Paris — Men’s Fashion Week in Paris was in full swing on Wednesday, with runway shows on the second day touting a dynamic season and presentations highlighting brands such as Dior, Vuitton, Issey Miyake and Givenchy, which have recovered from the pandemic.
Fall 2023-Winter 2024 show highlights include:
Blue Marble Searches for Identity
Bluemarble counts celebrities such as actor Timothée Chalamet and singer Justin Bieber as die-hard fans. Some of the funniest fashion editors in the front row asked if designer Anthony Alvarez was making a statement in fall fare about how religious the French brand has become.
His eye-popping display inside the Cathedral of America was the quintessential melting pot of streetwear, tailoring, cross-cultural and country-hopping references.
Born in New York, with Filipino, Spanish, French and Italian roots, Alvarez uses his myriad identities as a touchstone of style. The brand name itself is global, borrowing from the iconic photograph of Earth taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972.
Faded blue jeans and bright yellow loafers paid tribute to that decade on Wednesday. A cuddly gray marling knit embroidered with the brand name and a myriad of shaggy, multi-colored retro tuxedos. paved the way for looks.
But there were also clever moments, like the mask motif that appeared on the stocky sweater, suggesting questions about the nature of true identity.
Bianca Sanders cool restraint
A minty freshness permeates Bianca Sanders’ third show in Paris.
It grew out of a minimalist, often oversized aesthetic that could effortlessly navigate between cultures and subtly convey its British and Jamaican backgrounds.
Flashes of color, such as a bright neon blue t-shirt, met the otherwise stripped-down collection and were cool for their restraint.
The first look incorporates a tailored suit, embracing minimalism with clean, sanitized lines. The Maison says Sanders is “tackling the tension between tradition and modernity”.
Other moments were fun and thoughtful, like the huge boulder-grey coat worn by the model whose bangs fell down to the eyeliner.
One of the few women designers in menswear, Andam Award-winning Sanders is a welcome addition to the Paris calendar.
saint laurent channels black
The Maison, which redefined women’s fashion in the 1960s with the menswear tuxedo, went in the opposite direction this season.
Designer Anthony Vaccarello brought the long, dark, elongated silhouettes of Saint Laurent’s women’s wardrobe to a fluid, aesthetically accurate fall display of gender.
But the black-based 46-piece collection sometimes belittled new ideas.
A floor-swept “Matrix”-style leather coat with Vaccarello’s signature exaggerated statement shoulders found its place alongside slick back hair and sunglasses, but with a vibrancy reminiscent of the New Romantics era. I also found a bow-tied tuxedo coat and neckline filled with flowers.
The glossy black leather bow contrasting with the matte black wool coat was typical of the Belgian designer’s style, but was still one of the highlights of the show.
The front row was notable and included French actress Beatrice Dal, wearing an oversized tuxedo coat and peeking out from beneath a black hue.
Jenna Ortega, star of Netflix’s hit show Wednesday, was photographed arriving in a black column gown with a hood.
