PARIS - Designers harped a lot about freedom this season, and probably to the bafflement of men, who generally have little trouble doing exactly what they want.
Men's wear is much less affected with apathy than women's fashion, with its systematic behavior and endless kowtowing to a few powerful editors and fashion executives. As Alber Elbaz acknowledged with a rueful laugh at his Lanvin men's show, 'There is a committee in Switzerland, and they decide and we just follow, you know.'
Men, on the whole, are also funnier than women. They get the joke of their own pitiful existence. When members of Winny Puhh, an Estonian post-punk band with extreme facial hair, fired up their instruments at the Rick Owens show, the entire audience perked up.
'They were on Eurovision and they lost,' Mr. Owens explained, adding gleefully, 'and I love a loser.'
This has been the designer's badge of courage since he was an outsider in Los Angeles, and the difference for spring is a paring away of his druid layers for a look - minimal, semitransparent tunics or silky jumpsuits with zip fronts - that is at once hot and caveman simplistic. Or, as Mr. Owens said with satisfaction, 'Big and dumb and stripped down.'
At the other extreme, yet still vital, is Berluti, the Italian shoe line owned by LVMH that is branching into apparel, including bespoke suits made in Paris by the celebrated firm Arnys. If you pay attention to one label, it's Berluti. Alessandro Sartori creates something very particular: refined yet agile, steeped in tradition yet heedless of it. Mind you, height and cash help (suits are around $4,000, double that for bespoke), but it seems worth the sacrifice to look as if you're dressed for the pleasures of life. That's the clear feeling of Mr. Sartori's designs.
So many designers don't have time to smell the roses, and a sense of mystery in their fashion is as elusive as a nap. That's because they're churning out so many collections. Mr. Elbaz is a big believer in realistic clothes. 'To find the middle without being mediocre,' he said. But that almost sounds as if he's citing a memo between the marketing and creative departments. Like many collections, Lanvin yields to the common perception that men want everything to fit like a T-shirt. Tugging at the jacket of a loose gray suit, he said, 'the feeling of a baggy rapper but not a suit.'
But this hardly leaves room for fashion to get under your skin. Among the impeccably cut suits that Mr. Sartori offered was one in double Irish linen with slightly rounded shoulders in the Neapolitan fashion, an elegant waist and, to relax things, pockets based on a work-wear style. In sunflower linen, the suit suggests a deeper grasp of luxury.
When Mr. Elbaz and his men's designer, Lucas Ossendrijver, saw that other shows were loaded with shorts, prints and other trendy themes, while Lanvin was comparatively clean, it gave them pause, Mr. Elbaz said. But, really, why should every collection have all the same crazy stuff? What's wrong with doing one thing extremely well?
Junya Watanabe turned out natty field jackets and shirts based on styles by Seil Marschall, an old-line German company, which he deconstructed. From the innocent idea of a creature hatching, Rei Kawakubo produced a remarkable Comme des Garçons collection, with semi-attached sleeves peeling away from jacket shoulders, patched trousers that looked crumbly, and linings or regatta striped shirts emerging from elegant cutaways.
At Louis Vuitton, Kim Jones transposed American road-trip souvenirs - the bandanna print, varsity jacket, plaid shirt - but, in hindsight, the view seems a sign-choked highway. You don't really get a clear sense of direction.
The real queen of the summer-casual road is Véronique Nichanian of Hermès. She made every suit and sportswear style look effortless and tempting. Of course, the secret was in the high-quality materials: linen, poplin, suede. You can't convey that much natural ease with cheap fabrics. But you also have to possess Ms. Nichanian's steely understanding of her customer.
Raf Simons was also focused and, at the same time, very different - no other collection even came close to resembling his. Not in shapes, color or intensity of graphic images. He explained that, as many things become more and more artificial, 'I wanted to find something that was the ultimate opposite, and that is a baby, a baby boy.'
His basic idea of baby shorts in black jersey worn with a graphic print or embroidered tee top was not as strange as it might sound. First, the silhouette was interesting. We're used to thinking of high fashion as grown-up and serious. Instead, Mr. Simons is offering something that is playful and pure of heart. He said one of his aims was to relate to his first men's collections, in the mid-'90s, but in a way he's challenging today's assumptions.
Among the stripes and catchy prints were dark florals - dominant at Sacai, Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester. Thom Browne, as usual, was on his own: blowing a red-lippy kiss to military pomp and precision tailoring while delightfully hoisting the surrender flag over the parade.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar