Paris Men's Fashion Week , S/S 06

[kit]

Here's an interesting overview to read , while we're wating for the heavyweights' pics to arrive .




Paris men's fashion week beefed up with new faces, more shows


PARIS (AFP) - A few fresh faces will join the world's top menswear designers in Paris from Friday for five jam-packed days of spring-summer 2006 catwalk shows -- evidence that global interest in men's fashion remains strong.

The biggest names in the industry -- Hedi Slimane for Dior, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano, Naoki Takizawa for Issey Miyake and Paul Smith, among others -- will headline the marathon of nearly 50 shows.

All will offer their take on what men should be wearing next summer, from banker chic to bohemian cool, from high-end sportswear to outlandish new age looks.

Other heavyweights like Jean-Paul Gaultier and Karl Lagerfeld will unveil their latest creations at smaller showroom presentations as a way to save valuable time. Both will offer haute couture collections the following week.

One notable no-show will be rising star Belgian designer Raf Simons, who was recently hired as creative director for Jil Sander, responsible for both men's and women's lines.

In Florence, where the world's largest menswear trade show just wrapped up, the prestigious Pitti foundation in Florence organized an exhibition to celebrate Simons' 10 years in men's fashion.

Among the new talents this season, Anglo-Japanese husband-and-wife duo Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto -- known as Eley Kishimoto -- chose Paris for their menswear debut, after earning raves for women's ready-to-wear in London.

Emanuel Ungaro, which entered the world of men's fashion last season with France's Jose Levy at the helm, will hit the catwalk for the first time, while 32-year-old US designer Thomas Engelhart will make his debut at Thierry Mugler.

Belgium's Ann Demeulemeester reserved her first date on the Paris menswear calendar after years of displaying her creations for men during women's fashion week. Kenzo, designed by an in-house studio, will return to the men's catwalk.

Mass-market labels Dormeuil and De Fursac will continue their efforts to reposition themselves on the fashion scene, presenting collections designed by Pierre-Henri Mattout and Julia Smith, respectively.

Belgian designer Walter van Beirendonck, who was a member of the celebrated Antwerp Six along with Demeulemeester and perennial Paris favorite Dries van Noten, will return to Paris after a break of several years.

Van Beirendonck, instantly recognizable with his bald head and bushy beard, lets his imagination run wild -- not the best way to attract the banker-broker set. This season, his "Relics for the Future" may not win over new converts.

Paris fashion week will also offer two up-and-coming talents the chance to make good on the promise shown in their debuts last season: Belgium's Kris van Assche, Slimane's former assistant at Dior Homme, and Britain's Kim Jones.


I'm SO SO pleased to see the return of Jose Levy , now designing for UNGARO HOMME .

 

[enak]

Thanks for the article, been so busy lately and haven't had a chance to look at the new shows. I guess I'll view all of them in one go!

 

[kit]

More



Paris men's fashion: Galliano's carnival of colors, elegant Issey Miyake






[size=-2]Click to enlarge photo [/size]PARIS (AFP) - British designer John Galliano staged a colorful, foot-stomping New Orleans carnival of a men's catwalk show for next summer, while Naoki Takizawa opted for understated elegance at Issey Miyake.



Galliano is the ultimate showman. Only he could send a Dixieland jazz band playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" and a group of drum-banging pseudo Hare Krishnas down the same runway -- and electrify the Paris fashion crowd.

In a television studio in the French capital's northern suburbs, he recreated a rundown corner of New Orleans complete with fires burning in oil drums, a "Fulton Street" sign and twisted car fenders with "Galliano" plates.

The British designer, brimming with ideas, took a trip through the American south for spring-summer 2006, from the impeccable tuxedos worn by 1920s jazzmen to technicolor patchwork hobo suits to modern military-style khaki vests.




Never one to shy away from injecting his shows with a dash of shameless sex appeal, Galliano offered naughty lace-up leather trousers, skimpy bathing suits in his signature newsprint pattern and barely-there high-cut khaki briefs.

Galliano -- who will unveil his latest haute couture collection for Dior next week -- earned whoops and cheers as he took a bow in one of his suits of many colors, bringing the first day of men's fashion week to a wild finish.

Japan's Naoki Takizawa is not an in-your-face entertainer like Galliano, but he brought a different intensity to the Paris catwalk for Issey Miyake -- one grounded in the 1920s and 1930s elegance of lawn sports like tennis and golf.

