Ahoy, matey! The wall-sized background photos of ocean waves hung at each end of the runway, plus chanties on the soundtrack, made it all pretty clear that Sir Paul Smith was sending his men to sea. The show had one star, navy (both the color and the organization), and it offered endless variations on the kind of clothes real guys actually want to buy and wear.
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If you need more color or fun in your life, Bernhard Willhelm is the guy for you. His collections are chock-a-block with outrageous cuts, colors, and patterns, and many pieces are made from simple (but high-quality) cotton fleece. In fact, regardless of a particular season’s stated theme, seeing one of his shows usually feels like going to a party in a high school gym in 1985.
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Brazilian designer Gustavo Lins originally studied to be an architect, but was sidetracked along the way by his love of fabric. Following that instinct, he moved to Paris; promoted his pattern-making skills to designer brands like Jean Paul Gaultier and Kenzo; and, and in 2003, launched his own label, the self-named GUSTAVOLINS. What’s interesting about his collections is how little they have to do with current fashion: like Zoran or Halston in their day, he cares more about honing an aesthetic than following trends.
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The Rick Owens show made mountains out of, not molehills, but menswear, combining slate-grey shearling (with snow-white taping), shadowy forms in black leather, massive sleeping bag coats as big as the Tetons and one or two flickers of pale blue suggestive of thin mountain air. Are you ready to make the ascent? No need to pack scarves: Rick designed them as part of the coats themselves. But rarefied fashion heights like these may require extra oxygen.
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Without a doubt, the Lanvin men’s show has become so influential, it’s now one of the most-anticipated défilés on the Paris schedule. Under the guidance of Lanvin’s creative director, Alber Elbaz, and his menswear designer, Lucas Ossendrijver, each collection seems to find new, inventive ways of offering traditional men’s garments and near-radical departures. It’s a perfect balance, and one that leaves every guy in the room with a shopping list a mile long.
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Bill Gaytten heads up the creative team chez John Galliano, and although he doesn’t have John’s outsized personality (or his singular personal style), he’s obviously a smart designer who knows how to build a men’s collection that can move from runway to reality. To that end, his Fall 2012 show was an ode to America in the 30s—an era preserved forever in classic motion pictures, as well as on the illustrated covers of the Saturday Evening Post.
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The JUUN.J show opened with a bang and a burst of smoke, from which emerged a défilé of young men looking like exaggerated, WWI-era soldiers and civilians redrawn as cartoon characters from the not-so-distant future.
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According to the show notes left on each seat, the models Damir Doma sent down the runway represented “restless souls” with what the designer called “techno-Bohemian spirits,” intent on “answering the call of the wild” (hence the raccoon and muskrat fur worn as vests or draped over shoulders). That said, when you peeled away the theatrical accoutrements, there were plenty of handsome clothes that almost any man–restless or not–could relate to.
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The Kris Van Assche show seemed inspired by men at work–or, perhaps more accurately, boys at work. This clever, playful collection took basic garments from a range of professions (a traditional farner’s sack coat, a fisherman’s wool sweater, an equestrian’s quilted nylon jacket, a banker’s flannel topcoat, a businessman’s tweed suit); dipped them in unifying shades of charcoal, black, navy and French blue; and paired almost everything with cropped pants of varying fullness that lent each ensemble a youthful charm.
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In the 80s, Jean Paul Gaultier ruled over a unique corner of the fashion landscape, populated by gender-benders, multiculturalists and club kids who hopped from tribe to tribe. Now that fashion’s gone global–literally–his time has come again. But today’s fashion consumers have almost limitless options (some of which reference Jean Paul’s own designs from the past). And that means a true original actually has to run twice as fast just to stay in one place.
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