Up-to-date with menswear for Spring/Summer’16? Well, if you’ve seen our edit of London (here) and Milan Fashion Week (here), you’ve only the just-concluded Paris collections left to peruse…
Below is the 10 collections that had us best impressed, but have a look through our fave Paris Fashion Week ranges for Spring/Summer’16 and let us know if our list matches up with yours.
Gosha Rubchinskiy
Russian designer, Gosha Rubchinskiy sent models out to play games with our hearts, pulling on the strings of our memories with a catwalk set somewhere that reminded us of the innards of a school gym.
The collection consisted of sports-inspired brights that were littered with stripes and the sort of separates that will intertwine and serve well during lazy Summer days – though we at SPICE especially loved the merging of 80s shell suits and the 90s’ Brit Pop attitude, seen via comfy, slouching sweaters and bold windbreakers.
Jump into an ensemble like this next year and score style points a-plenty.
Walter Van Beirendonck
Named after a lyric in David Bowie’s song “Moonage Daydream,” designer Walter Van Beirendonck’s “Electric Eye” collection for Spring/Summer’16 had models clowning around in clothes that Team SPICE admired on creativity levels alone.
Candy-coloured polka dots and fairytale-inspired prints lined suits of all sorts, and mostly, silhouettes came loose, billowing, and reminiscent of something a children’s entertainer might wear to perform at parties.
But, as well as crafting more wearable ensembles (slightly slimmer trousers to be worn with motif-ed tees and short suits) the collection spoke of the spectacle we are inundated with in our modern times – Mr Van Beirendonck telling Style.com;
“We’re overwhelmed by cameras [and] not just selfies but ISIS… we’re obligated to see everything dreadful that’s going on.”
A negative note to end (and to have inspired) such a colourful collection? Yes, but blink and you might have missed all the black that was included for a hint at doom and gloom, which was hidden amid all the chaos of fun and mulitcolour.
Valentino
Planning something jet-set for next year? You ought to plan to do it inside Valentino’s Spring/Summer’15 collection, which came with a healthy helping of uber smooth.
As well as the palette of olive, mustard, tan and greyed-blue, it was the choice of pieces and the oriental prints that did it for us: silk bomber jackets, slim-fit pants and cuban collared shirts – some which came with florals climbing across the chest, some with a flock of cut-out, collaged-style birds, and others with a dragon winding about the shoulder.
Said to have been inspired by all sorts of culture (Spanish accessories, Native American textures, Hawaiian prints, Roman denim and nods to Punk era fashion) the collection, designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, is a Team SPICE favourite, and surely one of yours for the season, too.
3.1 Philip Lim
For next year’s Spring/Summer, Mr Lim loosened things up with roomy silhouettes that came in navy, mustard, green, white and rare flashes of red, but always in something we wish to be wearing come 2016.
Botanical prints and raw hems left the lineup feeling very much the season it was intended for, though dark pin-striped suits left wiggle room for wearing this collection when the Summer weather disappoints. And guys, if you were ever hankering for a onsey, you’ll find one at 3.1 Philip Lim, where a cotton jumpsuit came baring a collar and thin zip akin to a bomber jacket, but the cuffs of your favourite shirt.
Issey Miyake
So Mr Miyake was all about the backdrop, pulling pieces together that were wallpapered with photos by Yoshinori Mizutani – pictures that made for pure Summertime perfection.
Cue digital prints of caged fences, layered over brickwork but in a palette like Picasso’s Blue Rose Period; pretty parrot prints perched across suits and matching neckties; another exterior of a building abstractly-clad across a sporty twinset.
The range is the stuff of a fun Spring/Summer’s dreams, creatively executed and revealing how a single image (in this case, of the birds of Tokyo or one of Mexico’s best buildings) can say a thousand things – especially when spied in one’s wardrobe.
Louis Vuitton
Like at Valentino, Louis Vuitton was all about a bomber jacket – a bomber jacket in silk and something sassy wrapped around the neck.
