Paris Men's Fashion Week SS14 Recap

Paris mens fashion week SS 14 recap

I was lucky enough to go to the shows again with the GQ.com.cn team.

In total I went to 23 shows including resee. Summer in Paris is totally different than winter and still very beautiful.

Well back to theme, the clothes. The second time to go to the shows, a lot of things became pretty clear. Mens wear is really not as versatile as women's, so mens wear is, from my point of view, more difficult for designers to innovate and get out of the system. So you get on one side the rough merge with women's detailing into mens wear, on the other side the manipulation of the fabrics. Other than that, Print and color are still the trend to follow.

For the unisexness, we didn't see anything very extreme as in London fashion week, abut we still see over knee tops, flowing cutting, see through, fishnet cutting in many pieces. Thom Browne obviously took that to an other extreme with the military details and the traditional royal details with the corset and cut in the back, lased up. I have to give him credit for an American to interpret in this point of view. But this is very theatrical for me and the buyers sitting behind me are all thinking the same. Plus the locations is insanely great for the show, under the sun I bet everyone was melting that day...

For the Colors, pastel will be THE color of SS 14. Dozen of the collections appeared in the pastel color, blue, green, yellow, pink. Best of example will be Hermès, Paul Smith, Loewe, Dior (it's a bit darker but I still think its gorgers). Tone on tone is still going to make you very chic. We see a lot of the collections present in tone on tone, Dior, Valentino, Damir Doma, Melinda Gloss (want to especially mention this emerging french fashion house built by two best friends, the execution and the completions are all very high for a commercial collection.)

And of course Paris, just as New York, black and white are always very welcomed. Rick Owens, Julius, Yohji Yamamoto, Saint Laurent all used the classic colors. Paris are also quite welcoming the darker concepts: gothic, rock and roll are still to found in the SS14 collection.

I think you sort of find your own style between the age of 25 to 30, you find what it's working for you and what's not. Some of the brands help you to sharp your personal style. For bigger brands of course it's important to become the mass, the cup of tee of everyone. For me this season Paul Smith, Valentino, Hermès, Dries van Noten are those brands who helps to shape your personal style.

Some of the brands will have edge for your artistic vision, the not-unifying with classic men's wear makes the flavor. Emerging Asian brands like Juun. J or David Julien (yes he started his company in Japan) are examples of those.

And some of the brands have such a strong personal signage to it, you almost instantly recognize: Henrik Vibskov, Jean Paul Gaultier(by the way I love his SS14, so Gaultier yet still maintained the elegance and sense of style), Kris van Assche, Yohji Yamayoto. These collections are so carefully wrapped in the designers' aesthetic buble, so beautiful and so identifiable.

All in all, I think it's a great season for men's wear. You will have to make effort to find nice pieces for you.

Go for color, trust the prints. Architectural lines are important, non-ordinary portpotion will be very in.

XO,
Allen