Paris Fashion Week Menswear Spring-Summer 2023 marks the inaugural Paris Fashion Week event for the year, la 2023st from 21-26 June 2022. For the spring/summer 2023 season, Parisian-based designers came out in force in a fascinating display of juxtaposition across the brands, from the most subtle of inspirations to avante-garde stylings, where childlike plaything motifs shared the runway with structured workwear and models donning colourful crochet garments followed those dressed in head-to-toe utilitarian styles.

Some designers challenged themselves to push the boundaries of physical presentations — from an acrobatic performance at Issey Miyake’s Homme Plissé to a recreation of the namesake designer’s childhood home and garden at Dior Men. Rick Owens returned to his usual haunt at Palais de Tokyo with a runway presentation punctuated by three giant globes that were set ablaze, air-lifted and then dramatically dropped into the building’s fountain pool as models walked around its periphery. At the KidSuper show, designer Colm Dillane staged a live auction of paintings that inspired his collection.

The idea of having a separate men’s fashion week has long started to feel obsolete because gender fluidity is becoming more accepted. Some design displayed shows that were primarily male in name only, there were references to the conventional manhood norms, also, a lot of men wearing crop tops and traditionally feminine clothing.

Paris Fashion Week (French: Semaine de la mode de Paris) is a series of designer presentations held semiannually in Paris, France with spring/summer and autumn/winter events held each year. Paris Fashion Week is part of the global “Big 4” fashion weeks, the others being London Fashion Week, Milan Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. The schedule begins with New York, followed by London, and then Milan and ends in Paris.

Paris Fashion Week can, as for ready-to-wear week in March, see up to a hundred brands fashion parade. In addition to ready-to-wear shows, there are men’s and haute couture shows, which are held semiannually for the spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons. French weeks are not similar if they concern haute couture or ready-to-wear. Because of their worldwide reputation, several international houses choose to parade in Paris for their ready-to-wear.

In Paris, the biggest fashion brands present up to six collections a year: haute couture and/or ready-to-wear and/or menswear, spring-summer and autumn-winter. There are therefore several “Weeks” in the year, mainly two reserved for Haute Couture (January and July), two for Men’s fashion (January and June) and two others for ready-to-wear (March and September).

June 21

Lukhanyo Mdingi
The Lukhanyo Mdingi’s collection, titled “Burkina” showcase the expansion of human ingenuity and craft. The Lukhanyo Mdingi Collection showing is how the arts, crafts, and techniques of African artisans can play a central role in elevating today’s upper-level contemporary designer fashion. The Burkina Collection, in honor of the CABES Textile Community in Burkina Faso he’s been working with during the pandemic and was running a documentary about the community of weavers and dyers who produce a large part of the collection. Under the aegis of the Ethical Fashion Initiative and CABES, explored how the sensibilities of these practices can communicate a hybrid with contemporary design.

Burkina clothes are refined, light, soft, and subtly styled, with irresistibly attractive layered variations of trouser suits, fine-gauge and hand-knits, dresses, pleated skirts, and sportswear—all of it singing together in a perfectly-pitched visual chorus of lavender, turquoise, ochre, yellow, brown, and grass green. Partnership with South African distinct signature silhouette and use of fabric manipulation through gathering, hope to note the importance of social impact to be woven within both worlds of each label. Worked with South African jewellery label, PICHULIK. The neat collection is an odyssey of totemic items that had been created, expanding on PICHULIK’s signature roping & sculptural brass finishes together with LM’s continuous exploration of unconventional and artisanal sensibilities through cast glass elements.

Bluemarble
Bluemarble’s collection was inspired by California desert and the dream of encountering Hendrix. The collection discovers American pop culture through French filter. This is a new Paris attitude, where ease and eccentricity coexist, and fantasy finds its way into real life. An exploration of inspirations, techniques, prints, colour, and above all, individuality. The idea is to arrive at a vivid, visual language from diverse influences and perspectives, and a headspace that is at once free-spirited and grounded. That’s why this season riffs on different wardrobes: workwear, sportswear, and tailoring.

The pieces have a psychedelic feel – the BLUEMARBLE nod to the legendary Monterey music festival from ’67 and imagining that counterculture experience for young people today. But what also comes through is Parisian know-how, as the collection involves more crafted details than ever. Several pieces speak to the continuous development of BLUEMARBLE designs: cargo pants with darted fronts, tops with extended boatneck fronts, shirts with drawstring waists and reversible varsity jackets that recur from one season to the next. Embellished bootcut and baggy jeans have now become a brand signature.

Georges Wendell
Georges Wendell collection was inspired from the world of the Parisian night, this time staging a presentation in the maze-like salons of legendary Left Bank restaurant Lapérouse, known for its intimate alcoves and libertine history. Against the opulent backdrop, the collection knock down the brand’s quirky design stance somewhat, focusing on twisting tailored looks that might have been in granddad’s wardrobe for mensware, and pairing them with sweet yet sexy outfits for womensware. Tailoring remains a primary design focus for menswear, but pieces are met with twisted design details. Relaxed suits came to life in slate blue and dandelion yellow shades with both pinstripes and solid fabrics. Adding to these pieces is the mixture of supima cotton alongside wool fabrics. Altered constructions come into play through button-down shirts with razor-like hems and string-closure silk shirts. Elsewhere in the collection is casual denim, a paneled hoodie with matching gray pants and cut-off ties.

That motif was reprised on chunky jersey joggers, while zigzag hems added an unorthodox twist to denim pieces and striped cotton shirts, the latter worn with a matching squared-bottom tie with an embroidered GW logo. A suit “for a cool guy to wear to a wedding,” done in lightweight wool had a slouchy silhouette. Its original features included pockets that hung on the outside of the pant-front, while the jacket had a faux vest underneath. Elsewhere, a focus on “Friday wear” resulted in Kaczmarek’s first chinos for the label, with a distinctive wavy side seam. A bolero jacket and matching pleated miniskirt in pale pink wool or a negligé in a pretty Liberty floral with subtle logo details, trimmed with Calais lace. Chunky footwear, proving to be a bestselling category for the label, with a two-tone vintage vibe was key to completing the look, and there was also a peppering of skimpy swimwear pieces added for the first time.

