from
http://iht.com/articles/2005/01/30/opinion/rmon.html
A new steppe: Melding skiwear with a dark elegance
Suzy Menkes
International Herald Tribune
Monday, January 31, 2005
PARIS Helmut Lang's name has dominated the French menswear season. But it is the designer's absence, now that he has left Prada Group and his own label, that has been the talking point. Not even the arrival of Kris Van Assche, a Belgian designer, showing in the white studio space that was Lang's fashion territory, could fill the void left by men's fashion's most powerful modernist.
The fall of giants such as Lang and Tom Ford at Yves Saint Laurent put the focus of the weekend's fall/winter 2005/06 shows on the smaller, individualistic companies, principally from Belgium and Japan.
Sure corporate fashion was on stage in all its luxe glory at Louis Vuitton, where swags of red theater curtains revealed Rudolf Nureyev characters in lush, plush velvets, fur and pony skin carrying richly worked carpet bags. But the quirky Marc Jacobs spirit was smothered with logos, traced on fur scarves, in knits, on plaques as belt buckles or key chains and even carved into the gilded balls embedded in the runway. Behind the sure-fire commercial hits, Jacobs told the menswear story lines: Russia, Central Europe and formal tailoring melded with sporty skiwear.
If it is true that Raf Simons is in discussion with Patrizio Bertelli of Prada (and sources in Italy say talks are far advanced), the Belgian designer, with his precise baggy-versus-skinny silhouettes would be a credible candidate for vacancies either at Lang or at Jil Sander. Simons has such a clean, pure aesthetic that even if his new show, celebrating 10 years in fashion, did not hit last season's perfect pitch, his geometric approach was powerful. He used a compass for ultra-baggy, side-pleated pants, round-toed shoes and a calligraphy "R" logo on pristine shirts; while a ruler traced tight ski pants, square-shouldered coats and graphic patterns on sweaters. Simons has a menswear vision and, whether or not he is scooped up by a corporate group, he deserves recognition.
Van Assche, at his first solo show, produced a subtle mix of sportswear and tailoring and did his best to get out of Hedi Slimane's shadow, after working with the designer at YSL and Dior. The models were grown men - even elderly - wearing jaunty hats above trim coats, worn casually over the shoulders, with three-piece suits, the pants tailored to a low crotch. White sneakers added a sporty touch that was emphasized by overalls and by leather jackets with padded ribs. The designer summed up the current mood by saying: "I wanted it to be very masculine - to make creative clothes that are not fancy or girlie."
Junya Watanabe's skiing theme caught the vibe of the moment: the narrow pant under a more substantial jacket, perhaps with a belt loop attached at the shoulders; and the way that sporty looks are made in regular suiting pinstriped fabrics to meld casual with formal. Why the mountains are suddenly an inspiration is one of those mysteries we call fashion, although Watanabe himself has used Alpine ideas before and his sweaters with snowflake patterns were powerful.
The Delphic pronouncements of Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garcons turned simple this season: "sports tailoring." And so it was, with suits in nylon or synthetic fabrics, with twin vertical zippers at the back to allow the torso breathing room; or suits with ski stripes inset and teamed with nylon bomber jackets. It seemed like ramming home a message already in the fashion air, but the show, held in the Left Bank's Bon Marché store, was exceptionally practical, down to its formal wear, where the watermark silk lapels on a tuxedo emphasized that smart is beating out casual.
Having shown his accessible Y's collection in Florence 10 days before, Yohji Yamamoto's own label was the upper-class version. But like planes when it is hard to distinguish between coach and business class, there were many similarities, such as the Japanese cummerbunds that were knitted at Y's but in the Paris show made as cropped vests to match a smocked tweed suit. They were simple in oatmeal or more dashing in violet. At the base was Yamamoto's familiar square-cut suit, perhaps with frayed seams, inserts of leather or with hardware decoration such as metal eyelets. The more dramatic pieces, such as hand-splattered paint or knee-length knitwear worn under a jacket with narrow pants, looked more like styling tricks.
