Topical twist looks – Paris displays top trends

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PARIS, June 25, (Agencies): With Paris men’s fashion week coming to a climax over the weekend, we pick out five of the main trends so far on the spring-summer catwalks:

Gorilla sleeves: They may give their wearer something of the look of Lurch from “The Addams Family”, but nothing is more on trend at the moment than sleeves that dangle to the knees.

Super-long “gorilla sleeves” now have global reach after making early Paris appearances in shows by Raf Simons and Demna Gvasalia’s hugely influential Vetements brand over the past year.

While Gvasalia resisted his own trope in his show for Balenciaga Wednesday, there were no shortage of others following in his oversized wake.

Very long sleeves were prominent in Los Angeles avant-gardist Rick Owens’ show and the Korean label Juung.j went almost Mr Gadget length in its hoodies Friday, adding trailing cords to make them look even longer.

Djellabas: Maybe it’s because it is Ramadan, or more likely there is some other sort of strange kismet at work. Whatever the reason, it’s hard to ignore to all the clothes with something of an Islamic air.

While we’re still a long way from a male equivalent of “modest fashion”, Lemaire alone featured four jellabas — including one which would not look out of place on an imam.

Designer Christophe Lemaire insisted he had not consciously set out to a create specific Muslim-influenced style, but was just “picking up influences from people I live around in Paris”.

Another trendy Paris label OAMC had a rethought djellaba raincoat as well as a lighter tunic shirt. And the Japanese brand Issey Miyake got in on the act with sublime kameez tunics and blanket shawls inspired by a trip designer Yusuke Takahashi took to India.

Boiler suits: Workwear has been in for some time and now the humble boiler suit has got its day in the sun.

The one-piece overall was thoroughly deconstructed and reassembled by Andrea Crews into a whole wardrobe, from biker suit to dungarees, while Comme des Garcons protege Junya Watanabe nattily matched them with Panama and pork pie hats.

Lemaire added a topical twist, with one-pieces resembling the battledress of peshmerga Kurdish fighters, the heroes of the fight against the Islamic State group.

Tartan: Maybe not in Brigadoon proportions, but tartan — used sparingly — is a recurring theme across several collections for spring-summer 2017. Louis Vuitton and Japanese labels Kolor and Facetasm made striking use of it in their shows, while OAMC went “Trainspotting” meets the Edinburgh Tattoo with check Crombie-style coats and trousers.

The British vote to leave the European Union and not the clothes were the talk of the front row crowd at menswear shows in Paris on Friday.

It started at Maison Margiela, a house for whom Briton John Galliano is at the creative helm, one of many examples of cross-pollination in European fashion.

Galliano was not present at the somber show, with some fashion insiders commenting that the slow-beat Leonard Cohen soundtrack aptly defined the mood of many British attendees, all of whom The Associated Press spoke to were opposed to a British exit, or Brexit.

“It’s terrible,” repeated several top British fashion editors at the show in the storied Latin Quarter in Paris.

Fashion is one of the global industries where Britons are at the forefront of power and influence — and so the Brexit vote was of particular interest. The most French of industries — haute couture — was even invented by an Englishman, Charles Frederick Worth, in the 19th century.

Arguably the most powerful person in the industry is London-born US Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, sister of the Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour. The Guardian, which has a big online presence, urged people to vote against Brexit.

Vogue’s number two, Grace Coddington is also British and part of a fashion galaxy that include myriad designers. In addition to Galliano, Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton, Celine’s Phoebe Philo and Chloe’s Clare Waight Keller are among high-profile British artistic directors of Paris-based houses.

At Givenchy’s show the chatter continued.

Flaunt Magazine editor Long Nguyen compared those who voted for Brexit to supporters of US presumptive Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.

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