Temperatures soared in Paris last week, but the city was already sizzling with the promise of a menswear fashion week of big-ticket blockbuster moments. There was the debut of the year (Pharrell at Louis Vuitton, obviously) as well as anniversaries (Kim Jones’ 5th year at Dior) and the return of recent arrivals, such as Wales Bonner’s sophomore physical presentation in la ville lumière and Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s much-anticipated first show since his sudden departure from Ann Demeulemeester.
All of which is to say that it was a week marked by extremes: Jay-Z performing on Pont Neuf after Louis Vuitton and camp icon Amanda Lear performing at Dior’s afterparty; dapper logomania booming loud on some catwalks and the continued whisper of quiet luxury elsewhere; old-school editors sitting alongside a new world order of TikTokers; towering sculptures as backdrops to shows (Loewe and Rick Owens) versus intimate salon settings (Wales Bonner, Comme des Garçons, Junya Watanabe); the endless flow of blanc-de-blanc champagne followed by detox juices from Wild & the Moon; billionaire European businessmen shaking hands with billionaire American rappers. Ah, we’ll always have Paris!
The contradictions were what made the week one to remember, drawing a line in the sand between fashion then and now. Entertainment and fashion have never been more embedded, and fashion shows are no longer just about the clothes: they are spectacles to be enjoyed en masse, whether you’re sitting front row, tuning into the livestream or scrolling social media. Fashion was once like a delicate pyramid of cards – one-of-a-kind couture at the top and mass-produced cosmetics at the bottom – but the dynamics have well and truly been reversed. Now, mass-appeal celebrities sit at the top of the triangle of desire, and niche, esoteric conceptualism for the few at the bottom. Gone are the days when household names simply lent their name to mass-produced fashion lines. Now, they’re part of the Paris establishment, with certain celebrities (and their bodyguards) appearing at as many shows as fashion editors.
Then again, the menswear season has never just been about the clothes. Known to be a bit more free-wheelin’ than its oh-so-serious womenswear counterpart, it is in the nocturnal hours that Paris comes to life with a dizzying schedule of parties and bad behaviour. Dinners at the Hotel Costes quickly descend into debauchery, black limousines ferry guests from Silencio to Maxim’s to L’Avenue, and sometimes – in the case of Givenchy’s Matthew Williams – a designer will open the doors to their own home for an all-night rager, complete with thudding metal music, tumblers of tequila, cartons of cigarettes and the typical house party loo queues. Mornings are famously quiet during Paris Fashion Week Men’s, with those in attendance at early shows clad in dark sunglasses (Pharrell’s pair are framed in pear-cut Tiffany & Co diamonds). As the saying goes, boys will be boys. And as for the girls, well, they just wanna have fun!
Credits
Photography Francesc Planes