BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Paris Fashion Week

Paris Fashion Week showcasing collections for the '25'-26 Fall and Winter season wrapped and here are a few details that caught my attention:

Gloriously wide trousers at Dior Homme.

Chitose Abe's brand Sacai showed a collection that was inspired by children's author Maurice Sendak's classic book "Where The Wild Things Are." There were only a few pieces that spoke directly (an image of one of the Wild Things) or even indirectly (jackets with wooly fur like a Wild Thing) to Sendak's work...the rest was a collaboration with Ugg and Carhartt. Maurice was a friend of mine and I think he would have found this collection very...um...amusing (with a hairy eyebrow).

Fursac creative director Gauthier Borsarello looked back to a Paris of the 70s and 80s and came up with a small detail that made my heart sing: buttons, the kind that featured rock bands or pithy sayings from the 80s adorning sweaters like epaulets, and peeking out from lapels. I still have my huge collection of such buttons from the 80s (Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Nina Hagen, "Rude Boy," BowWowWow, David Bowie, Prince, Laurie Anderson, etc.) and they make an appearance on a denim jacket every now and then.

Feng Chen Wang showed some pretty cool 3D printed shoes in the shape of a traditional Chinese dragon.

And kudos to Bluemarble for using mature models.

https://www.dior.com/

https://www.sacai.jp/
https://fr.fursac.com/
https://fengchenwang.com/
https://bluemarbleparis.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Paris Fashion Week

Well, our fashion month is wrapped up and here are a few little details from the '19-'20 FW collections at Paris Fashion Week worth mentioning...

We saw a collage of his usual leather/corduroy/patchwork/Carhartt's vocabulary, but Junya Watanabe is certainly dedicated to presenting mature models. Kudos!

And the Milan Hundredth Monkey moment continued to a certain degree with more animal prints! Sacai showed jaguar on tops and bottoms.

http://www.sacai.jp/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Paris Fashion Week

Now that Paris Fashion Week has ended, here is a wrap-up of notable moments, elements, and details that could have otherwise slipped by...

But before I move on, I want to say that Ann Demeulemeester was conspicuously and sadly absent from Paris Fashion Week. She announced in November that she would be leaving her eponymous label she started in 1985. No word yet on who might replace her at the house. Word is that her men's collection for Fall-winter '14-'15 will be shown with the women's collection at the end of this month, January '14.
Also conspicuously absent was Jean Paul Gaultier. Hmmm...

Onward:

Carven showed a collection straight out of "The Wild Ones," "On The Waterfront," and "Rebel Without A Cause." Dock worker pea coats, ski caps, and jackets that are a cross between a motorcycle jacket and a 1950s car coat were shown in a shady, highly atmospheric pool hall!

Alexander Wang's ode to petroleum products nearly fetishized rubber--but not in that way (nudge nudge wink wink). He was thinking of rubber tires on motorcycles, race cars...and he showed his lookbook in front of a heap of smashed, totaled cars. Pants that looked like oil slicks on asphalt, and jackets that could be recycled tires...

At Louis Vuitton, it was a stripe story... in luxuriously draped scarves and cashmere sweaters. It feels cool, and jet-setty, and Old World all at once.

Jackets on top of coats...on top of trenches... at Cerutti.

Several designers showed their Fall-Winter '14-'15 collections with models draped with or carrying blankets, quilts, or afghans. And here, Sacai has a few blankets inspired by Navajo prints.

Miharayasuhiro has some great shoes to offer for Fall-Winter '14-'15. I love the paint droppings on the boots which bring to mind McQueen's wonderful paint-splattered collection of SS '10, here. Also of note is the shoe with toes dipped into flocking! I also like how Miharayasuhiro showed shoes pre-distressed in metallic leather.

And for a finale, I want to point out a collection at Berluti that was perfectly pleasant and supremely wearable, but looked even better on a variety of models that included mature men. It is always nice to see the tyranny of youth breaking down bit by bit. I mean, just look at these men. Some silver, some lines, some mileage... grrr...
Thanks, Berluti!

http://carven.com/
http://www.alexanderwang.com/
http://www.louisvuitton.com
http://cerruti.com/fr/
http://www.miharayasuhiro.jp
http://www.berluti.com/en/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Misc. Paris Fashion Week, June 2013

As usual, a wrap-up of miscellaneous details and elements from the Spring-Summer '14 collections seen at Paris Fashion Week, June 2013.

Raf Simon's cute, colorful moon boots:

Goths... and technicolor Goths at Comme des Garçons:

Great chukka boots with color bands at Sacai:

I love these SUPER wide cut trousers at Acne...

...and these super high cut trousers from Damir Doma:

And finally, instead of pictures, I want to share the Style.com feature about Umit Benen's collection which was an homage to his homeland and an effort to keep a certain culture from disappearing.

http://www.rafsimons.com/
http://www.comme-des-garcons.com/
http://www.acnestudios.com/
http://www.damirdoma.com/en
http://www.umitbenan.com/

BEAUTY:Clothing--Sacai

Chitose Abe designs for her own brand Sacai, but before that she worked under Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons and Junya Watanabe (also a disciple of Kawakubo) so her pedigree is impressive. She has been quietly building a reputation for ten years now, and this '13-'14 Fall-Winter collection at Paris Fashion Week shows a skillful blend of the kind of forward-thinking, Japanese architectural approach to cutting garments she absorbed under Kawakubo and Watanabe, and a kind of classic and comfortable menswear. I really love the very wide cut trousers but especially fun and unexpected are the ethnic Arabesque flowing pants. A simple, comforting collection but with just enough of an undefinable edge to make it unique...

http://www.sacai.jp/
Photos via http://www.style.com/