From apocalyptic fireballs at Rick Owens to a joyful final celebration of Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton, the best of Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2023, as it happens
The menswear season continues this week with the arrival of Paris Fashion Week Men’s, promising a full-to-the-brim schedule spanning both the city’s heavyweights – Dior, Givenchy and Louis Vuitton among them – and a new generation of talent redefining the city. Expect spectacles across Paris’ various arrondissements – from Rick Owens’ blazing spheres of fire on the Palais de Tokyo forecourt, to Givenchy, where models walked on water outside of the historic École Militaire – and an array of propositions for the S/S 2023 season ahead. Here, in an ongoing report, the best of Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2023, as it happens.
Hed Mayner is known for the expansiveness of his cut – blown-up tailoring, a generosity of fabric – which the designer defined this season as a way of ‘destigmatising [his clothing] from class, gender and formality’. His collections evolve this idea season on season; for S/S 2023, there was renewed focus on the suit jacket, ‘magnified, reviewed over and over until it sits on the body like a found object’. Indeed, a wide-shouldered pinstripe jacket was entirely exposed at the back, creating the appearance that the garment was balancing across the model’s chest (Mayner calls such an effect ‘two-dimensional’ clothing, whereby something distinct from the front is ‘decadent ’at the back). Other archetypal menswear was also explored and expanded in its proportions, whether a flap-pocket workwear jacket, already appearing worn in, or a vast denim jacket and matching jeans. An opposing feeling of delicacy was communicated through fabric choices, including broderie anglaise, inspired by antique linens found in both Paris and Tel Aviv by the designer, evoking here – as the notes described – ‘the sensation of feeling enveloped by fresh sheets in the early morning’.
In the centre of the running track at the historic École-Militaire, Givenchy erected a vast white box emitting a cool haze of fog; around it, a shallow pool of water reflected the grey of the sky. This body of water would become the runway for creative director Matthew M Williams’ first solo menswear show, models splashing across its surface (it provided an apt counterpoint to the designer’s own-label 1019 Alyx 9SM, shown at Milan Fashion Week Men’s last week, where models walked around a derelict – and empty – swimming pool). Such spectacle is befitting the might of a house like Givenchy, here backdropping a collection that comprised an exploration of contemporary menswear through the savoir-faire of the maison’s ateliers. Williams noted he was looking towards the uniform of his home country of the USA – as well as the musicians and creatives who are in his orbit – elevating Givenchy-emblazoned sportswear with moments of glamour and elegance (a crystallised Western belt, for example, or a leather jacket intricately stitched with the house name and monogram). Sleekest, though, was a series of wide-shouldered overcoats and tailored tabards that emerged towards the end of the show – a demonstration of what can be achieved when the Givenchy atelier is used to full effect.
Glenn Martens is the type of designer who likes to follow an idea through a collection, riffing on particular fixations in a way that feels like play. Indeed, backstage at his S/S 2023 collection yesterday – a co-ed outing that also featured items from his collaboration with Jean-Paul Gaultier – he said such experimentation is how he wants his customers to interact with his garments once they are off the runway and in their wardrobes (‘We always try to invite our customers to enjoy the garments and play with them,’ he said). Case in point: a series of pieces embedded with wire – belts, gravity-defying vests, denim skirts – which could be reshaped by the wearer into bold new forms. Elsewhere, trompe l’oeil was the collection’s defining motif, with Martens playfully printing his past Y/Project looks onto new garments – a way, the designer said, of exploring the label’s hallmarks anew.
‘Design is not for philosophy, but for life,’ goes Issey Miyake’s motto, perhaps best encapsulated by Homme Plissé, the main-label offshoot of technical pleated garments that are wrinkle-proof and fold down small for travel. They are also made for movement – such is the ease of design, wearing the various garments can feel akin to the freedom of sportswear. This particular facet was demonstrated in the brand’s S/S 2023 show, whereby a troupe of performers undertook increasingly impressive feats of acrobatics in the latest collection (others simply ran back and forth). A continued thread of design linked this collection to Homme Plissé signature pieces, though here, new motifs emerged, including a series of flap pockets that lent the garments a new feeling of utility, or a jacket that could be folded and secured at the hem to give it a shorter length. Twisting and curved lines were utilised throughout the collection, a nod, the brand said, to the contrasts between flowers and vases.
Rick Owens’ latest collection began with a recent trip to Egypt. ‘I found great comfort in the remoteness and scale of its history,’ said the designer. ‘My personal concerns and discomforts felt petty in the face of that kind of timelessness.’ He titled it ‘Edfu’, after an Egyptian temple, here presented in a dramatic manner befitting the inspiration, seeing guests gather around the grand deco forecourt of the Palais de Tokyo. In its central pool was a crane; as the show went on, a gathering of technicians clipped on vast spheres that were then set alight, raised up, and once burning dropped from on high into the water (the process was repeated three times). ‘A blazing sun crosses the sky, falling to crash to the ground over and over again… senseless destruction since the beginning of time,’ said the designer. Amid this apocalyptic scene, Owens proposed clothing defined by ‘order and discipline’: sharp-lined tailoring in rip-stop nylon (including the use of Dyneema ‘the strongest fabric in the world’), silhouettes cinched at the waist with narrow belts, and skintight tops in colourful viscose and leather.
Virgil Abloh’s first collection for Louis Vuitton was held on a yellow-brick road; here, for the final collection by the late Abloh’s design team – a new creative director will be named later this year – that yellow-brick road became a vast twisting ramp complete with loop-the-loop along which attendees sat. It was a fitting tribute to the boundless, near-childlike imagination of Abloh at the house, whose vision continued to resonate in this season’s looks: a jacket was decorated with dozens of paper planes, models carried monogrammed speakers on their backs, a biker jacket wiggled along its front, and a bold use of colour and form was utilised throughout. It was a testament to Abloh’s enduring – and immediately recognisable – visual signature. A soundtrack came courtesy of the Florida A&M University marching band, and the musician Kendrick Lamar who, wearing a crown of thorns, provided an ode to Abloh over the microphone: ‘Long live Virgil,’ he repeated until the show’s end.
Stay tuned for more Wallpaper* coverage from Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2023 §
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