Egonlab.
Egonlab.’s collection, titled “WONDERLAND — THE EGONLAB PLAYGROUND.”, presented a campy, kitsch array that took us into its own playground of fun. The seasonal, genderless collection shows bridges generations through romance of EGONlab., and draws on the masculine and feminine elements of the early-20th Century Viennese expressionist painter Egon Schiele. A collection that blurs the gender spectrum, serving a medley of elements that come together for a story about layering, textures, playful fashion and self-expression.

Throw in the belted yet open trench coat, thigh-high patent leather boots and slouchy blazers. Shimmering floral intarsia knit vests tucked into distressed high-rise baggy denim showed how EGONlab. can serve the hard and soft edges of fashion together, and this set the tone for much of the label’s SS23 collection. Shorts, finished high and tight on the thigh, EGONlab. paired the shorts with a double-breasted leather blazer and white tank tops, with the short’s heavily-present metal zipper on the front causing a juxtaposition between the romance and rebellion the brand’s known for.

TAAKK
TAAKK’s collection reshapes the possibilities of menswear design with a multidisciplinary approach. The collection started of as Morikawa’s desire to make something beautiful and strong. Reflections on the water’s edge, a flower by the studio window. We present the beauties in our immediate worlds. This collection is centered around the textures of compound fabrics and the elegance of our immediate surroundings expressed through graphics. TAAKK’s staple denims utilize jacquard design threads and create custom designs with whiskers and denim fades that are elevated with additional processes. TAAKK fuse together heaviness with airiness in a tailored jacket that transitions from linen to a thin cotton loan. Likewise for our trench coat, Earth and Air fuse together in this firm fashion statement. By utilizing polyethylene as our weft thread Raw in an unheated form. TAAKK developed a new series of Memory Fabric With a new line of designs to accompany.

Études
Études transported his audience and models to an abandoned train track in the middle of a working-class area of Paris, presented a series of garments inspired by industrialization. Called Péripherie, the collection took ideas about the city’s past and future as a springboard for revisiting workwear archetypes, now elevated with deft tailoring, and injecting urban staples like sweatshirts and hoodies with “a certain elegance”: a sleeveless military jacket paired with a classic tailored pant, a jumpsuit in Italian wool with cargo pockets on the side, or easy suiting in plaster white, khaki, or redwood-colored cotton canvas. The retro-leaning diamond-shaped Études label was a clever touch. Études revisit favorite codes through a wider lens, over-dyeing worn-looking denim with pale yellow to make it “bleached and dusty looking.” Muddy marbling appeared on a faux-classic brown canvas trench, a winner among several strong outerwear statements.

June 22

Bianca Saunders
Bianca Saunders explores inner worlds and outer appearances, with a collection that reframes traditional silhouettes with elevated technical signatures. As a woman-led menswear brand, Saunders is known to explore the intersection between masculinity and femininity. Saunders drew from that duality of external appearance and internal reality to design the new collection, while reworking design elements we’ve seen before to continue building the brand’s DNA. The collection centered around tailored outerwear, often with visually stunning, textured, almost illusionary patterns. Through monochromatic looks, Saunders sought to communicate a relaxed counterpart to the boxyshape of the clothing. In a further nod to Jamaican cuisine, various hand-assembled collages of recipes for hard food were printed onto pieces. Saunders’s hallmark draped shoulder could be seen in the Lexxus jacket and the convex hemmed bomber.

The collection continues to focus on tailored outerwear, seeing familiar pieces including the Lexxus jacket and convex hemmed bomber. Both feature Saunder’s trademark draped shoulders, which returned in coin green tromp l’oeil corduroy. Subtle details were scattered throughout the collection including the elongated coat in bonded gabardine and back cut features from silky jacquards. The casual-chic ideal informed the collection with its reversible long-sleeved twinsets and knit pullovers with attached necklines. Pieces throughout the collection saw a hand-feel notion that gives the feeling that the clothes were molded to fit the body of the person wearing it. The trousers were a noteworthy design for this season’s collection, featuring a stiff bonded wool front, walking a fine line between being decorative and functional. Oversized and relaxed fits continue to inform this collection with comfort-focused turtlenecks and wide-leg trousers cut from satins to elevate everyday wear to red-carpet status.

Isabel Marant
Isabel Marant’s collection borrowing from menswear from women’s collections, characterized by being playful and elegant as well as fun and colorful, with techno, grunge culture and psychedelia are among the inspirations for this collection composed of a color palette of blues, lilac, violet, green, pink, orange, brown… all contributing to the laid-back, carefree attitude that pairs so well with summer. From a sequin-inspired print and a postcard-like sweatshirt to a terry cloth bomber jacket, this wardrobe is built upon pieces assembled as summer and concerts memories. Marant gave basics like cargo shorts and jeans a twist with a faded blend of ikat and camo patterns, and offered up fuzzy pink knits, embroidered sweatshirts, and quilted jackets. The silhouettes of this release are big, voluminous, both in jackets and knitted sweaters and pants, giving way to an almost homey collection with touches of workwear.

Solid Homme
Solid Homme’s collection informed by the Bauhaus, brand harmonises colour, movement and illusion which produces the impression of intangibility. True to its ethos, the brand delivers an elegant, ultramodern collection that rings both old and new, reworking the classics for the contemporary man. Mixed cotton nylon fabric, with a lightweight airy feel, makes its appearance in cropped jackets, pants, and maxi-windbreakers with integrated hoods. In favour of a soened, sun-bleached look, denim is treated with washed or pigmented dyeing processes. Digital printing, used to replicate a relaxing cloud motif.

