4 things we’ve learned from Paris Men’s Fashion Week

As the last of the Paris menswear collections go down runways Sunday, we
survey the big themes of the week’s fashion shows.

The grand
finale of @Kris_Van_Assche’s #DiorHomme Summer 2017 show. See all the
looks from the collection now on DIOR.com. #PFW

A photo posted by Dior Official (@dior) on Jun 25, 2016 at 10:03am
PDT

Fashion (still) loves England

They may have plunged themselves and the world’s financial markets into
crisis with Thursday’s Brexit vote, but everybody still loves the English —
or their style at least.

From Dior’s black-clad boot boys to Louis Vuitton’s rakish colonial
artistos, British influences where ever present, liberally dolloped with
pure
London punk.

String vests and braces have never looked so elegant as they did on the
Dior runway, with designer Kris Van Assche cutting the skinhead aggression
with the melancholic gothic whimsy of The Cure.

From
today’s #LouisVuitton #LVMenSS17 Show by Men’s Artistic Director
@mrkimjones. Watch the show now on louisvuitton.com

A video posted by Louis Vuitton Official
(@louisvuitton) on Jun
23, 2016 at 1:16pm PDT

Deconstructed cricket jumpers graced the Japanese label Facetasm’s show and
Walter Van Beirendonck embraced almost every sartorial icon of an eternal
England from boating blazers to brogues and even Morris men folk
dancers.

Fellow Flemish master Dries Van Noten paid homage to the 19th-century
English arts and crafts movement in his show, referencing patterns from
William Morris’ home in Kelmscott Manor.

At a time of such anglophilia, the Brexit vote came as a shock.
Chanel’s guru Karl Lagerfeld blamed country yokels for voting Leave, while
Agnes b. got up a last-minute celebrity petition begging Britons to stay in
Europe. “We are very sad,” the French designer said Sunday. “Hopefully there
will be another vote.”

Menswear
spring summer 17 @ojoz #driesvannoten #dvn #pfw #royaldeluxe #lights #show

A photo posted by Dries Van Noten (@driesvannoten) on Jun 26, 2016 at 6:14am PDT

Oddly the happiest man in Paris was the English designer Paul Smith, a
fervent pro-European. But you couldn’t but be cheerful seeing his joyful reggae-toned new
spring-summer collection. “Life goes on,” he told AFP. You have to be
“positive and happy in this weird world”.

Squares and stripes and all things nice #PaulSmithSS17 #takenbyPaul

A photo posted by Paul Smith (@paul_smith) on Jun 26, 2016 at 7:18am PDT

And Scotland too…

The longer fashion week went on the more it resembled a gathering of the
clans, reaching an apex when Smith unveiled the latest style to have come out
of the British cultural melting pot — “rasta tartan”.
British for now, that is.

“It’s Scotland gone mad,” he told AFP as his models broke out in big smiles
wearing the rainbow-Rastafarian plaid in beautifully tailored beachy,
Caribbean casual wear and zoot suits.

SPRING / SUMMER 2017 PARIS COLLECTION mens ” and the elephant ” Document photographer WATARU #facetasm#SS17#PFW

A photo posted by facetasm official (@facetasmtokyo) on Jun 24, 2016 at 7:51am PDT

Louis Vuitton, Dior, Off-White and Japanese labels Kolor and Facetasm also
made eye-catching use of plaid while the hipsters of OAMC gave it a grungy
Irvin Welsh urban edge.

Suits you sir!

Style critics often complain that men’s fashion is boring. Always the same.
Jackets, jumpers and cardigans, and most dull of all, the suit.
No longer. Designers took massive liberties with the suit this week, none
more so than the Vetements tyro Demna Gvasalia, who also now holds the
scissors at Balenciaga.

Balenciaga Men Spring Summer 17: Explore the collection on Balenciaga.com. #balenciaga #look6

A photo posted by Balenciaga (@balenciaga) on Jun 23, 2016 at 8:15am PDT

The young Georgian dramatically remade the classic suit, pulling it tighter
to the body while throwing out huge padded shoulders.
While many other have copied his oversized trope, none have yet done it so
well.

Elsewhere, arms were ripped off suits and raincoats, lapels inverted, and
pockets and tailoring all revealed. But all felt like deconstruction compared
to Gvasalia’s radical flair.

Socks with everything

Worn high, low and — whisper it — even with sandals, socks are slowly
being rehabilitated from style Siberia.
While footballers at Euro 2016 in France are wearing theirs above the knee,
Facetasm, White Mountaineering and the American label Off-White dared to put
sports socks on the catwalk.

A photo posted by KENZO (@kenzo) on Jun 26, 2016 at 6:46am PDT

Kenzo came furthest out of the closet repeatedly teaming socks with sandals
— and matching black socks and white sandals for further shock value. Some
hosiery went nearly to the knees and French label Pigalle thoroughly trashed
the taboo by adding bath sandals.

In one final act of pure provocation Paul Smith sent out the invitations to
his show on pairs of socks. He followed this by smuggling stripey socks and
sandals onto the catwalk. “Weren’t they great?” he told AFP.

Sock o’clock! Last minute preparations underway before my men’s show in Paris tomorrow. Follow @paulsmithdesign for all the latest on #PaulSmithSS17 #takenbyPaul

A photo posted by Paul Smith (@paul_smith) on Jun 25, 2016 at 1:14pm PDT

(AFP)