Paris Fashion Week opens with Egonlab, Taakk, Etudes

Paris Fashion Week Men's got right down to it on Tuesday, notably with shows by Egonlab, Taakk and Etudes. All three labels unveiled intriguing collections, giving a foretaste of what looks like an extremely promising programme, running until Sunday. To reveal their respective visions of Spring/Summer 2023 menswear, the three labels chose three different locations in the French capital.

Standing tall in thigh-high boots, perched on huge platform soles, wearing a long white coat unbuttoned at the front and back to allow a glimpse of leather knickers and a sheer top, the Egonlab man had attitude. The label’s look for next summer is decidedly dandyish, flaunting a flamboyant vibe with sequinned tops and intensely coloured suits – in ochre over an electric blue top, or in emerald green matched with a fuchsia coat - and alternatively an uber-cool one, with lace trousers and distressed stone-washed jeans enhanced by a skirtlet cut in the same material, or an impeccably tailored jacket.

The collection’s respectable side, houndstooth suits and tasselled moccasins, always worn with white socks, was counterbalanced by unusual, quirky accessories: jewellery with oversize beads, leather belts wrapped around the neck, a large metal ring on a cross-shoulder strap worn like a handbag, a fine jacket hanging from it. Not to mention a stylish ear clip/cigarette holder.

Silhouettes were mostly elongated, with very long, 1970s-style flared trousers, the collection’s signature item. On a different tack, a few looks consist of micro shorts-and-jacket ensembles in leather, worn for example with a white tank top by a heavily tattooed model. Firmly intending to leave the pandemic/economic crisis double whammy behind, prolific designers Kévin Nompeix and Florentin Glémarec have called on various cartoon characters this season; from Bugs Bunny to Speedy Gonzales, featuring them cheekily on t-shirts and jacquard sweaters in a salutary back-to-childhood mood.

Trousers were long and loose, and colours were vibrant at Taakk too, but the register is entirely the opposite. In Taakk’s case, garments took centre-stage, rather than looks. At first glance, the collection seems entirely canonical, but once you look closer, its extremely modern character emerges, showcasing amazingly sophisticated materials and textures that produce unexpected hybridisations.

With part of its lining removed, a satin jacket morphed through subtle colour gradations into an almost sheer shirt, while another transformed entirely thanks to a change in yarns, hence weight. The sides and sleeves of a classic double-breasted jacket made of stiff-looking linen changed in the blink of an eye, turning the garment into a lightweight striped cotton shirt.

Takuya Moriyama, who worked at Issey Miyake before launching his own label in 2013, seems to be able to transform matter like a magician, dazzling his audience with a plethora of innovative details and treatments. For example, with jeans whose distressed patches were actually pieces of jacquard fabric woven from raw yarn, or with brightly coloured shorts and shirts, cleverly frayed to give a shaggy effect.

Closing the fashion week’s first day, Etudes Studio presented itself as the two previous collections’ antithesis, showcasing a minimalist wardrobe consisting of workwear-inspired essentials. Aurélien Arbet, Jérémie Égry and José Lamali, the trio in charge of the label, started a fresh chapter with summer 2023, marked by a new, lozenge-shaped logo.

To illustrate their intentions, they invited their audience at Porte de la Villette, on a section of the Petit Ceinture, the 33km ring of railway tracks that encircles Paris. The majority of looks were monochrome, from linen ensembles to jacket-and-shorts sets, ripped jeans, canvas jumpsuits and overcoats. The show’s initial looks were all in light-coloured hues, as though they were blank pages still to be written on.

Paris Fashion Week opens with Egonlab, Taakk, Etudes

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