Dened by the oversized top t and thigh-high short, Solid Homme silhouette nds adjustable tailoring in the form of buckles, snaps, or elastic at the back of the waist. Extended length also trends the collection— jackets, polo shirts, and knitwear reach ankle-length, while leather accessories even trail the oor. Belts over hoodies rework the cinched-waist silhouette, with additional straps as armbands providing further shaping. Solid Homme key colours of Digital Lavender, Blue Iris, Malibu Blue, and Neon Yellow brighten bucket hats down to footwear.

Lemaire
The Lemaire Spring/Summer 2023 show is a fully immersive experience, models walked through the space, mingling with guests, one absorbed in her book as she walked, another paused to look out the window while another male model leaned against a wall to daydream. Guests were able to get a look into the Lemaire world as they walk through a room setting that lets them interact and be up close and personal with the pieces. Presented as a tableau vivant in the grand hall of the Musée des Arts et Métiers, with a live performance by experimental musician and singer and American ambient playing background music on several instruments, the refreshing presentation allowed guests to drift from tableau to tableau, contemplating models engaged in everyday life.

This summer collection is a lighter wardrobe, that features airy shirts and dresses, leaving ample room for movement. The pieces give way to a flowing movement that gives off a lighter silhouette and sophistication reminiscent of nonchalant elegance. The aesthetic of Lemaire, by Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran, has always been rooted in the reality of everyday life, amplifying comfort and practicality without ever worrying about unnecessary frills. The collection focuses on creamy hues with a shade of terracotta, combined with oxblood red and touches of ginger, baby blue and fresh pink to create a dynamic daytime color palette. Accessories add to the look, becoming an extension of the Lemaire uniform. Long necklaces with pendants are inspired by bead curtains to add movement to the effortless silhouette.

Hed Mayner
Hed Mayner’s collection revisits scaled-up proportions, exploring proportions and, notably, stripping away notions of gender and status, but not appear as overwrought statements of seasonal quirk. Mayner upscaling of a garment as a way of destigmatizing it from class, gender and formality. For this season, new textures and displacements have been added to the oversize cut. The proportion of an archetypal men’s suit jacket has been magnified, reviewed over and over so that it sits on the body like a found object. It is something very direct and clear when seen from the front but there is a decadence behind. The opening of a shirt is at the back. A double-breasted blazer is treated like an apron. Decadence was show in a silhouette that has a strong contact between front and back, and just being this two-dimensional look with a contrast.

Givenchy
Givenchy’s collection was inspired by the people closest to Williams, including the artists, designers and musicians who inspire him, acting as a both the modern day menswear world and Givenchy’s artisanal heritage. Williams blends the old with the new, upholding concepts from modern-day menswear and the fashion house’s artisanal legacy. Featuring relaxed tailoring throughout, the collection featured simple cargos, relaxed blazers, and motorcyclists-inspired outerwear. While this runway had a solid neutral and monochromatic color palette, there were occasional pops of color and bold prints of mint green and camouflage.

The idea of wear-and-tear is championed. Some of the camouflage items are constructed from a white camo covered with ripstop nylon. As they are worn, the white camouflage beneath becomes visible. Elsewhere, overdyed shell jackets and military parkas reference their original fluorescent colors through their linings. Accessories were a standout star of this collection. Models were adorned in Givenchy’s specialty G-Cut eyewear, chain link necklaces and bracelets, and ski masks. The brand also debuted its latest sneaker, the TK-MX runner. The trainer has a mesh and synthetic leather with curved soles. The French fashion house also revealed unique textiles on the runway. Givenchy crafted its tactical vests and cargo pants from a digitally printed waterproof fabric. Fitting for the moat-style runway.

Walter Van Beirendonck
Walter Van Beirendonck’s collection showed progressive designs influenced by the past and future, which antics played out in a dramatic reenactment of two acts. Act I saw 12 looks shielded in black cloaks that were magically lifted into the abyss to reveal the designer’s stronger work this season. A white mac coat was accentuated with ruffles and popper pockets, billowing at the hem for a floaty aesthetic that went onto inspire much of the collection. Following up with a black patent leather mac, pleated ruffles and boxy extended shoulder padding and chamfered lines cut the jacket into three dimensions, adding volume to the outerwear. 16th Century ruffled collars clashed with slogan tank tops and curtain rail looped skirts, while another shrouded look oozed gladiator realness with its metallic gold leather accessories and white ruffled tank top complete with box pleating.

But as the show went on into Act II, Walter Van Beirendonck’s nods to sportswear and kinks unraveled — specifically with Look 16, a long john unitard one-piece ensemble that saw the model wear another Shakespearean ruffled collar alongside a Silence of the Lamb‘s Hannibal Lecter-esque jockstrap facemask. Cut-out leather jackets showed skin while complementing baggy trousers consumed the legs in its volume, and later on in the collection the designer’s usual playful touch of color infiltrated geometric designs that were geared toward sportswear. However, the theater of it all was continuously heightened thanks to a Power Rangers green face-mask-top number, the sparkling green glittered blazer, and shirts that sported capes. Walter Van Beirendonck ended on a contrastingly simple look: a T-shirt adorned with the word “Peace,” sitting alongside bow-tied technical shorts and metallic gold leather ankle boots.

Y/Project
Y/Project’s collection maintained the signature playful aesthetic throughout the runway presentation, which mostly featured denim. In true Y/Project fashion, classic silhouettes were distorted to create unexpected silhouettes while featuring graphics including an Eiffel Tower logo. The collection also featured the second part of Martens’ partnership with Jean Paul Gaultier, with new trompe l’œil designs appearing on stage. These motifs were applied to slip dresses as well as knit pieces and a long-sleeved tee with belted jeans printed onto the bottom of the garment to create an illusional effect. Garments were styled with oversized thigh-high boots while the white tank top trend continued with invisible shoulder straps. Other standouts include low-waist, maxi-length denim skirts of the ’00s making a return, along with middle finger earrings that are set to become next season’s buzzy accessory.

