Men’s Paris Fashion Week was long. Somewhere between the third perfect coat and the fifth “quiet luxury” suit moment, it became clear who actually had something to say, and who was just very good at filling time. Safety showed up looking very correct, but everything else felt more convincing. Classics are just hard to beat, menswear has spent decades perfecting them. The most interesting ones are those who know how to respect them and refresh not only the clothes, but the story around them.
Louis Vuitton
Pharrell Williams, creative director of menswear, thought inside the box this season, literally. The runway became a garden, the set a home, courtesy of Japanese design firm NOT A HOTEL. Wooden interiors, living room, closet, all visible through pristine glass walls. How else could we watch the first models in line, lounging like houseguests before the runway opened? Before tailored trousers, soft knitting, leather ties, faux fur pocket linings, windbreakers and peacoats, bags that know no gender, took center stage. About twenty minutes later the models finally abandoned the fake grass and retreated inside, and for a moment, it felt like Pharrell was inviting us in too.
Egon Lab
Florentin Glémarec and Kévin Nompeix, the duo behind Egonlab’s creative direction, named this season’s collection “Lazarus”, pointing to an awakening, a kind of rebirth, but one that comes from looking inward, not forward. The show opened with a spoken message by actress Jameela Jamil, reframing darkness as something protective, while creativity is shown as a risk in a results-obsessed culture. On the runway, black dominated, but in every texture and silhouette imaginable, feathers that couldn’t decide between couture and streetwear, layered volumes, structured hybrids, trompe-l’oeil tricks, sharp collars, and Tinder. Yes, there was a capsule collection inside the core collection.
Willy Chavarria
Whatever it was Willy Chavarria put on in Paris, he didn’t stage a show. He built a small town around it. His Eterno collection played out in front of 2,000 guests, 400 of them rerouted straight from a watch party. What followed felt closer to live cinema than a runway. Creatives like Mon Laferte, Lunay, Mahmood, Lil Mr. E, Santos Bravos, Feid, and Latin Mafia grabbed mics, sometimes from lowrider bikes as scenes shifted between roads, bedrooms, cafés, photo booths and parked cars. Into this setting walked models like Julia Fox, Romeo Beckham and Farida Khelfa, wearing everything from adidas collab sportswear to the new Big Willy workwear line. Patterns, colours, silhouettes, nothing was held back. “I always design what I feel like wearing in the moment,” Chavarria said. If this is the result, let’s hope the feeling sticks.
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