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Men’s FashionA SPECIAL REPORT

International Herald Tribune
Monday, July 2, 2007 9
Mille-feuille! Thousands of layers

PAUL SMITH
A NN
DEMEU LEMEESTER

LAN VIN

The Suzy
R AF SIMONS JSEN WINTLE HER MES Collections Paris Menkes YVES SAINT LAURENT
Photographs by Chris Moore/Karl Prouse

here is only one way to cook up a fashion enced by last year’s DaDa exhibition! But the Bel-

T show this season and that is to play with

different layers. The mille-feuille ap-
proach — a thousand ways to arrange
wafer-thin slices — is the overwhelming theme of
summer 2008 menswear collections.
Dior Homme: Back to the gilded glory days
‘I wanted to turn the page,’’ said Kris Van
Assche (at right with model) to explain the
gian designer used the inspiration to turn her own
nonconformist approach onto an intriguing riff
on layers. And it worked beautifully.
Translating her poetic vision,
meulemeester’s inserted graphic deck chair
De-

The recipe is to take sheer sweaters and layer
them over shirts that are themselves half trans-
parent or to have translucent nylon jackets inter-
act with misty voile tops.
‘‘It feels free,’’ said Raf Simons, who provided
the most thought-provoking version of the layered
look. ‘‘People so encapsulate themselves and only
inform themselves on the computer,’’ said the Bel-
gian designer. ‘‘It is a safe environment without
risks, but there is a need to get out.’’
The designer’s philosophical vision was
equally a practical one. The clothes he sent out
took risks, with tunics layered like dresses, but
resolutely masculine, shown with sporty, colorful
sandals and boots and with the giant backpacks
that symbolized explorative travel and gave solid-
ity to the silhouette.
Everything seemed fresh and different: shorts
cut loose with a double layer that could be in an un-
likely fabric, like taffeta. ‘‘Material world’’ was
printed in faded letters on the tunics and shorts
that opened the show. That too had a double mean-
ing: a deep exploration of fabrics from nylon to cot-
ton and being in touch with the diverse universe.
Another inventive idea was drawstrings to cre-
ate silhouettes, puckered to shape the waist or
pulled in at the knees. Strong, mannish colors
from pine green to ink blue were interspersed with
orange and yellow to give a frisson of multi-ethni-
city. After recent collections of precise tailoring,
Simons as fashion explorer was a fresh departure.
The art of fashion is to make things look like
they were meant to be. But at Yves Saint Laurent
the designer Stefano Pilati tackled art with a cap-
ital ‘‘A,’’ as both he and his models wore shoes
splattered with paint to walk a canvas runway.
This Jackson Pollock wannabe look also appeared
on shorts and pants and an artsy jacket had in-
serts of crude and chaotic patchwork.
Since Pilati has decided to pitch an intellectu-
al/arty look for YSL, the silhouettes were dedic-
ated to ‘‘work wear,’’ meaning roomy painter’s
smock shapes and short, boxy jackets. The alter-
native was the loose sweaters curving up at the
front. In this fashion comfort zone, nothing was
fitted to the body and, although the clothes sug-
iht.com/style
Photographs from the Paris shows.
variations on a white shirt in his first Dior
Homme collection. From the tiny tucks on the
dickey front, through origami folds on a collar
to a tracery of openwork stitches, the designer’s
debut collection was rich in detail. It was shown
not on the runway, but in a grand and gilded
Parisian mansion, the better perhaps to
understand the flow of high-waist 1950s-
inspired trousers from Christian Dior’s era.
In this 60th anniversary year, the master’s
taste, as seen in old portraits, appeared as seven
neckties — polka dot, Prince of Wales checks or
knitted textures.
After Hedi Slimane, the previous designer,
brought a minimalist, pencil-sharp look that
made Dior menswear rock, this season looked
like a conscious decision to turn away from all
that sleek modernity.
Van Assche’s concept of evening, day and
morning wardrobe was shown in groups of suits
or tuxedos and had some graphic elements in the
tailoring or in the black-and-white trellis shoes,
some embroidered with a caviar of beading.
But here is the conundrum: Can a romantic
designer — who may, in fact, be nearer to
Christian Dior’s own sensibility — give the
cutting edge of tailoring and cool that
rejuvenated the brand? — Suzy Menkes
gesting laid-back sophistication, they were not de- further dimension and enriched the offering.
signed for seduction. La nvin’s show hit the spot, with its ultra-light
Art was a pitfall for Viktor & Rolf, whose David layers that had the slithering texture of nylon but
Hockney-inspired collection did not make ‘‘a big- were, in fact, washed silk, bringing a luxurious but