June 23

Rain
Rain’s collectionn, titled “Connect,” push beyond its usual rain and cold-weather specialties by considering the seasons in between. That idea of bridging the seasonal gap was delivered in its simplest expression: layers. Swimwear, a category introduced this season, was among them, piled under lightweight long-sleeved tops, cargo pants with elasticated waists, filmy hoodies or paired with lounge-y separates. Geometric quilting was used for hooded jackets that came with or without sleeves in various lengths and shorts that hit at the knee, already the trending length this season.

A technical approach to trans-seasonality was also taken in the fabric choices, which spanned from the PU-coated ones that the brand has used from its inception to performance textiles. Rains remains Scandinavian to its core, cutting close and high on the body on the tops, leaving bottoms to flow. Accessories also played beyond their functional remit. A cap’s nape protector was turned into a train that hit the ground. Hardware on bags was also blown up, giving the erstwhile functional side a decorative reading. It made for boxier shapes, playing into the futuristic impression telegraphed by the rectangular patterns of the clothes.

Issey Miyake
Issey Miyake’s collcetion looks at the contrast between the flower and the vase, the showcase is a debate about something that is really delicate and something that is robust, and how to compare and contrast. A show dedicated to demonstrating the remarkable freedom of movement that wearing these free-flowing fabrics affords. Models, performers and acrobats spun, leapt and flew through the air at Paris’ central post office. After 10 or so looks had been modeled relatively prosaically in that the wearers just walked, a dozen of these dancers emerged from behind a scaffold and proceeded to stand on each other’s shoulders and sling each other about like juggling clubs.

The original garment forms were artfully crafted, often with elements nodding to nature and malleable. The opening “vase” series included tops with curved edges. Jackets come with rounded silhouettes, inspired by plants wafting in air. Some looks have playful elements, such as pockets moveable with a snap. The “acclimation coat” is transformable with a drawstring, retractable hem and hood that can be unzipped. Colorblocking came in eye-watering, saturated hues, such as yellow, orange, raspberry and English violet, while a print made with dripped paint takes a cue from cotton plants. The garments remained completely serene, accordion-ing in whatever direction their wearer’s contortion demanded. Variations included pieces with curved hems that arced towards the chest, coats wearable waist-length or knee-length.

Rick Owens
Rick Owens‘s clooection titled “EDFU,” inspired by the movement of Egypt’s cultural aesthetic that remained for millennia, Owens further reflected on his place in fashion. Rick Owens built on his established extreme aesthetic codes, setting the stage with three flaming metal orbs that crashed into the fountain periodically through the show. Delving into the world of technical wear, Rick Owens developed inverted jackets, shirts and pants with ripstop nylon and Dyneema, known as one of the strongest textiles in the world. Rounding up the “EDFU” collection, Rick Owens’ developed full-body tulle looks, inspired by the mosquito nets from his recent vacation, and upwards-turning shoulder designs, drawn from the ceremonial garb of ancient Egypt.

Sean Suen
Sean Suen’s collection titled, ‘Apologies, still hungover, back tomorrow…‘ the collection brings together silohuettes inspired by the in between states of discomfort and hangovers: no need to stay sharp all the time, no need to make sense of everything. Minimalist and poetic elements compliment each other to form a sophisticated series of looks. Draping, simple knots, and sophisticated layering makes this season stand apart. Done with a certain ease and veering toward simple gestures rather than elaborate overture. The intention is to eliminate the sense of restraint of the garment on the body, using superior handmade knitting and lace, light silk and satins, cotton and linen, and expect the garment to wrap around the wearer’s body in the most gentle way.

Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton’s collection, titled “Strange Math,” honoring the legacy of Virgil Abloh. Free play is where he believed creativity happens. The concept of play—which tracks back to what Abloh once described as “the untainted vision of a child, not yet spoiled by societal programming.” LA-based studio PlayLab Inc has created a magnified playground with a winding, yellow toy racetrack at the Musée de Louvre, with winding pathways that looped 360 degrees in front of the walls of the museum. A giant children’s toy racetrack becomes a yellow-brick road for the imagination: an evolutionary path for the mind where childlike fantasies come to life. It’s a transition from naïve to refined reflected in a collection that elevates the symbols of childhood through the savoir-faire of the Maison.

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Amidst a humongous set built to mimic a magnified kid’s train set, and surrounded by huge inflatable balls, they tenderly utilized the childhood codes Abloh played with. Paper planes landed all over a black suit as a kind of 3-D embroidery. Folded ‘paper’ hats were reproduced in luxurious white leather. A coat was decorated with the contents of a toolbox, scissors and all. The zig-zaggy pinked hems of shirts and jackets winked towards kids’ craft kits. The LV flower symbol was hand-crocheted in multicolored wool all up the sleeves of a denim jacket. Soft grayish lilac suits opened the collection, followed by a black tuxedo with paper planes attached throughout. White leather bomber jackets and a coat with grand molded 18th-century French motifs, a rich array of flower and thistle embroideries and jacquards, and a finale of sparkling sequined French Impressionist fields of poppies and wild flowers.

Amiri
Amiri’s collection showed off some great American sportswear with a European sensibility. The Amiri artisans also strutted their stuff, layering crinkled chiffon multiple times to create a 3D effect on Pegasus’ wings, which fluttered ever so slightly as models moved down the vast runway. Suits were featherlight, and jackets so soft and deconstructed they could be tucked straight into the waistbands of trousers. Lightweight wool pinstripe suits had a subtle, streaky, sun-bleached effect, which the designer said the team worked on for months to get the markings just right. The artisans also pulled seven different varsity jackets from Amiri’s archive to piece together a new design, and perforated leather to the point where it resembled nylon mesh on a shirt.

Dries Van Noten
Dries Van Noten’s collection with the premise of unusual elegance, this season focuses on classic sartorialism infused with a sense of loucheness and sensuality. The collection touches on the Zazou subculture of Paris during World War II; the youth in their considered finery dancing their troubles away to swing jazz at the Pam Pam Cafe. The masculine tendencies of the cowboy feature in the Western-style shirting, boots and shoes. Suit shapes are rigorous. A new silhouette of blazer evolves; cropped, zipped and tight on the body. An exacting jacket with exacting square shoulders worn with flowing trousers in an excess of fabric.

