, and that will define our wardrobes next season.

Inspired by the famed club kids of New York – their dress, their charm, their energy – Carol Lim and Humberto Leon's SS17 Kenzo collection was bright, bold and brash in the best possible way. Serving up unapologetic hedonism, we saw logo t-shirts emblazoned with the hero slogan "100% ENERGY Brilliant" (not unlike an advert for a washing-up detergent), nylon track top zip-ups in pastel hues, high-shine hooded tops and loose printed shirts worn open to expose the chest. The revelers who have left the party far past the break of dawn, Kenzo's SS17 boys are unified by the power of music, clubbing is their vehicle for expression. Whilst Kenzo branding was kept to a minimum this time around, the brand’s all-seeing-eye was back with a vengeance, meanwhile a recurring neon snakeskin print decorated lightweight rain-jackets and two-piece looks worn by the handful of girls who also stomped down the SS17 Kenzo runway.
Shop Kenzo here.

Revisiting Martin Margiela’s trademark of artful deconstruction, garments were stripped back to their basic components at Maison Margiela SS17. Suits came detailed with white tailor’s chalk that outlined the pattern used to construct the piece in question, under-garments were worn as over-garments and a waistcoat was slashed in half and worn over a sheer layer of white gauze. Long-line overcoats and two-piece suits were juxtaposed by bare flesh peeping beneath super-short shorts and a khaki bodysuit that featured cheeky exposed hip-panels. In contrast to the minimal foundations was a country garden print in subdued earthy tones, that featured a fox leaping over a fence, appeared at the leg of loose white trousers and on two variations of shirt that hung loose from the shoulders, before finishing with an oxblood trim.
Shop Maison Margiela here.

The master of effortless tailoring Paul Smith looked to the colour ways of Notting Hill Carnival and the heyday of 60s Soho clubbing institutions – the Flamingo and Whisky A Go-Go – for SS17. Calling for a revival of the self-expression and individualism witnessed at these venues, Smith's SS17 suits came in block colour ways or featuring vivid visible stitch-work, whilst bomber jackets came in a vibrant green, red and orange gingham check complete with rainbow collars, worn popped no less. Whilst colour is Smith’s trademark, it was the striped t-shirts and long sleeved jersey tops that shouted the designer’s sentiments this season: “Peace”. In a time of political instability, Paul Smith is making the world a happier, brighter and more colourful place in time for SS17.
Shop PS by Paul Smith here.

Valentino Garavani showed his first couture collection in Paris in 1962, having met his late business partner Giancarlo Giammetti two years previously. Together, they had sewn the seeds for what was to become one of the most universally admired fashion houses of the 20th century. Now under the direction of design duo Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Picciolo, who had worked under Valentino for over a decade, the design ethos and quality of output has remained true to the eponymous director’s strict codes of dress. Having eschewed the prevailing trend for ostentatious colour with his “no-colour collection” in 1969, the label became synonymous with understated and contemporary glamour, with all of the foundations of a great and traditional maison. This SS17 saw Valentino celebrate the integrity of the atelier’s craftsmanship. Whilst silhouttes were on the whole clean and contemporary, four haute couture coats were shown, with bestial embellishments on sleeves, delicate broderie anglaise and carefully considered camoflague detailing on dust coats demonstrating the minute skill of the workmanship. The 1967 San Gallo Panther print was reintroduced, with roaring big cats adorning sleeves and emblazoned across jackets. Some details went unfinished, in explanation the literature provided stated; “Incompleteness is keeping alive the spirit of creation.”
Shop Valentino here.

Staging his show in the open air courtyard of Paris's Lycée Janson de Saill for SS17, to the sound of Son Lux's "Your Day Will Come", Ricardo Tisci took us on a journey to Morocco. Think suiting encrusted with circular mirrored embellishments, vibrant printed vests that featured both pyramids and an all-seeing-eye at the center of the chest, rich patterned rain-wear with khaki PVC pockets and a series of gingham prints that appeared on re-invented shirts, lightweight jackets and t-shirts deconstructed, by way of a zip, alike. In contrast to the sports-driven tailoring Givenchy has come to be renowned for under Tisci’s reign, the designer also sent a handful of supermodels down the runway – Bella Hadid, MariaCarla, Kendall Jenner and Joan Smalls, amongst others – in a dozen delicately beaded black and white Fall 16 haute couture gowns.
Shop Givenchy here.