Spring-Summer 2015: four trends out of Paris

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Jul 2, 2014

The conclusion to 51 men’s spring/summer 2015 presentations came on Sunday night in Paris, on the heels of fashion weeks in London, Florence and Milan. Overall, they were marked by a newly laid-back attitudes and cuts, even among the most conservative houses.

This was clearly the case for Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent, who ended the show with a Woodstock-style collection complete with what could have been renegades from a seventies rock festival. As Customers love and the federation supports up-and-comers, there was a burst of mostly young new designers to this season’s official program. In no particular order, here are four take-home trends from the Parisian catwalks this season.

1- A real man wears checks
Geometrical patterns remain print designer’s favorite themes this season with a special emphasis on stripes - whether horizontal or vertical - but also on checks, black and white, graphic, or in the form multicolored plaids for others. They made their appearance at all the men’s fashion weeks - brilliantly employed in Paris by Junya Watanabe (for whom it’s a trademark), Gosha Rubchinskiy (Comme des Garçons’ new darling), Ami Alexandre Mattiussi, 3.1 Phillip Lim and Carven.


2- Hip women dress like real men

It has already been established that women’s pre-collections are released for buyers during the menswear season. But women’s silhouettes are now increasingly appearing in the menswear shows of fashion and luxury houses. Sometimes, it’s to give a taste of what’s to come in September, as for Y/Project, for which womenswear is very new territory, Saint Laurent or Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci, which put Adriana Lima in sheer fabric for its show. At other times, it’s actually to put women in men’s clothes, as was successfully attempted by Ami Alexandre Mattiussi and Haider Ackermann. This is not dismaying for the renowned designer Anastasia Barbieri, who has long worn menswear herself.

3 – Holes are everywhere
The trend toward androgyny has also had other consequences. For one, the male wardrobe is becoming increasingly transparent, going so far as to riddle pieces with holes such as at Damir Doma, Comme des Garcons Homme Plus and KrisVanAasche. Bodies are being shown off this season, from Andrea Crews’ presentation to that of Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent. Skin is even squarely on display at Jean Paul Gaultier with a backless jacket, or at Dries Van Noten, whose collection were more ambiguous than usual, but equally poetic.

4- Color is taking over
Already “made ok” by men brands over the past several seasons with blues that continue to show up again and again (Études Studio, Dior Homme, Ami), color is no longer particular to any gender or even any age. Designers have freed themselves from black, white, gold and silver, and are now daring to go for pastels (Kenzo, Thom Browne, Paul Smith), or flashy pinks and yellows (Gosha Rubchinskiy, KRISVANASSCHE, Hermes, Julien David).

A special mention should be give to one of the boldest trends of the season: reflective, “glow in the dark" fabric brilliantly borrowed from 90’s raves by Christopher Kane or even Glenn Martens for Y/ Project.

Presentations by Raf Simons and Thom Browne went so far as to plunge their audience into darkness, just to see what their pieces would look like at night. Very helpful.