June 24

Junya Watanabe
Junya Watanabe’s collection presenting an amalgamation of pop culture influences. In the down-to-earth, anti-fashiony masculinity of Watanabe’s label is a bloke-to-bloke fellowship of collecting objects with some sort of authentic provenance. A patchwork of Pop Americana, a long list of familiar licensed graphic “quotes” from the estates. With the subversive track Born Under Punches by Talking Heads playing in the background, Watanabe’s detail-focused tailoring with both new and old references which have pervaded across time — from Netflix, Coca-Cola, and Honda logos to unmistakable works from Basquiat and Andy Warhol.

Junya Watanabe apparel pieces, including tracksuits, blouson jackets, mohair cardigans, anorak jackets, patchwork denim, ankle-cut pants, and flannels — can for the most part be seen as elevated staples, serving as easily wearable statement pieces. Watanabe sets the scene with a look incorporating a Honda logo cap, fitted nylon blazer displaying a faded print of The Girl With Hair Ribbon by Roy Lichtenstein, and drop-crotch jeans featuring Keith Haring logo patches and embroidery. The logo-heavy caps,, holds the virtue of something real, something that has history, that has traditional shape. Accessories include a gloss-orange tote and an understated eye-branded crossbody bag. Rounding out the assemblage are collaborative New Balance Nobium sandals in black and RC30 sneakers found in various colorways inspired by the retro NB 320 silhouette.

Paul Smith
Paul Smith’s collection delivered even more tailoring, along with loads of soft, pastel colors and easy-to-layer shapes. The collection is about bright color, pattern, and tailoring. For the colors and patterns, he drew on his own memories of wandering around art galleries in the 1980s, the whole look is fresh, light, easy to wear. A mauve suit came with its tailored jacket tied at the waist, while a checked one was paired with shorts, rather than trousers. Another suit with a long jacket was made from pastel striped men’s shirting, and was full of the joys of spring. The artwork burst through with spray-paint smudges in pink and neon green on knits; trenches awash in dark flower prints, and suits with long, blurred stripes down the front recalling Gerhard Richter’s paintings from the era.

Smith replaced waistcoat with a v-necked tabard-vest-hybrid, basically the same shape as a chest rig but without the rigging. This subtly transformed the aspect of the ’80s touched foundational pieces that he placed around them, and was variously shown worn on its own under a jacket, under a jacket and above a collared shirt, or as a piece of light outerwear in itself. Other fine touches were kangaroo pocket rain parkas in treated shirting cotton, cut-out beef roll loafers, a tropical futurist print that was layered in both jacquard and print on knitwear, and some radiant spray paint effects on suiting, outerwear, and the polarized sunrise and sunset sweaters that opened and closed this show.

Maison Mihara Yasuhiro
Mihara Yasuhiro’s collection, entitled “Superficial You”, showcase subversive intent inside an extra untruth in the clothing was delivered by multiple pieces featuring trompe l’oeil effects. Given the suffocating times we were living in, the idea of trompe-l’oeil had felt like a good way to turn all those frowns upside down. Despite their apparent complexity, garments erred on the side of ease. It was all witty and impeccably executed.

The show started off by sending out pieces that were mashups of entire outfits, like a jacket with shirt tails and a T-shirt peeking under the hem; or a sweater knotted at the waist, or rather the sleeves tied at the waist in lieu of a belt. Others were the leftover parts, like boleros that were just the sleeves of a blouson connected behind the shoulder blades. Later, utilitarian basics were dressed up with prints, like a grandpa cardigan with a camera strapped across the front or a boy scout’s bandana and shirt onto a zipper. Even the distressing of leather jackets was put on, mimicking vintage clothing, a personal interest of the designer.

Dior Homme
Dior Homme’s collectioninspired by Christian Dior’s childhood home in Granville, an exploration of technical outdoor wear with backpacks, belt bags and more accompanying tailored garments dressed in pastel tones. The design combined designer’s English roots with Christian Dior’s childhood home in Granville, Normandy to stage the show. The venue was filled with colors with flowers blooming on one side and a vibrant blue ceiling and a picturesque cottage serving as the backdrop. Amidst a myriad of colorful flowers, a vibrant blue backdrop of sky and sea is a field of grass that models almost seem to gallop through. They emerge through a quaint cottage and enter a space where creativity and imagination can truly run free.

The design reimagined and revivified, combining their autobiographies with that of the legendary line of Dior. A pop sensibility and American male archetypes infuse classic House motifs writ larger than life. Thus cannage made into satin and leather quilting into skate sneakers or unravelling on crystal encrusted trousers. A slouching, easeful everyday sensibility belies the precision of tailoring and mastery of fabric in the atelier, in particular with the ocean-recovered polyestor tailored looks. As soft warm light reflects across the show space, the models appear in garments dominated by pastel colors, seamlessly blending into their natural surroundings. There is a nod to the functionality of outdoor clothing, from tech-reflective gilets to practical backpacks to belt bags, all designed with a clear emphasis on practicality.

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus
Comme des Garçons Homme Plus’s collection, entitle “Another kind of punk”, inspired by the tradition of medieval court jesters, a way of going against the forces of the mainstream. The collection provocation of difficult sensations and unanswered questions, debate a discomfiting commentary on the role of fashion itself, continuing with the performance of parading its wares even as the world burns. A narrow black runway showcasing out the hips with wondrous tailoring, tickling the eye with bold and colorful patterns, and giving everyone a bit of the heebie-jeebies with fright hair, creepy vintage masks and snippets of the “Psycho” soundtrack. A collection of characters who trod the boards in harlequin-printed and striped pantaloons and an array of Comme des Garçons signature frock coats. Hooped t-shirts and shorts, and the bustled volumes in the skirts of coats built on the gathering impression that there was something uneasy on parade; a hinting at a sinister message beneath the absurd jollity of the patterns and shapes.