Clean-cut, square-jawed models with slicked-back hair sporting striped jackets, v-neck sweaters and crisp trousers could easily have been heading for a day at Wimbledon. All-white ensembles would work well for a day of cricket.

Takizawa's fascination with the work of abstract painters Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still inspired subtle suits with hints of faded color.

At Rykiel Homme, next summer will be awash with vibrant hues like fuchsia, coral and lime -- style-conscious men can choose solids or clashing stripes. For a daring fashion statement, the turquoise safari jacket tops the list.

The house's signature fine-gauge striped sweaters topped trousers in cherry red or lemon yellow. Madras plaid jackets were worn over jeans cropped above the ankle. Espadrilles in lime or red seemed perfect for a day at the beach.

Earlier in the day, two of Belgium's top talents -- Martin Margiela and Veronique Branquinho -- unveiled their menswear collections in private showrooms, both opting for a laid-back yet ultra-chic look.

Margiela, who never appears in public, placed the emphasis for next summer on innovative fabrics, creating a "wet look" with treated cotton or tricking the eye with pre-faded print suits that already looked well-worn.

The Belgian designer used casual yet stylish denim throughout the collection, from nifty sandals and boots to jeans with painted red or blue leather trim. For a bit of biker chic, he offered leather overalls.

Branquinho conjured up a summer collection fit for the holidaymaking banker who finds it hard to relax, layering muted floral tee-shirts under fine pinstriped shirts with an open white collar and a classic, no-nonsense suit.

Men's fashion week continues on Saturday with collections from Belgium's Dries van Noten and Japan's Yohji Yamamoto.

Courtesy of Yahoo .

 

[Spacemiu]

I'm exietd for teh Eley kishimoto men'swear, and the return of Walter.

 

[kit]

Lacklustre Brits round off Paris menswear week

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Hadley Freeman, deputy fashion editor
Wednesday July 6, 2005
The Guardian

[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Menswear fashion week wound down yesterday in Paris with an enthusiastic, if not entirely successful, showing from the Brits. There were shows by Ozwald Boateng for Givenchy's menswear, and London-based label Eley Kishimoto held its first menswear show. How many more there will be from either is questionable.



Few are bigger believers in their talent than Boateng. Yesterday, on characteristic form, he took his bow while giving a big thumbs up. But his clothes for Givenchy have not lived up to the hype, being neither innovative nor elegant. Eley Kishimoto has made a strong name in cool, kitschy womenswear. Its menswear, which took car races as its theme, followed a similar vein. But these fun clothes, which will look great on the shelves, were dwarfed by the venue, an enormous Parisian garden.

Paul Smith, who has showed in Paris for years, was also an anticlimax. His collection included a ragtag mix of nicely tweaked classics and some decidedly odd Sloaney atrocities. Presumably James Hewitt will enjoy the wallpaper-patterned waistcoats - few others will.

But the Brits have bucked the generally high standard in Paris. Compared with last week's pretty dire menswear shows in Milan, the Parisian events this week have been very good. In Milan, there was a sense of deja vu - to the 80s, that is, when many of the big brands had their heyday. Versace resurrected the old fluorescent tropical prints, branching them across blouson shirts, paired with pastel suits.

At Calvin Klein there were pre-wrinkled silver and beige suits paired with orange T-shirts, as if the past two decades never happened. Who knows if this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the past or a desperate lack of ideas.

When Gucci designer John Ray showed white casual suits and espadrilles, the International Herald Tribune criticised it for being "un-Gucci", saying: "This is the moment when however good-looking the clothes, image is the engine of a brand." This seems to be the feeling among nervous designers in Milan.

Whether customers will agree that brand matters more than aesthetics remains to be seen. Perhaps everyone should take note of the one standout show, Burberry Prorsum, where British designer Christopher Bailey rejected the label's image and simply made elegant clothes, without a blouson in sight.

Possibly because Paris prides itself on seeing fashion more as an art than a financial market, designers based there seem less concerned about branding. But the shows have not been perfect: Comme des Garçons' suits splattered with the Rolling Stones' open mouth insignia was a particular low point.

Yves Saint Laurent's silhouette of fitted upper half and blouson trousers might have worked on Nicole and Natalie Appleton in the 1990s but on men today just looked odd.

