PARIS, Jan 22, (AFP): Urban elegance with a twist was the watchword at the autumn-winter menswear shows in Paris on Friday as city suits met workman’s blues, ninja neoprene, luxurious leather and slinky knits. The Belgian designer Kris Van Assche took two “cliches” of menswear — a banker’s suit and labourer’s overalls — as his starting point, combining them to create a look part white- part blue-collar.
Slim-fitting black and grey jackets and crisp white shirts were paired with giant-legged pants in bold boilersuit blue, cropped at mid-calf over low, chunky laced boots. “Workers need protective gear, but now with the crisis it is the bankers who need that protection,” Van Assche told reporters backstage following the show at the historic Beaux Arts art school on the south bank of the Seine.

Hair slicked back for the city, his models’ heavy shoes suggested a metal-capped boot, with protective sides to their glasses, and tiny backpacks in the same colour as their pants clipped to their rear pockets.
Wide-leg pants also came as low-slung dungarees, in black, blue or speckled grey wool, worn under a fitted jacket or ample black overcoat. The designer acknowledged an “obvious” Japanese influence — a trend at the Paris shows so far — visible in the wide pant cut, but also in colourful silk scarves folded neatly under the collar in lieu of ties. At Yves Saint Laurent, copious lashings of leather — used from head to toe in hats, coats and gloves — gave the urban-feeling collection, dubbed “Sex and Money”, an ultra-luxurious edge. The French house’s designer Stefano Pilati used leather on a jacket lapels or to highlight pockets. Draped leather collars wrapped the neck and wool overcoats were reinforced with leather shoulder patches.

Brazilian designer Gustavo Lins also said he aimed to “refine the male wardrobe”, injecting slinky knitwear and athletic touches with the focus squarely on comfort. Fitting his models in full view, Lins showcased his covetable autumn collection in a historic courtyard in the Marais quarter. Fine-ribbed, draped cardigans in charcoal, black or blood red were paired with beautifully tailored grey suit pants and jackets in light or slate grey, black and deep blue. Likewise, Lins layered a light halter-neck sweater over a slinky long sleeve black top, with suit pants and a strong-shouldered charcoal overcoat. And conversely, he paired luxurious knitted jersey tracksuit-style grey pants with black brogues, a polo neck and a suit jacket, for a look both elegant and athletic.

South Korea’s Juun J took the athleticism one step further, sending out urban ninjas whose futuristic wardrobe worked in leather and diving suit neoprene. Clad in close-fitting balaclava-topped sweaters, with high cloche-like hats, the models wore outsized coats and thick bulbous jackets, paired with slim grey pants, or high-waisted, deep-pocketed wool pants. Brazil’s Gustavo Lins imagined two-in-one reversible coats, like a hemp and wool model that flips to become a waterproof trench, he said during a presentation of his autumn line on Friday in Paris’ historic Marais quarter.

The Belgian Kris Van Assche, the designer for Dior Homme who on Friday showed his own-brand men’s collection, sent out overcoats in classic, deep-pocketed cuts, modelled with their collars turned up.
Underneath, slim-fitting black jackets and crisp white shirts were paired with giant-legged cropped pants like a workman’s blue overalls, creating a look part white- part blue-collar. “Workers need protective gear, but now with the crisis it is the bankers who need that protection,” the 30-something designer told reporters afterwards. Worn along with protective eyegear and heavy shoes that suggested a metal-capped boot, the look was all about sheltering from a cruel environment.

Picart suggested the search for protection also explained the lashings of leather, either provocative or second-skin comfortable, at Yves Saint Laurent at the Sorbonne on Friday, Viktor and Rolf the day before, or Jil Sander in Milan. Picking up the protection theme again, the models’ shoes had a wide band of silver dubbed a “shield” in the notes to the collection. South Korea’s Juun J sent out urban ninjas whose futuristic wardrobe featured warrior-like, architectural coats. A mix-and-match approach to fabrics produced a grey wool overcoat with leather sleeves, another with geometric panels in diver’s suit neoprene, or giant hunting coats in caramel waxed fabric. Bulked out and oversized across the shoulders, his coats had panels of leather along the spine, the sleeves or at the nape, ninja-style.

Later Friday night, designer Bill Gaytten conjured a gangland collection inspired by prohibition America for the label John Galliano, where hard men muscled past in heavy double-breasted overcoats, worn with fedoras or rakish leather flat caps and turned-up collars. East met West at the Paris menswear shows Thursday as Louis Vuitton sent out a kimono-inspired look and Japanese house Issey Miyake showed an upbeat autumn line full of curvy tartans and checks. Citing a “dialogue between the great cities of Paris and Tokyo” as his keynote, Vuitton’s British menswear designer Kim Jones paired classic European suits with Japanese-style silk kimono shirts in grey, green, tan or navy. Swinging large leather travel totes, in close-fitting suits that also ran from grey to navy and camel, Vuitton’s models cut a refined, gentlemanly silhouette, striding the catwalk in the giant greenhouse of a Paris park. Grey felt berets, worn with a tan nubuck crocodile blouson jacket and chalk stripe grey pants, or a baby camel knit sweater with khaki military pants, were meant to evoke the spirit of Paris circa 1970, Jones said.

Later, there were whole suits cut from the finest kimono silk, in charcoal or navy, matched with the exquisite accessories typical of the French luxury house, like metal-tipped nubuck lizard derby shoes, or a crocodile portfolio. Japan’s influence was also felt again in thick, roomy wool coats tied around the body, with a zig-zag pattern and “LV” monograms, and shawl wrap at the neck. At Issey Miyake, the autumn-winter look was all about destructured tartans and checks, in warm reds and blues, matched with the house’s trademark fine pleats, in tan or navy or cream. Miyake’s collective of menswear designers created check coats, jackets and pants — and a huge red military-style cape — from layers of wool gauze, fed by hand into a punching machine to pull the squares into a curvy pattern. Wide-legged pleated desert pants stopped at mid-calf or just above the ankle, over leather lace-up trainers. A boilersuit in pleated navy was belted at the waist, with a lime roll-neck peeping out at the top and mustard socks at the ankle.