Hoops applied to her menswear so extensively: inserted into the hems of handsome bell-shaped topcoats; distending checkered shirts and white T-shirts at the hipline, and making her oversize shorts resemble space shuttle booster nozzles. The designer also added volume at the bottom of tailored jackets and coats with layers of crinkly peplums that brought to mind meringue, or a duvet. Zippers running up the spine of some coats and jackets could contain or release this extra fabric, and this industrial touch blunted the sweetness of the flaring shapes. She capped off her exhilarating display with fancy evening versions of the looks in gleaming and sparkling fabrics, carving those hoop shorts in thick satin. You’d be hard-pressed to find a cooler alterna-tux.

Kidsuper
Kidsuper’s collection through a performance-art piece that merges fashion, art, and audience participation. Twenty-three of his oil paintings will show alongside twenty-three looks; each look directly inspired by its counterpart. The conjunction between the paintings and the fashion results in a dazzling, colorful, and surpassing collection, even by KidSuper’s standards. The bulk of the collection is menswear with some occasional womenswear dresses. “Sometimes the allover print calls for a dress – and there are only so many men’s suits I can do.” The accessory of the season is a bag with the look of a paint-by-number artist’s canvas.

June 25

Craig Green
Craig Green’s collection reflected metaphorically on the question of self-improvement, the gap between who you are and who you will be when you grow up. Craig Green impose a linear narrative or “journey” through a place where the landscape of masculinity is being questioned, deconstructed, re-mapped.They carry the fragmentary trappings of manual trades, bear witness to the trauma represented by military fatigues, observe the weirdness and perversity in the codes of business attire, catch distant, ancient memories of heraldry in their long climb towards that far off mountain. Additionally, classic menswear tropes are reinterpreted for the season. The combination of the suits with school crest-inspired patters later in the collection show how “the baggage and decorations of many decades are individually re-examined and modified along their climb, from the soft glow of adolescent reminiscences, to the stark moulds of adulthood.”

Craig Green’s idea us one ise protected by the things one gain as get older, this translated into a series of conceptual looks embracing accessories and adornments from everyday life, such as stirrups, water bottles, sheathed tools, World War II dust covers, ladders, parachutes or suitcases that wouldn’t open or cans you couldn’t drink out of. Harnesses and lanyards, very present in all the designer’s collections, joined in, referring to protection in a conceptual way. The collection were more preppy than usual, with gorgeous waxy cotton jackets, padded blazers, leather ties, pantsuits, paper-tarp coats as well as ensembles with school crest-inspired patterns. As the collection progressed, the colors got brighter and the silhouettes got bigger and bigger. The show ended with a very colorful and upbeat finale, with quilted and padded coats with heraldic patterns in a rainbow of apricot, mint and gray as if they were the armor acquired as an adult.

Sankuanz
Chinese brand Sankuanz’s collection inspired by the sacred peak of Kangrinboqê (Mount Kailash), the eternal spiritual destination, the loop of life and death in a fantasy world. The brand continues to explore life and death. The bright colors represent Tibetan arts and colours modern garments with a highland palette, instilling the looks with a strong spiritual power. Sankuanz riffed on the garb’s elegant long, loose, drape-filled silhouettes to craft garments that remain staunchly modern, grounded in today’s street culture and high fashion.

Comprising the collection is an array of ready-to-wear garments like relaxed pants, oversized button-down shirts with oriental cross-collars, structured jackets with graphic detailing in varying fabrications and more. The jewel of the collection rests in its incorporation of Tibetan robe design details. Wrap tops, mandarin collar blazers, suiting and dresses are expanded with visceral wrapped, folded and stacked detailing to create levels of contemporary volume. While refined, the eye-catching constructions convey power alongside cultural reverence. One highlight of these pieces includes a tangerine orange oversized blazer paired with a matching, layered floor-length skirt. Another highlight takes form in a metallic gray ensemble with a layered skirt over scrunched pants and a seamless body-con top. Elsewhere in the collection are more casual pieces like oversized hoodies and relaxed cotton sweatpants that still fuse subtle notes of layering.

Loewe
Loewe’s collection, entitle “A fusion of the organic and the fabricated,” showcase arguably our human consciousness is already fused with our digital devices. Plants sprouting from sodden garments were combined with screens decorated across models’ bodies. Loewe cultivated cats wort and chia onto the bodies of hoodies, sweatpants, jeans, shoes and outerwear in a purpose-built polytunnel greenhouse. The starkness of the show space was intended to play off the collection’s concepts of the natural and fabricated, creating an almost clinical and laboratory-style space. The show took place in a cavernous, white-painted venue described as a “mind-expanding environment.” Loewe built a giant sloping volume that became an angular runway. White-painted bleachers oriented Loewe’s guests at the bottom and directly in front of the sloped volume, which offered views of each model appearing from the back-lit horizon.

The collection sees vibrant renditions of classic staples, including the bomber, the hoodie, sweatshirt, polo, track pants, waxed jacket and the parka come together to deliver a summer-ready capsule. This season, Anderson bridges the nuances of nature with modern technology, piecing together grass on overcoats and shoes, as if they were growing directly from the piece. By fusing technology with nature, birds flying, fish swimming and humans kissing were seen on screens worn directly on top of the apparel. The pieces act as a commentary on the real and digitally reproduced feeling that is now seen due to VR and AR experiences. The juxtaposing collection feature tech relics like earphones, pen driver and a phone case sean on the leather coat.

