Louis Vuitton Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2013
Next year is the 30th anniversary of the Louis Vuitton Cup, prelude to the America’s Cup, so it was no surprise Kim Jones took LV to sea in his third season as Men’s Style Director for the house. He added sport to LV’s two totems, travel and luxury.
There were chic options for all the crew aboard: handsome double-breasted navy suits, rugged and colorful foul-weather gear and artfully frayed and decaying denim shorts and jackets.
Rick Owens Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2013
The message of Rick Owens was lightness: unstructured jackets in sheer organza, worn with shorts with panels at the front and back, or fitted pants. Then monastic dresses entered the picture, like a sweeping caftan in blurry hand-painted gray checks, accessorized with bold chain bracelets.
More wearable – read: urban – were the bombers and hooded parkas in summer-light organza, or cotton anoraks in graphic kite prints.
Mugler Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2013
Nicola Formichetti, creative director of Mugler, choose an aquatic theme for his menswear-collection. He and menswear designer Romain Kremer brought in a new tailoring team and focused at fundamentals — jackets, pants and shirts — “without being too extreme,” as Formichetti said. The suits had a muscular presence. The look was sharp, with structured shoulders, no lapels, and attached, cutout tops revealing shards of skin. The theme worked well for graphic scuba tops and sleek trenchcoats in sea foam green or oil-slick black.
Raf Simons Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Paris SS2012
Raf Simons took elements of masculine and feminine dressing and mixed those into a sporty, tailored collection. Delicate floral prints, pleats, broderie anglaise and shades of pink were applied to modern, angular silhouettes. The models – with long, wet bangs – wore shorts with slits, boxy white shirts or overcoats with backs in floral prints and pleated skirts. Simons also presented long pants worn with colorful sneakers. Some T-shirts had illustrations of women.
DSquared Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013
The DSquared-collection reminded of hard-core club gear, with Dean and Dan Caten using Village People leather caps, safety pin chains, tangles of black crucifixes, cobweb embroidery and neon and leopard-print accents to sex up their standard acts: sharp tailoring with cropped jackets and fitted pants, form-fitting white shirts, distressed denim and the like.
Giorgio Armani Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013
Easy Comfort. Giorgio Armani sent out a legion of unstructured silhouettes ranging from gently rumpled jackets with unpadded shoulders to the laid-back white suits, with Bermuda shorts that closed the show. ‘This is a sexy man, but a classy one, a classy gigolo,’, the designer told reporters of WWD. Well, he was the man who set a new sartorial standard for the male archetype in 1980 when he dressed Richard Gere for his first major film role in American Gigolo.
Knits ranged from the loose fitting to the more body-conscious. Sports jackets — some the color of faded denim — had a breezy, lived-in look.
After the show, Armani told reporters that designers have a role to play in educating men and improving the way they look. “Fashion has reached grotesque levels, and [with this collection] I felt the need to stand my ground, to improve men aesthetically.”
Missoni Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013
With models stepping on colored sand arranged in chevron shapes, Angela Missoni presented a collection for fashion nomads. The house’s fine, patterned knits — with their aged, sandy aspect — looked as though they came from under some desert rock. The weave pattern crept across military-flavored utility jackets, part of the brand’s expanding outerwear offer.
As the show progressed, color stepped in, with beetle-green sequins glinting across the chest of a crewneck sweater, or a zigzag blaze of poppy, ruby and pink threads erupting on a short-sleeve brown Henley in ribbed cotton and linen.
Etro Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013
The Etro-collection was a result of a trip to India that designer Kean Etro took: a sun-faded, breezy collection of paisley print clothing. Models wore silky overcoats, baggy trousers pooled around the feet, and long tunic tops. More structured silhouettes included wrinkled red or white drummer-boy jackets with matching frogging across the front, olive linen military style jackets embroidered with rose-colored threads, and one neat navy jacket with a raised herringbone weave.
Gucci Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013
Gucci’s creative director Frida Giannini used a rich and vivid Mediterranean color palette for her youthful tailoring and retro-style holiday clothes.
What to think of head-to-toe green, watermelon and cobalt ? It sounds screaming loud, but in real they were rendered in dry, crisp fabrics like raffia, washed cotton and cotton jersey. Giannini embraced monochromatic dressing with sharp, slim suits or sweater-pant combos in shades like rust or sky blue, but she also presented tailored blazers, often double-breasted, over slim white chinos. Every look was finished with the house’s iconic horse-bit loafers, celebrating their 60th birthday next year.
Calvin Klein Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013
The most important parts of American sportswear gave designer Italo Zucchelli inspiration for his Calvin Klein collection. The T-shirts, jeans jackets, chinos and shorts, they all came with a technical or luxury spin. Expect a come back of stone washed jeans, boxy jackets, carrot-shaped pants and T-shirts in nylon mesh. The surfer florals were the only variation, on shorts, shirts and suits.
