PARIS — A spattering of Paris Fashion Week menswear shows began in earnest this week for the fall-winter season, as French government restrictions have seen many relegated to an online-only presence.
Those brands which chose to maintain physical shows — like AMI on Wednesday — may not end up regretting it, benefiting as they seem to be from a relative boost in coverage. As ever, the start of collections principally showcase emerging talents, before the week leads to industry big hitters such as Dior, Louis Vuitton and Hermes.
Here are some highlights of fall-winter 2022 shows.
CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE
Tasteful and deceptively simple designs graced the Lemaire runway in a sublime collection. The 56-year-old designer, whose full name is Christophe Lemaire, is a master on the Paris calendar boasting a CV second to none and included a four-year stint as the head of Hermes from 2010.
These talents were on abundant display for his fall-winter show that employed fastidious detailing, pre-War styles in muted hues and plays on proportion for a thought-provoking statement.
Men’s and women’s designs fused effortlessly. Block heels of the 1970s mixed with the loose or dropped waists of the 1920s, while oversized coats looked at once 1930s and fashion forward.
The low energy of the restricted color palette of autumnal taupes, beiges, blue-grays was effective in giving this funky collection a classicism. Even the humble denim jacket evoked a timeless vibe, rendered loose and clean lined, with the feel of a young, optimistic 1950s United States.
STEVEN PASSARO
The pandemic has had a devastating impact on numerous fashion houses, forcing the cancellation of big budget, highly mediatized collections over government restrictions in favor of digital videos showcasing new designs.
Though these videos do draw global audiences on Instagram, fashion editors agree that the intoxicating mixture of in-person clothes, adrenaline, staging and celebrity that makes up a Paris Fashion Week show is hard to emulate on a digital platform.
But the new hybrid calendar hasn’t only been bad news. It has been good for some: In particular, small houses. Steven Passaro, who’s featured on the official Paris Fashion Week line up for the first time ever, is one designer whose prominence has grown precisely because of the new digital style of presentation.
Passaro, 29, says that he didn’t have the financial means to stage a fully fledged Paris Fashion Week with all its associated investment and razzmatazz. A video, on the other hand, was realizable.
“This is my first time on the calendar. It was possible because the (Paris fashion) Federation didn’t want me to do a show. Making a video means spending way less money,” Passaro told The Associated Press as he prepared the launch of his first video titled “We feel things they’ll never feel.”
“It gives smaller houses like us big opportunities,” he said.
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