Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Yves Saint Laurent

For his fall/winter collection Yves Saint Laurent decided to make a movie. The brand hired Bruce Weber to produce a short film called Ain’t Nothin’ Like The Real Thing. The film, which contained footage of the male YSL models posing and dancing, quickly made it’s way around the web, shortly after it’s release.

Unfortunately in the film Stefano Pilati’s new designs for YSL couldn’t be seen. Therefor he held a show.  He designed perfect trenchcoats with buttons at the back and checked blazers. In several looks he used a scarf as a belt on top of a coat. And some long tunic shirts were visible from under the jackets.

Yet Pilati’s jumpsuits and drop-crotch pants (popular in women’s fashion at the moment) were most impressive. The jumpsuits had a wide rounded neckline and all had a matching belt in the same fabric. The models wore them with T-shirts and jackets.

Gray and black were the main shades in this collection. And although Pilati used some female items, he managed to turn them into real menswear for next winter.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Givenchy

What would Jesus wear nowadays? If he shopped at Givenchy, he’d wear sandals, black stockings, a kilt, shorts and a gold crown of thorns necklace. The models at Givenchy looked like modern monks in their black and white clothes, black sandals (sometimes with, ugh, black shiny stockings), high collars and long coats. No laughs, no fun – this was serious man! But without all the fuzz, the basic collection is about a suit, a puffy jacket, a kilt, a white shirt and a long coat. Enough to mix endlessly.

Paris Catwalk Fashion fw2010: Junya Watanabe

Junya Watanabe reinterpreted the Jazz Age and made it to a fine collection. He gave the tailoring a twist— double-breasted suits illuminated with red stitching — and then meld formal and casual, which has become the season’s major trend. Watanabe made that mix more than putting a nylon parka over a suit or teaming a tailored jacket with jeans. He showed inserts of leather in suits and made the sportswear as powerful as the more formal pieces. The designer also put in another strong story: the revival of the camel coat.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Dries van Noten

Dries van Noten knows his way with menswear, with just that little touch of eccentricity and panache.

The Belgium designer focused at graphic details, think black (or red) and white stripes, piping, mixing checks and stripes and he took inspiration from the English jockeys. From dressed down sweat-styled trousers and bold electric blue separates to contrasting inserts, Van Noten’s man proved to be confident and stylish.

Paris Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Louis Vuitton

Dutch designer Paul Helbers presented a very wearable Louis Vuitton menswear collection. His decent-looking models wore items you could easily imagine on men passing by on the street.

The clothes came in masculine shades like dark gray, black and brown. Paul Helbers designed knitted cardigans and double-breasted, long, woolly coats. As seen in other f/w menswear collections the LV-jackets – as well as his bags – often had leather details. The leather used for some coats almost looked fake, while it had no creases, tears or what-so-ever.

A lot of big bags were shows. Christian Schoeler had painted some Vienna-inspired ones in white with fading colors, representing winter landscapes. Most models wore leather gloves and walked on boot-clogs in which they’ d tucked their legs.

At the end of the show both Paul Helbers and Marc Jacobs appeared on the runway, while Marc Jacobs applauded for his Dutch colleague.

Milan Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Dirk Bikkembergs

Not only people from the fashion industry could attend Dirk Bikkembergs Sports Couture show this year; tickets to the show were also sold to any fashion lover who wanted to pay for it. The money that was raised by this, would go to charity.

After a countdown,  tough-looking muscular men appeared on the catwalk to the beat of our favorite Michael Jackson songs.

The Bikkembergs collection was inspired by the world of mountaineering, so the models were dressed in a way they could resist extreme weather conditions. They wore knitted sweaters and were wrapped in cashmere and mohair. Most of them had caps on their heads and wore thick gloves. They walked the runway on flip flops with thick socks in it and high boots with colored laces.

While his pants were nothing special, Dirk showed some good jackets. We loved a white trenchcoat and a black & white dinner jacket. Many jackets had fur collars and shoulders with leather accents.

Underneath these jackets some models wore a T-shirt with the image of an ice-bear, that vaguely resembled the popular Christopher Kane gorilla T-shirts.

At the end of the show a happy Dirk Bikkembergs waved to the audience. Although we thought his collection was pretty safe and predictable, at least he was having a blast.

Milan Catwalk Fashion show fw2010: Roberto Cavalli

The Roberto Cavalli fashion show was a mix of several themes. There were military influences and Victorian details. Yet the show was also very Cavalli due to the use of jaguar prints.

One piece of clothing really stood out: tartan trousers, cut just under the knee. Those trousers came by in a few variations matched with large coats, metal mash tank tops or velour’s jackets. One metallic top had such a detailed pattern that the material resembled lace fabric.

Roberto Cavalli accentuated the men’s body in the right way with this collection; small at the bottom and wide at the top. So his trousers were tight and his big jackets had emphasized shoulders and XL collars with often, not one but two, fur layers.

The models wore shiny shoes in different shades. Their feminine metal belts had all sorts of frills and therefore were real showpieces.

The use of military as a theme may not have been quite renewing. Yet overall the Cavalli collection was creative and sophisticated.

Milan Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Salvatore Ferragamo

After the sound of trampling hoofs the Ferragamo models slowly came on to the runway. The collection meant to present the elegance and pride of ‘a man on horseback’ and show his sophistication and casual look.

This resulted in great balanced outfits in warm natural colors like orange, chocolate brown, velvet and red.

The models wore loose-knitted scarfs with long fringes. They looked comfortable in some large knitted cardigans with leather belts on top of them.

Ferragamo’s trousers were striped and his thick jackets had the tartan look going on. A few good old toggle coats came by and we saw some dignified jackets with a smooth satin finishing.

Altogether the use of knitwear, leather and cashmere made up for a luxurious-looking Ferragamo collection.

Milan Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010: Roberto Cavalli

Woven leather pants with metallic mesh tops at Roberto Cavalli, topped with plaid shirts and rugged parkas.

Milan Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010 : Emporio Armani

The Emporio Armani show for fall/winter 2010 opened with a few groups of models wearing different sets of sportswear. The clothes were often made out of sporty rubber and most models wore crazy bonnets to finish their looks.

After the sport-influenced clothes many suits came by. Those – pretty tight – suits mostly came in grey. Grey happened to be the main color of the collection, representing the landscape of the big city (asphalt grey, rainy day grey). Yet it was often mixed with neon-colors to add a techno edge to the outfits. The many zippers on those outfits added to that feeling.

Since the show was all about geometry, many suits had small checks or circles in black and white. Armani also presented some graphic knitwear.

The accessories for the show were hats (which the models carried on their backs), sunglasses and gloves. The models walked the catwalk on big shoes that matched the shades of grey of their outfits.

At the end Armani showed the results of his collaboration with Reebok. About thirty models came on to the runway at the same time, wearing nothing but some men’ s briefs and the new EA7/Reebok shoes. We have to admit, we had a hard time focusing on those shoes!

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