Hermès
Hermès’s collection is all about holiday and lightness and having fun, pop colors and the natural world. Hermès offset its leisure-focused collection with brightly-colored trainers in pink, orange and blue colorways, blending a throwback aesthetic with a stroke of luxury. Hermès in colorful outerwear with its windbreakers, pullovers, and matching bucket hats, each of which crafted with a material that could’ve been mistaken for heavy-duty PVC and decorated in a rainbow of vibrant hues. Outerwear as well as shirting and lightweight cashmere pieces., came accompanied by a variety of lightweight jackets, lightness and having fun, pop colors and the natural world. Footwear also caught the eye as Hermès looked to be delivering updated takes on its Izmir Sandal with added strapping and saucier tones, as a new series of sneakers also arrived in droves of pleasing contrasting colors, like orange and brown, and blue and aqua.

Models wore sunshine yellow twin-sets, and marine-themed tops, including a short-sleeved cashmere sweater with a crayfish on the front, and a roomy white shirt with a big blue seahorse. Short, cotton jackets came with seaweed patterns and beachy-bright cotton canvas bags had a palm tree print and rope handles. Windbreakers, shiny lightweight parkas and bucket hats came in a rainbow of colors, including lilac, grapefruit and aqua. Hermès also set out to replicate the ripples of a swimming pool, with crinkly stripes on tailored jackets and the wobbly wave design on a roomy white turtleneck with a big beige sun on the front.

Kolor
Kolor’s collection discuss the fabric of the assumptions as to what clothes “should” look like, in a fascinating way. A collection both about collars and colors, the collection aimed for an approximate golden ratio of around 75% “simple” clothes to 25 “complicated.” Subtle details that broke the conventional harmony of clothing, from the inverted tongue trainers to the series of pieces that seemed to have skewed their wearers like a half-blended smoothie, with overlapping lapel, collar, hem, and pocket twisted around the central fulcrum of the human within, almost every garment seemed to have a trick up its sleeve. The hanging mesh hem on only the left leg of a sports-short, or the cutaway panel in a skirt that subverted the implication of length. Conventional checked tailoring was slyly radicalized by split armholes and competing flashes of color.

Casablanca
Casablanca’s collection debate the eternal hope of the spirit in harmony with creation. The collection witha lot of knitwear and crochet ready-to-wear, bags and hats. Polo shirts have Western-style detailing in 70s colourways, while tracksuits maintain a presence in boucle, velour and cashmere terry cloth. While tracksuits maintain a presence in boucle, velour and cashmere terry cloth. The new sustainable embroidery tehnique is appearing on outerwear and denim that is founded in Sweden which uses a single thread to create multi-colour designs. Coloreel means no wastewater and a minimised use of chemicals along with minimal thread waste, featuring 100 percent recycled polyester. All of the embroidery and beadwork is done by hand. Every bead and fringe is dyed to match the colours and gradient of this season. Silk is hand-crafted in Lake Como, silks continue to serve as a vehicle for storytelling, this season interpreting watercolour scenes by Oaxacan artisans, psychedelic night skies and dreamlike surrealist architecture.

June 26

Kenzo
Kenzo presents its Spring/Summer 2023 menswear collection, alongside the womenswear at Paris Fashion Week, merging naval and Japanese inspirations. The collection form a uniquely Japanese view of Paris, discovery and his memories as a teenager exploring the fashion landscape, the DC Brand Boom of 1980s’ Japan. Retro, slightly preppy aesthetic sent us straight back to the school bench. The wardrobe suggests it is suited for everyday life, founded on a long-lasting approach to fashion. Artistic Director, Nigo hones the codes and expands the Kenzo ready-to-wear philosophy, underpinned in silhouettes and motifs from the archives. The maritime aesthetic is deeply embedded in contemporary Japanese dress, the design was ingeniously integrated into the house’s revived tailoring such as jacket lapels.

The looks were decidedly youthful and contemporary, made from traditional fabrics. On the runway, there were beautiful proposals with a workwear influence inspired by the uniforms of American railroaders and army repairmen of the 30s and 40s; student pieces revisiting the codes of the Ivy League. Nautical details such as sailor collars, caps and sailor stripes, alluding to the Japanese vision of French fashion, huge triangular pennants emblazoned with the brand’s 1970s logo welcomed guests to the vast gymnasium of the beautiful Parisian high school Carnot. Sporty proposals as well as the famous elephant, translation of Ken Zō in Japanese, Kenzo Takada’s favorite animal, embroidered on aviator jackets or used as a motif for accessories. There were also floral motifs, such as the famous Boke flower and Aloha floral prints alluding to the first Hawaiian shirts constructed from cut-out kimonos. Almost every look was accessorized with headwear in multiple shapes and patterns: from classic bowler hats to berets, baseball caps and sailor hats.

Wooyoungmi
Wooyoungmi’s collection inspiration from their 2000s archival pieces. The collection is a re-evaluation and revaluation of the past through the eyes of the present. The silhouettes express brand’s early works, a boyish contrast between volumes, which inevitably evokes the dress codes of the late-1990s skateboarding community interpreted in workwear as well as tailoring. The collection with Y2K movement’s brutal color and minimalism, its mix of Britpop and hip-hop dressing and nascent appetite for noughties bling. boyish, voluminous silhouette is traded in for skin-tight, semi-mesh tops, paired with baggy, tailored trousers. The collection comes in a color scheme that stays true to the heritage men’s wardrobe of black, navy, brown and beige. Tailored suits and outerwear are also paired with knitwear echoed in royal blue, frog green, chocolate brown, shocking pink and digital lavender.

The translated into roomy cuts, oversized proportions and splashes of bright color. Pants, especially cargo or pleated pants, had wide legs and long hems, paired with loose double-breasted jackets or longer single-breasted lapel jackets; denim jeans and shorts – or rather cotton-blend fabric – had the same construction, ready to skateboard down the road. And, in contrast, all these loose-fitting pieces were sometimes paired with tight, sheer shirts or t-shirts, or shrunken knits and cardigans. A mixture of leather and denim inform the workwear pieces while sportswear is treated with traditional tailoring. Together, the pieces create a timeless dialogue that take audiences to an early 2000s styling. Jewellery continues to be a major highlight in the collection. Outfits are styled with chunky rings and ear cuffs, along with pendant necklaces and belly chains to round out the collection.