Given that the one collection everyone was talking about was not for men but Balenciaga's mid-season womenswear collection, which was showed alongside its equally fine menswear, one has to worry about the state of menswear.

Trend watch: Crucial stripes

What to look out for in the shops for spring and summer 2006

· Harry Potter who? The only kid's character who will matter next summer for men is, yes, Andy Pandy.

· This means striped trousers and suits. If friends make fun, tell them the look is slimming. And if they still make fun, get new friends.

· At Eley Kishimoto and Paul Smith, there were red-and-white striped suits and trousers · For the bold, Balenciaga has black-and-white striped trousers, for that crucial jailbird look.


Sad but true , I think Hadley's overall summation is on the right side .
SOME bright spots , but both Milan and Paris seem somewhat ' off the beam ' , overall .

Perhaps it's the ' REALISM ' [/font]of the times making itself felt ..........

 

[faust]

Cathy Horyn is clearly unimpressed with the Paris menswear weak... neither was I. I think this was one of the weakest seasons presented in the last several years. I just wonder when her unexplainable fascination with Jacobs will end? She said that he referenced the 70's, YET AGAIN, but she's all uppity on him .


From the new york times



July 7, 2005
Can't You Hear Me Walking?

By CATHY HORYN
PARIS

MICK JAGGER popped into his seat just before the Dior men's show on Tuesday and popped out just before it ended. Real rock stars don't need to explain themselves. And since the Rolling Stones and other bands have been a theme of the French spring shows, he might have thought it wise to bolt before anyone grabbed his Dior sleeve and asked, "Hey, Mick, what do you think?"

Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons made the most pointed reference to rock, paying a royalty to use the Stones logo as a wallpaper pattern on suits, shirts and coat linings. But she was hardly alone in making music the message. John Galliano produced a virtual Mardi Gras of street players; Dries van Noten had a live orchestra; and Hedi Slimane, the Dior men's designer, offered an ostensibly cutting-edge sound, along with clothes that looked vaguely New Wave.

Music has served the interests of designers before but rarely with such scattered results. The trouble with Mr. Slimane's collection of skinny trousers, shirts rented open at the sides, shiny jackets and two-tone patent leather shoes is that you feel you need liner notes to decipher it. He wants his clothes to be thought of as relevant, but in reality he is drawing a tighter and tighter circle around his world, so that it's only intelligible to a limited group.

The obscure epigrams printed on the loose-bound sheets in his invitation make the point: "I am just a number" and "We ruled the world." You could find out what it all means, but should fashion require that much explanation? And how many people care in the end? Mr. Slimane has too many gifts to sing in the dark.

Ms. Kawakubo, by blatantly reproducing the Stones logo, was doing a riff on rock. And the style of her clothes is basic enough - slim knit pants, white cotton suits printed with the band's autographs - that you could do your own riff on Ms. Kawakubo. Mr. Jagger stopped by her showroom on Sunday with his girlfriend, the stylist L'Wren Scott, to see the clothes for the first time. Carla Sozzani, a Milan retailer who was in the showroom, said Ms. Kawakubo fretted over what to serve him. "She didn't know whether to offer him cake or something organic," Ms. Sozzani said.

Mr. van Noten's clothes, beautiful and fresh looking, were far more important to him than having an orchestra. "We had a lot of fun with this collection," he said, adding that Salvador Dalí on the beach in Spain had been the starting point. He translated the Dalí theme in classical prints (for flat-front shorts and trousers), beach sarongs in abstract flag prints and summery colors like peony pink and baby blue that looked great with the abundant browns and deep reds.

At Yves Saint Laurent, Stefano Pilati broke up the suit (a trend this season) by pairing, say, a double-breasted jacket in powder-blue linen with trousers in light-brown corduroy. The layers of pattern and texture recalled the 1930's; in fact Mr. Pilati's idea was to reproduce fabrics from the period but in lighter weights. Except for a private tailor, no one in Paris is doing clothes quite like Mr. Pilati's. They are elegant without being fussy, masculine without the boring connotations.

Marc Jacobs's show for Louis Vuitton seemed to spring full-blown from the 70's, complete with male purses and snug St.-Tropez shorts. Oh, but it was beguiling. You couldn't take your eyes off it or stop smiling at the overt Gucci-man gestures. The show had a strange punch, a John Delorean swagger when his type ruled the world. And there were some terrific suits, slim and dark, with white shirts and slick, shiny loafers.