In another neat expression of the new smart menswear, Dries Van Noten described his clothes as "slim, elegant, with a little dark side." His models walking the mosaic floor to the literary soundtrack of Paul Auster's words wore slim dark coats and jackets, with a puce orchid on the lapel, taking the Belgian designer's look from merry ethnic to a more poetic and interior vision. Although there were still patterned sweaters and student scarves, Van Noten, like all designers catching the vibe, had smartened up his clothes,
Walter Van Beirendonck was one of the original Antwerp Six, who built the reputation of his city's fashion. He continues to teach and to bring to his kiddy-pop aesthetic a reflection of society. So his felted blanket coats were inspired by the South African Lesotho tribes and had a resonance of tribal troubles; while bright sweaters with airplane patterns were not "Aviator" inspirations but planes and bombs, as a child might draw them; and eye prints caught a frisson of Big Brother.
Veronique Branquinho's men's clothes have an Old World quality, meaning not that they are retro, but that they are based on tailoring in fabrics such as camel wool and tweed. The designer playing with "off-colors," especially stagnant water greens mixed with petrol blue, as in a striped sweater that looked like a rain-washed sky above a dank pond.
John Galliano has a Napoleon complex, as seen in last week's Dior haute couture and in the men's show theatrics. The show started with coats - a great sweep of mohair plaid large enough to house the exiled French emperor on Saint Helena. By the time the models appeared wearing newspaper tricorn hats, including photographs of Galliano dressed as Napoleon, the show seemed too self-referential. Dior hobos, the men's pirate collection of last season and the familiar male sexpot underwear all flashed through. Yet so did stylish, slim tailored coats and horse racing inspirations that did not deserve to play second fiddle to Napoleonic histrionics.
The Russian theme in the European menswear season has found a genuine participant in Alexander Plokhov, who brought his award-winning Cloak collection from New York to Paris. Its motorcycle jacket with hussar frogging, brief trench coats and Siberian-weight knits all caught the sport/smart vibe. Or, as the designer put it: "It's not just jeans, T-shirts and sportswear we can do in America."
http://iht.com/articles/2005/01/30/opinion/rmon.html
A new steppe: Melding skiwear with a dark elegance
Suzy Menkes
International Herald Tribune
Monday, January 31, 2005
PARIS Helmut Lang's name has dominated the French menswear season. But it is the designer's absence, now that he has left Prada Group and his own label, that has been the talking point. Not even the arrival of Kris Van Assche, a Belgian designer, showing in the white studio space that was Lang's fashion territory, could fill the void left by men's fashion's most powerful modernist.
The fall of giants such as Lang and Tom Ford at Yves Saint Laurent put the focus of the weekend's fall/winter 2005/06 shows on the smaller, individualistic companies, principally from Belgium and Japan.
Sure corporate fashion was on stage in all its luxe glory at Louis Vuitton, where swags of red theater curtains revealed Rudolf Nureyev characters in lush, plush velvets, fur and pony skin carrying richly worked carpet bags. But the quirky Marc Jacobs spirit was smothered with logos, traced on fur scarves, in knits, on plaques as belt buckles or key chains and even carved into the gilded balls embedded in the runway. Behind the sure-fire commercial hits, Jacobs told the menswear story lines: Russia, Central Europe and formal tailoring melded with sporty skiwear.
If it is true that Raf Simons is in discussion with Patrizio Bertelli of Prada (and sources in Italy say talks are far advanced), the Belgian designer, with his precise baggy-versus-skinny silhouettes would be a credible candidate for vacancies either at Lang or at Jil Sander. Simons has such a clean, pure aesthetic that even if his new show, celebrating 10 years in fashion, did not hit last season's perfect pitch, his geometric approach was powerful. He used a compass for ultra-baggy, side-pleated pants, round-toed shoes and a calligraphy "R" logo on pristine shirts; while a ruler traced tight ski pants, square-shouldered coats and graphic patterns on sweaters. Simons has a menswear vision and, whether or not he is scooped up by a corporate group, he deserves recognition.