Doublet
Doublet’s collection mix the middle of summer and snow falling. Impossible clothes and improbable fashion. But they actually exist there. Our world these days is very unusual. Doublet believe that miracle will happen. With his materializations in this collection Ino wanted to blur the line between virtual reality and reality itself. The show opened with a spiky knit bodycon dress reminiscent of a dress form, then came a fleshy pink crochet dress with a variety of skin-toned swatches, a pink suit with gloves included and a finger belt buckle and waist chain with fingers as links. Later, Ino added a t-shirt with a trompe l’oeil torso meat tin can, a tinfoil colored moto jacket with burnt edges, and ripped jeans with a shiny pink lining. The key materials this season is a nylon and recycled poly mixed fabric with a trompe l’oeil cloth print. In the tailored jacket and trench, the body is built like a cocoon so that it can be worn as presented up to the head; it also has removable shoulder pads to switch up the silhouette to “something different than just oversized.”

Namacheko
Namacheko’s collections, entitled “Tabula Rasa,” rooted in both historical and cultural reverence, looks to women as keepers of history and image to fuel. The collection looking at loves ones, distant memories, rebirths the Belgian-based brand’s interconnected approach to making clothes. Imbued with elongated lines, diagonal tailoring, twisted draping and reconstructed fabrications, the collection presents an expanded view of sentimentality. Knitwear pieces come to life through printed polos, sweater vests with multicolored fringed applications and bodycon web-like designs, dipped in sunset orange, cobalt blue, sea moss green and more. While elongated tops with open fastenings, disconnected sleeves and voluminous overcoats add another layer of multifaceted appeal. Elsewhere in the collection are pants, shorts and skirts that appear in relaxed constructions. The balancing act in the label’s “Tabula Rasa” collection is its inclusion of both body-con and relaxed garments in the same look.

Kiko Kostadinov
Kiko Kostadinov’s collection was inspired by the Janissary uniforms from the the Ottoman rule of his native Bulgaria. The coeection explores the psychological challenge and subsequent breakthrough of the designer and artist in the face of trauma. Our collective experience of the masculine wardrobe is deeply entrenched in the tenets of war, power and industry, inescapable echoes of the field and the battlefield. Of work, victory, and pain. When historic and politicized garments are divorced from the practical application of their design, archetypes still resound with unspoken histories. Deconstructing the relationships between clothing and circumstance past, a willingness to shift the narrative emerges. Prejudice is displaced when volatile subject matters are confronted, appropriated and romanticized.

The collection shared a display of concise silhouettes, playful reversible styling and overall expertise in sourcing and assemblage from his eponymous label. Maintaining a fresh outlook, the collection sported an effortless approach to classic tailoring while developing a textile study that led into a palette of muted colors. The uniform sensibility was broken up by choice displays of reflective badging and thoughtful hardware placement. he found inspiration in Ottoman Janissary military garb and the work of traditional Bulgarian painter Zlatyu Boyadzhiev. Janissary draping and textures informed the single-breasted coats with their hems folded up and tucked into belts. Bulgarian shearlings and layered trousers were reimagined as alpaca and chenille. The Vietnamese artist Dahn Vo’s reappropriations of Vietnamese and American history, in particular We the People, in which Vo attempted to rebuild the Statue of Liberty from copper pieces, informed the hexagonal decals on the closing looks, each shape coming together…

Thom Browne
Thom Browne’s collection modernize traditional suiting with its expansive, feeling freer, and wilder, than ever before.. With models walking in spiked punk-inspired hair, this season fetishizes the classic upscale look, bringing an additional excitement to classic tailoring. Men wore mini shorts and cropped skirts that rested as low rise on their waists. Dropped crotches and sleevless silhouettes were a core component. It was an homage to Chanel but also to Browne’s creativity: The fabrics were developed in France specifically for the brand, and many came edged in sequins or festooned with tiny white tufts, like bits of Peter Cottontail’s nether regions. Thom Browne combine those fine fabrics with traditional tailoring and sports references, and then hang everything from jockstraps.Browne covered every surface with his springtime tweeds: loafers, briefcases, boxy handbags with red, white and blue chains and, of course, the jock straps, which formed the core of the collection.

Male models, some with spiky punk hairdos, strode down the catwalk in a lineup of sparkly tweed ensembles: suits with shiny gold buttons and low-slung skirts; crop tops and minis; oversize jackets, and long, slim coats, all in a rainbow of Easter egg pastels. Some of the pieces showcased intricate beading and embellishment, as in a long red and blue check coat with a winding gold rope and anchor embroidery and a black tuxedo suit with seams that were edged with tiny sparkles. Thom Browne is used to putting men in skirts. Skirts were slung so low that the stretchy straps, and cups, were fully visible, as were lower abs and butt cracks. Instead of the usual finale, two men dressed as a bride and groom, wearing coordinating short capes, marched down Browne’s aisle. They were followed by a cowboy dressed in chaps and a cropped jacket who wiggled around to Madonna tunes.

Celine
Celine’s collection pays tribute and marks the 20 year anniversary of Palais De Tokyo. The collection shows a fascination for the museum’s art deco monumental architecture. The collection, that brings rock star vibe, features artworks from David Weiss, Alyss Estay, and Renata Petersen. The sparse concrete halls of the show venue contrasted with the dramatic settings Slimane chose as a backdrop for his livestreamed presentations during the pandemic, with swooping drones and Renaissance castles. From sequin-embellished shirts to low-cut, skin-hugging pants and a shimmery crocodile blazer, Celine’s summer runway presentation was crammed with clothes imbued with an androgynous rock spirit, à la David Bowie. A long beige coat over a leather jacket paired with an ultra-slim tie and a white shirt added depth to slip-on shoes and raw edged jeans. Leopard and landscapes of coconut trees patterns appeared on short sleeve shirts while big necklace plastrons acted as clothes.

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Tags: France