Day 1: Men's Fashion Week

Daniel Scheffler writing for I V Y paris

Titillation, temptation, tantalization…. captured.

A sunny day in Paris beat down on me as les femmes stepped out from every boudoir for the beginning of the annual men's fashion week. Yes, men's fashion week, that amalgamation of men's and women's wear as never before. I shoud say "transmogrify and transform," as Orlando did; as s/he did…

Gaspard Yurkievich has perfected our opinion of the powerhouse femme in natural light and in a stark innate environment; the image and the shot. The long shirt for le male, the big cuffs and the beaming buttons are reminiscent of a time where women had all the say.

Then a forest. Blacks being slightly off, girly mushroom colors and, as Li Edelkoort predicted, les champignons have arrived (featured left).

So forest folk wear their tighter fitting pants with overly bellowing shirts or perhaps tiny shorts with brazen brogues & patents and long socks. And then there was the biggest trend seen throughout the show, color blocking, with sylvan blues dancing together in stark divided lines.

Photo by Danielle Voirin

Black, in all of its visceral essence, is perfectly crafted in a Julius collection that is nearer to the pit of the earth than humanly possible. Aviator masks and layers of textures "engird" this real statement from the Japanese designer. A type of fetish for the spiritual is involved; together, fetish and designer march chillingly towards a new earth. Industrialization of sheers, leather and the covering up of the body is explored here as we go deeper within.

Hear the sea. No really, hear the sea; it crashes and dips and changes and fills and empties, in the same way Veronique Branquinho does. The merging of mushroom colors associated with beautiful winter whites and slightly uncrisp slugging of reds. The color block being vital to this collection; blocked blacks and tans in a unity of peacefulness. Color bands on t-shirts and oversized pants underpin a beautifully sleepy collection of stripes and traditional pyjama stripes.

Get under the Danish tent; it is always better underneath a Danish tent. The drums glutton as the migrants fill the bright sky blue tent with color and pattern; the dazzler Henrik Vibskov sizzles with a vagabond inspired journey of fun and beautiful fabrics. A nylon backpack is packed, a zany hat is covering your journey inside the tent and oversized shirts are the word inside this comfortably drummed haven…wear your brogues with high socks and travel the night away.

Comments

[Kudzu Fire]

thank God the circus is in town so that these clowns will go unnoticed.

[simon]

well, I am probably a bit too old, too australian, too conservative, too set in my ways to try these clothes.
:o)

[TD]

Hahaha! I was thinking the exact same thing! I thought these were fashions for women! What man would be caught dead in that crap?

[Radu]

it would be nice to have clothing like they had in the 18th - 19th centuries, but this is way to exagerated for casual clothing. It would be nice to have high boots not only for horse riding, hats and caps with more style, and why not? capes.

these days men can either dress as clowns, as gay men or.. casual dark clothes with no style at all. Women have a wide set of options. I think they use to dress with more style back then, in those centuries, we've lost that style, even the business suits look like shit.

This is not very fair.