Paris Men's Fashion Week spring/summer 2014: Let's twist again with Paul ...

Sir Paul Smith meshes around as Hermès hitches its wagon to 'supple allure'.

BY Luke Leitch | 30 June 2013

Photo: ISADORE MONTAG

As couture's loaded lady customers descend on Paris by the jetload for the beginning of fashion's most exclusive week of all this evening, there were still some last menswear collections to see to.

Hermès and Paul Smith provided two highlights of menswear's final 24 hours.

At Hermès, Veronique Nichanian set out to distil 'a bohemian soul' via 'supple allure' into the house's don't-scare-the-horses, thoroughbred aesthetic. Shod in slippers or rope-soled sandals, Nichanian's next-summer Hermès man wore his aquamarine serge suit, tie-print trousers or shaded nubuck peacoat with 'this old thing?' lightness.

Crumpled linen boatnecked smock tops and even cotton boilersuits - by Hermès? who knew? - were basic garments rebooted as luxury attire.

Whoever has both the taste and the capital to purchase these clothes is a fortunate man - although it was interesting that even Hermès has hitched its wagon to the hugely popular, highly accessible sweatshirt trend; its 30th look featured a 'sweatshirt in technical wool with front in metis lambskin with Cheval ombre trompe-l'oeil print'.

Hermès spring/summer 2014. Photos: Isadore Montag

Over at Paul Smith, that inevitable 2014 fashion sweatshirt came emblazoned with a zingily coloured magic mushroom. Said fungus was emblematic of a rocky collection that touched on the psychedelic and the 1970s.

Sir Paul, who carried a bright red soundbox that issued applause at the press of a button - 'in case nobody claps at the end of the show' - explained the collection thus.

'The key points are texture and more emphasis on casual clothes. The texture is a mixture of technical fabrics and traditional fabrics.'

This saw nylon mesh - the same used in the interior of certain Ferraris - mixed with classical fabrics from Loro Piana. Much of the colour was muted (pale apricot, green or grey) which emphasised all the better Smith's occasional visual blitzkrieg pieces in dive-in blue or raso-satin fuschia.

Paul Smith spring/summer 2014. Photos: Isadore Montag

Jacquard t-shirts, bikers or overcoats in black and white featured more mushies, as did a particularly pizzazzy party-shirt.

Sir Paul became almost misty-eyed as he explained that his trouser-shapes - blessedly loose and long after slim-fit sea of ankle-flashers - were a bit of a throwback.

'I worked with Bowie back in the day,' he said. 'So you see these longer collar shapes and these slim trousers which were short last summer but this season break on the foot. And wider trouser that are really long.'