Van Assche, at his first solo show, produced a subtle mix of sportswear and tailoring and did his best to get out of Hedi Slimane's shadow, after working with the designer at YSL and Dior. The models were grown men - even elderly - wearing jaunty hats above trim coats, worn casually over the shoulders, with three-piece suits, the pants tailored to a low crotch. White sneakers added a sporty touch that was emphasized by overalls and by leather jackets with padded ribs. The designer summed up the current mood by saying: "I wanted it to be very masculine - to make creative clothes that are not fancy or girlie."
Junya Watanabe's skiing theme caught the vibe of the moment: the narrow pant under a more substantial jacket, perhaps with a belt loop attached at the shoulders; and the way that sporty looks are made in regular suiting pinstriped fabrics to meld casual with formal. Why the mountains are suddenly an inspiration is one of those mysteries we call fashion, although Watanabe himself has used Alpine ideas before and his sweaters with snowflake patterns were powerful.
The Delphic pronouncements of Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garcons turned simple this season: "sports tailoring." And so it was, with suits in nylon or synthetic fabrics, with twin vertical zippers at the back to allow the torso breathing room; or suits with ski stripes inset and teamed with nylon bomber jackets. It seemed like ramming home a message already in the fashion air, but the show, held in the Left Bank's Bon Marché store, was exceptionally practical, down to its formal wear, where the watermark silk lapels on a tuxedo emphasized that smart is beating out casual.
Having shown his accessible Y's collection in Florence 10 days before, Yohji Yamamoto's own label was the upper-class version. But like planes when it is hard to distinguish between coach and business class, there were many similarities, such as the Japanese cummerbunds that were knitted at Y's but in the Paris show made as cropped vests to match a smocked tweed suit. They were simple in oatmeal or more dashing in violet. At the base was Yamamoto's familiar square-cut suit, perhaps with frayed seams, inserts of leather or with hardware decoration such as metal eyelets. The more dramatic pieces, such as hand-splattered paint or knee-length knitwear worn under a jacket with narrow pants, looked more like styling tricks.
In another neat expression of the new smart menswear, Dries Van Noten described his clothes as "slim, elegant, with a little dark side." His models walking the mosaic floor to the literary soundtrack of Paul Auster's words wore slim dark coats and jackets, with a puce orchid on the lapel, taking the Belgian designer's look from merry ethnic to a more poetic and interior vision. Although there were still patterned sweaters and student scarves, Van Noten, like all designers catching the vibe, had smartened up his clothes,
Walter Van Beirendonck was one of the original Antwerp Six, who built the reputation of his city's fashion. He continues to teach and to bring to his kiddy-pop aesthetic a reflection of society. So his felted blanket coats were inspired by the South African Lesotho tribes and had a resonance of tribal troubles; while bright sweaters with airplane patterns were not "Aviator" inspirations but planes and bombs, as a child might draw them; and eye prints caught a frisson of Big Brother.
Veronique Branquinho's men's clothes have an Old World quality, meaning not that they are retro, but that they are based on tailoring in fabrics such as camel wool and tweed. The designer playing with "off-colors," especially stagnant water greens mixed with petrol blue, as in a striped sweater that looked like a rain-washed sky above a dank pond.
John Galliano has a Napoleon complex, as seen in last week's Dior haute couture and in the men's show theatrics. The show started with coats - a great sweep of mohair plaid large enough to house the exiled French emperor on Saint Helena. By the time the models appeared wearing newspaper tricorn hats, including photographs of Galliano dressed as Napoleon, the show seemed too self-referential. Dior hobos, the men's pirate collection of last season and the familiar male sexpot underwear all flashed through. Yet so did stylish, slim tailored coats and horse racing inspirations that did not deserve to play second fiddle to Napoleonic histrionics.
The Russian theme in the European menswear season has found a genuine participant in Alexander Plokhov, who brought his award-winning Cloak collection from New York to Paris. Its motorcycle jacket with hussar frogging, brief trench coats and Siberian-weight knits all caught the sport/smart vibe. Or, as the designer put it: "It's not just jeans, T-shirts and sportswear we can do in America."
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