ger splash’’ with its feeble print of swimming pool never heavy feel from silk shirt to shiny metallic
ripples on a shirt or its puerile schoolboy jackets shoes. The designer Lucas Ossendrijver, working
with an outline like varsity braiding. Such themes with Alber Elbaz, has lightened up Lanvin
have to be as deeply felt as Hockney’s original work menswear in every sense, making it not a haven
was, expressing the lapping warmth of the West for tailoring but a play on elements of a masculine
Coast and its sexual freedom, to be anything other wardrobe. There were shorts of course (what is
than a fashion gimmick. the 2008 season without them?) and airy bow ties.
There was the Hockney look again — with signa- But Lanvin caught that balance between formal
ture bow tie and owl glasses — at Paul Smith. But and casual with its ocean colors from gray to deep-
at least the British designer understood the Hock- est blue and green and always with a literal light
ney heritage better from ‘‘my own artist friends touch: a trickle of gleaming sequins down a tie or
when we were young.’’ Bright colors and stripe and even an other-worldy shimmer to a laptop case.
polka dot patterns were dosed with beige tailoring. When Ann Demeulemeester opened her
Only polo shirts and shoes added primary colors. show with a Marcel Duchamp interview on the
It made for a relentlessly upbeat show but mixing soundtrack and with DaDa printed across the
layers rather than just colors would have added a chest, the heart sank. Not another designer influ-
stripes in black and white or fiery red to show an
ultra-long shirt flowing from under a shorter T-
shirt with a thigh-length jacket as the top layer.
Cardigans partnering the jackets, a pinwheel
brooch on a lapel and soft pants with a narrow
cuff all made for easy but stylish summer wear.
At Her mès, the whisper-quiet luxury was a
touch dull since blouson jackets with rich colors
and textures — a zingy lime green or russet suede
— were too much the focus. A raincoat with a
dropped belt and v-necked sweaters, often with
sheer stripes, were other sartorial alternatives.
But the designer Véronique Nichanian under-
stands that the essence of Hermès is supreme lux-
ury and from an ultra-fine sweater to short-
sleeved shirts in necktie-patterned voile, she nev-
er betrayed that heritage, yet made it seem like a
casual, summery collection.
‘‘It’s about trying to dress up and feel good after
someone has broken your heart,’’ said the Aus-
tralian tailor Jsen Wintle. His tailoring was no
revolution, but he used subtle codes of slashes,
seaming and even an openwork line on a sweater
to point straight to that broken heart.
Who would have guessed that behind Véro-
nique Branquinho’s modest, feminist façade
there is a rock chick longing to get out? From the
moment that some Antwerp rockers started their
performance, the designer abandoned her ‘‘f ilm
noir’’ heroes of past seasons in favor of a scruffy
sloppiness of big lacy sweaters, rolled-up shorts,
pajama-striped pants, metallic trenches worn
with flat toe-hold sandals. But this was not a show
to top the fashion charts.
When clothes require detailed attention, a pre-
sentation is more practical than a show. The lush
greenery of palm leaves and bright flowers cre-
ated a tropical landscape for Ken zo’s models.
Riffs on shirt fronts, from the tucked dickie to tiny
pleats at the front, deserved close inspection.
‘‘I adore men in short shorts,’’ claimed Sonia
Rykiel as she watched from the front row the suits,
where the tailored mini-pants rose from sober
Bermuda length to high thigh. Rykiel Homme,
with its knitwear heritage, scored with sheer
sweaters, while the shorts suit is a solution for
scorching city summers.
Suzy Menkes is the fashion editor of the Interna-
tional Herald Tribune.
MIHAR AYASUHIRO
Striking
a balance
ihara Yasuhiro, the Japanese
M designer, showed a powerful
collection full of pieces that found
the perfect balance between
inventive and wearable.
The sporty collection included
double front-zip track suits, sweaters
with pixilated designs and
fascinating computer-manipulated
flower print tops that morphed into
organic-looking ribcages. Tailored
suits that from far away looked
straightforward revealed, on closer
examination, a back cut out in
netting, stretch fabric inserted at the
armpit or a track suit waistline.
Already known in Asia for his
popular sneaker collaborations with
Puma, the designer, whose label,
Miharayasu hiro, had some more
sophisticated looks in his repertoire.
The white tailored shirt that
seamlessly ended in a waistcoat or
the black button-down short-sleeve
tops that finished in an elastic hem,
scooping longer in the back for a snug
fit, were examples from a designer
with a bright future ahead of him.
— Jessica Michault
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