Paris men whip it out

FIVE DAYS of Paris men’s fashion shows wrapped up on Sunday, leaving after-images of four categories the designers have planned for this coming autumn and winter.
US designer Rick Owens created a category all by himself by sending out three male models with their penises exposed by cutaway robes.
The taboo-busting garments are unlikely go mainstream, and many veteran fashionistas thought them too blatantly calculated for controversy.
But they did succeed in giving Owens more international media coverage than all the other designers combined.
Other designers went the opposite of putting manhood on the catwalk by seeking to redefine what “menswear” means through gender-bending designs.
Andrea Crews, Rynshu and some others put a few women on the catwalk for their men’s collections. But the more defining trend was a feminisation of the garments themselves. Skirts, robes and shawls all put in appearances on male models, and quite a few – in Issey Miyake’s show for instance – had hairpins keeping glistening hair flat.
Many of the models themselves were selected for their androgyny. “I found the trend interpreted with a lot of finesse,” said Jean-Jacques Picart, a consultant for the fashion and luxury goods sectors. Items by the Spanish fashion Loewe, for example, “were borderline with a feminine seduction, a sensuality”, he said.
This trend has been growing for a while, and these collections established it as a look that will probably endure for years. Dior epitomised the design, with suits flashed through with denim and carried along on classy shoe-sneakers boasting high-energy colours on their soles.
Cifonelli’s suits were beautifully cut if much more traditional numbers, but tailored to give good freedom of movement to modern men.
And Louis Vuitton offered easy-to-wear with jean-style jackets, sweatshirts and a close-up rope motif inspired by Christopher Nemeth, an influential British fashion designer and artist passed away four years ago.
The suit is the businessman’s uniform, but some of the designers decided that military-style uniforms are now the new suit. South Korean designer Juun.J was at the forefront of that, with a khaki collection that would not look out of place in combat zones were it not for the addition of images of children’s faces and doves painted on them in anti-war irony.
Other designers, Berluti and Dries Van Noten among them, also paraded military men on the catwalks, adorning sleeves with officer-type embroidery and trench coats ready for dress inspection.
Lanvin’s Dutch designer, Lucas Ossendrijver, who put grey and black uniforms to his collection, noted the military tone in Paris with the deployment of soldiers to ensure security following the Charlie Hebdo attack by Islamist gunmen three weeks ago.
“If you look in Paris, there are so many military people around. At every station there’s soldiers – it’s kind of surreal.”
The slogan “Stop Terrorising Our World” appeared on the torso of the male model who opened a show by Walter Van Beirendonck. The Belgian designer told reporters he had “to react” to the January 7-9 bloodshed.
Fears that VIPs and buyers might be too jittery to turn up for the Paris Fashion Week proved unfounded, according to the Federation Francaise de la Couture organising the event.
Most of the other designers, though, steered clear of making references to the Paris attacks. Lucien Pellat-Finet, a French designer who exports most of his high-end cashmere streetwear imprinted with images of skulls and cannabis leaves, said, “You can’t let yourself be swept away by any sort of depression. Where there is life there is hope. The message of French fashion is that it’s an idea of liberty.”
The labels 22/4 Hommes and Y/Projec concentrated on bending the gender barriers in “menswear”, sending out a couple of female models down the catwalk among androgynous male counterparts. Valentino brought out a classic, sober collection with black, greys and natural browns to the fore.
But, for Van Beirendonck, putting messages into the mix was what he felt to be his artistic duty. “Initially I didn’t want to make statements, but when you see what is happening in the world you have to react.”
He sent other models down the catwalk in an eclectically styled range that used animal sketches, Picasso-style abstracts and 3D-printed jewellery. Almost all the clothes incorporated “butt plug” symbols – a nod to a giant inflatable sculpture in the same form by American artist Paul McCarthy that was vandalised soon after being set up in Paris last October on the same chic Place Vendome where the fashion show took place. “It’s almost an homage to McCarthy, because I know him, not very well, but I know him.”