Paris menswear fashion week: Raf Simons

Belgian fashion legend Raf Simons pulled Paris's fashionistas out to the suburbs to delve back into the past with a retro, rebellious college student-inspired show. 

Raf Simons sent his models out on a raised platform, each walking a lap of the industrial space in Ivry-Sur-Seine that he picked as a location to Deep Purple's trippy "Child in Time."

Wearing greasy center-partings, the models sported white lab coats covered in graffiti and slogans (a nod to traditional Belgian student hazing), while knit tank tops came artfully torn and repaired with intarsia patterns, and corduroy and jersey pants broke low onto sneakers with a wide flare. 

The raised runway highlighted the way the collection was all about length and drawn-out silhouettes, from pinstriped and houndstooth overcoats to the long sleeveless trenches that made up the majority of the looks. Embellishment came with a few watercolor prints on jersey, and school science textbook cut-and-paste imagery, with zippered photos attached to the back of coats, and leather and zip-up cuffs on the wrists.  

A sense of deconstruction or 'make-do-and-mend' were also at the heart of things. Alongside those aforementioned knits, things started to come apart at the seams, including raggedly cut-off hems on coats, shredded linings, and trousers that had been snipped to length.

Another key theme? Leather. Patent and matte coats came with overstitching effects and science medals attached.