The boys on the catwalk worked their way through the showcase in reds, navys and an interesting splash of dusky pink – some items sloganed with the label’s name (in a curling serif) and just like at Issey Miyake, birds were a thing, too. Not parrots though, but swans.
Though it’s hard to say which specific ensemble we’ll be flocking to, we at least know we’ll be swanning about in somethiing from this collection this time next year, and if it’s not a silky jacket from Louis Vuitton’s latest lineup, it’ll be a shiny denim set by the brand instead.
Julien David
What we can’t work out is what we love most about this collection’s standout, illustratation-fused pieces – the face-covering stockings that reminded us of Discloser’s animated video for “Latch,” or the botanical doodlings that reminded us of Roal Dahl’s storybooks.
The embroidered masks are said to have been included to “accentuate the human feelings” of each look, but the “mutant daisies” that were seen etched onto jackets and full suits probably inched their way deepest into our minds for donning next year – along with the designer’s cool daisy-splattered short suit that we know will be a hit on bodies for Spring/Summer’16.
Junya Watanabe
Japanese designer Junya Watanabe is no stranger to the continent, having reached Africa for the inspiration for previous notable collections (see a standout one, here), but this time, a collaboration with Dutch wax label Vlisco lead the talent to really veer “Faraway” (the collection’s theme) and towards the West African shoreline.
The range saw ankara prints patched onto shirts, jackets and jeans – all decorated with accessories sourced from Parisian boutiques that specialise in African artefacts, leaving some reviewers talking about seeing ‘witchdoctors’ on the runway and others debating the show’s cultural appropriation (more on that, here).
But on the clothes specifically, what stood out for SPICE, with all the beige and browns in the collection used as a base for Vlisco’s colourful craftings, was the way the printed fabric was used – not just striped round cuffs or jigsaw-ed onto model’s bodies, but sometimes piled randomly atop each other like some sort of playful collage.
Needless to say we liked the range, and not just for being biased on the locally-sourced fabric, either.
Givenchy
Did you fall hard for this season’s affair with denim? Lucky you, because it’ll be back for next Summer, too.
At Givenchy, designer Riccardo Tisci had it forming a large section of his showcase, with models spied in thick-stitched jackets, pinstriped denim suits and tunics in the tough-wearing stuff.
Another staple feature of the collection was Jesus, Mr Tisci having been inspired by his Catholic roots and the way the Son of God is seen as a sort of pin up for prison inmates. Hence, Jesus’ face was put – crown of thorns and all – to t-shirts, trousers and shorts in a similar vibe as a band tee might bare the face of a rock’n’roll legend.
The last icon at Givnechy’s Spring/Summer’16? Naomi Campbell (in just a jacket, black bikini and thigh-high, sheer boots), who closed the show in full goddess mode, as she is only ever seen. Amen to that picture.
Saint Laurent
So Hedi Slimane went the rockstar route again, but we at SPICE were left just as starstruck by his models as usual, and by the outfits they wore so, so well.
Titled “Surf Sound” and designed as a “tribute to contemporary Californian surf music culture,” the collection came out swinging for impact and made one on us by the time we’d seen the fringed leather jacket worn with a dino-motif tee and bobble hat. The mood? Carefree and cooler than your usual tee, biker jacket and skinny jeans looked, with Mr Slimane’s signature swagger oozing from every ensemble.
It was Cali-cool, actually, meeting Kurt Cobain’s wardrobe; chunky cardigans, distressed, plaid shirts and thick-framed shades – all marched down the ramp with an attitude only few can muster.
Our guess is you’ll want to see if you’ve got that ‘Just threw this on and don’t give AF what you think’ attitude in you next Spring/Summer when wearing one of Saint Laurent’s genius combinations. Us, too.
Image source: Style.com, Pinterest.com, News.jedroot.com, Ygallerysalon.tumblr.com, Buro247.com, Hungertv.com, Nowfashion.com, Fuckingyoung.es, Hero-magazine.com, Styleblazer.com
