All the world's a stage

Paris men’s fashion wrapped up on Sunday with a collection of skinny, futuristic looks for spring/summer 2015 from Lanvin designer Lucas Ossendrijver.
The Dutchman says his latest collection is aimed at a new kind of urban elegance that reflected the way people lived now, such as biking to work.
“On a bike, you don’t wear a perfect suit, there is something more urban. You wear a jacket, maybe with a skinny pant, you roll up the sleeves,” he says.
But Ossendrijver, who has designed the label’s menswear for the past eight years under the guidance of artistic director Alber Elbaz, adds that lifestyle changes are not a reason to forget fashion.
“We have ways to make sure it’s always elegant... even if we take influences from sportswear, we try to make it always elegant,” he says.
Ossendrijver teamed narrow ties or neck scarves with slim-fitting trousers and jackets – some sleeveless or cut short at the front and long at the back.
Futuristic looks included a mauve boilersuit worn under a burgundy jacket and a black leather shirt-jacket with green collar and cuffs.
Dior Homme designer Kris Van Assche meanwhile celebrated updated classics as Korea’s Songzio jazzed up cool, summer looks with metallic print and big pockets.
Van Assche says he delved into Christian Dior’s world for a collection in which the “bourgeois meets the artist”.
“I wanted a sense of renewal and an idea of Christian Dior’s artistic milieu to come through as well as his love of formality and tradition,” he explains.
The result was formal, navy suits with an emphasis on the tuxedo and traditional pinstripe.
Nautical touches, a reference to the Normandy-born Dior’s love of the sea, came in the form of toggle fasteners and striped knit vests over shirts to create what Van Assche calls “a new form of three piece suit”.
The Belgian designer was also influenced by a letter dating from the 1950s he found in the Dior archives.
In the letter, Dior, who founded the Christian Dior fashion house in 1946, wrote about the importance of maintaining traditions.
“Traditions have to be maintained so they can be passed on to future generations,” he wrote.
“In troubled times like ours we must maintain these traditions which are our luxury and the flower of our civilisation,” he added.
Van Assche turned the handwritten letter into a print which he used throughout the collection.
South Korean designer Songzio took the “configuration and shape of wood” as the inspiration for his latest collection.
The designer sent out oversized coats, boxy shirts, and wide, pleated shorts.
Standout looks included a knit tunic ensemble and sleeveless, transparent shirt with gold-coloured metallic print.
Big pockets popped up on the front of shirts and the back of shorts.
As well as his signature palette of dark navy and tones of black, there was also white and cream, vivid orange and midnight blue.
Songzio picked up the gold in black leather sandals while other footwear had big straps high over the ankle.
Phillip Lim mixed streetwear with a large dose of preppy while Damir Doma and Issey Miyake turned to nature for inspiration.
Lim says his collection is all about mixing up influences to put his finger on what “boys are really wearing right now”.
The US designer kicked off his show with a pale blue and grey check suit teamed with white sports shoes and high-necked black shirt.
Other looks for spring/summer 2015 included shorts and an asymmetrical top in large white check and tartan worn with long white socks.
“It was street-prep. It was prep’s influence on street urban clothes. I wanna really polish streetwear up,” he says.
Lim says he drew on masculine codes and patterns for a “spirit of youthful elegance”.
At Issey Miyake, designer Yusuke Takahashi was inspired by a holiday to the Palau island chain in the Pacific to produce an environmentally conscious collection that delighted marine conservationists.
In contrast to Raf Simons’ sombre, prison-chic collection, Takahashi sent out smiling models in joyous clothes.
Squids, jellyfish, pineapples and dragon fruit popped up on garments, giving the collection a playful, pop art feel.
“It’s a nice present” from Issey Miyake, Claire Nouvian, founder of marine conservation organisation Bloom, said later.
“The depths (of the oceans) are a very beautiful place, but also fragile and devastated by deep sea fishing,” she said, adding that she hoped the collection would help to “sensitise” people.
Croatia’s Damir Doma also turned to the natural world for inspiration.
The designer said nature and its “profound symmetry as well as its endless irregularities” set him thinking about pattern and texture.
The collection focuses on the balance modern men have to strike between design and practicality, formality and casualness, he says,
“It’s a kind of symmetry askew. It’s something beautiful that you can find in butterflies and flowers... which we tried to transfer into fabrics with laser cuts and the dotted prints. It’s about the everyday rearranged for the modern man... (who is) a creative sort, a very sensitive person,” he says.
Doma added that his jackets aimed to create a relaxed silhouette rich in both fabric and colour combinations.
Elsewhere, veteran Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto’s latest collection featured rich tapestry of floral patterned fabrics.
Jackets came with asymmetrical flaps or oversized white patches while trousers were voluminous, some with buttons down the side.
All were teamed with flowing scarves, hats or headbands and very wild hair.