You could say that Mr. Galliano's show was inconsistent, but life is inconsistent. Unexpected things keep cropping up. The show featured, as a backdrop, an oily garage and a leaky 1958 Chevy and an ashcan set on fire when the first model, in a sharp tuxedo, dropped his cigarette in it. There followed a New Orleans-style band, all trumpet and trombone, and more sharp looks, including black-and-white wingtips and a pork pie hat that looked as if someone had sat on it.

New Orleans and the Delta being liberated places, you could expect to see an invasion of boys, backed up by the song "Mr. Bojangles," in crazy-quilt coats and silky, P.J.-style pants. And you could even tolerate some hill folks in denim overalls, strumming ukuleles. But a group of Hare Krishnas? Soulful music and spiritualism seemed to be the great unifiers, and life itself. Mr. Galliano, now a bleached blond, always chooses his music well, winding up with "St. James Infirmary," and the clothes were hardly an afterthought: vests with silk-print backs, new styles of cargo pants and those terrific P.J.'s for lolling in your crib.

The appearance of some sketchy-looking trousers in a number of shows did lead you to think that designers had seen the pictures of Michael Jackson in his pajamas and had cried, "Eureka!" Soft, snuggly pants turned up in Yohji Yamamoto's collection, which paid a tiresome tribute to vintage baseball uniforms and only made you wonder: Why?

Ann Demeulemeester's droopy sweatpants in faded shades of red and royal blue at least went with the downbeat style of her clothes: shrunken jackets, pilled fabrics that looked like a Westphalian terrier after a shampoo and sockless boots and sneakers that had been splattered, Pollock-style, with paint. This was Ms. Demeulemeester's first men's show, and while a greater sense of purpose might have been demonstrated - we know about boys on the shaggy end of adolescence - she made some good points, like those abstract paint colors (brushed on T-shirts) and clumps of keys as ornament.

The reason that designers put on runway shows or presentations is not to have their egos stroked or to get free editorial for the bags and shoes that their companies really sell, although this increasingly appears to be the motive at Hermès, where its men's wear designer, Véronique Nichanian, offers the nearest thing to a sartorial "Groundhog Day," the Bill Murray movie in which he keeps waking up to the same dull routine.

A runway show, ideally, stops the train of events we call a season and helps a designer clarify his thoughts. Paul Smith knew exactly what he needed to do: cool summer suits and jackets that didn't look overly dressy and which came with Latin effects like laced, espadrille-inspired shoes and white Madeira shirts. Veronique Branquinho, in a collection loosely based on a young Bob Dylan - say, the cover of "Highway 61 Revisited" - had slim-fitting suits, T-shirts in a skinny black and green stripes and a great, beat-up-looking trench coat in black cotton. But the collection added up to so many pieces rather than a solid message.

Walter Van Beirendonck, the Belgian designer who shows in Paris now and then, put on a presentation he called "Relics From the Future," inspired by Cook's adventures, in which the models stood on pedestals like specimens at the British Museum. It's a well-trod route, but Mr. Van Beirdendonck had a big smile on his face, and so did his guests as they looked at frock coats embroidered with bugs and dinosaurs, modern britches and a wristband sparkling with a trompe l'oeil Rolex.

Junya Watanabe's striped jeans and boxy engineer jackets, some with royal-blue insets, didn't seem a stretch of the imagination. But, considering everything else at the French men's shows, you couldn't deny that these were real clothes, with just enough tweaking in the cut of his jeans and in the style of his sneakers and polo shirts, to interest a guy. As one stylist said, "At least I know what I'll be wearing next summer."

 

[Johnny]

Thanks Faust, I enjoyed reading that. I think I broadly agree with her, excpet for her saying that LV was beguiling. THat must have been the worst collection of clothes - bar none - that I have ever seen.

 

[faust]

Thanks Faust, I enjoyed reading that. I think I broadly agree with her, excpet for her saying that LV was beguiling. THat must have been the worst collection of clothes - bar none - that I have ever seen.

you are most welcome Johnny. I agree with you - hence my comment on Jacobs before the article.

 

[nqth]

Thanks Faust:-)

I had to check the dic. for the words "riff" and "fret" :-))

Oh the Walter Van Beirendonck collection is v. nice, crazy colours and sci-fi details in trousers:-P

 

[Roberto Chavez]

fashion week

in Paris excitment , all the time