Smith gets splashy

Lanvin designer marks 10 yrs

PARIS, June 27, (Agencies): Lanvin’s Lucas Ossendrijver celebrated a glorious decade as the storied Parisian house’s menswear designer in a highly-anticipated show that saw the Palais de Tokyo venue bursting at the seams Sunday with guests.

Here are some highlights of the final day of spring-summer 2017 menswear collections in Paris.

Since Dutch-born Ossendrijver was tapped to revitalize the floundering Lanvin menswear line 10 years ago, he changed the face of the house. The designer, who cut his cloth at Kenzo and then Dior Homme, successfully modernized the men’s line founded by Jeanne Lanvin in the 1920’s with his signature layering, eclectic style fusion and fashion-forward approach.

Ossendrijver even made style history in 2006 by creating the first high-fashion urban leather sneakers, which have now become an iconic style item.

Under his tenure, Homme de Lanvin has become an unmissable Fashion Week calendar show and his line one of the most trendsetting in Paris today.

Lanvin

Ossendrijver was on top form at Lanvin’s show Sunday, fusing styles from the ’60s and the ’80s for his spring collection that showcased handmade craftsmanship. It had fashion insiders cheering. “This collection is not about a single concept but rather a collage made up of different possibilities,” Ossendrijver explained.

One leitmotif was the colorful variations on the Breton stripe, which had its heyday in the 60’s. Stripes in caramel, white, gray, blue and red graced shirts and vests with great optical kinesis.

Demonstrating Ossendrijver’s eye for detail, the 60’s theme carried through in long narrow scarves, rainbow stripes, big gray check suits and funky flat, round-toed pumps with color-contrasted laces that were all the rage in that era.

Agnes B.

Bright colors and African themes were at the heart of Agnes B.’s spring-summer collection, which celebrated cultural fusion.

A Persian blue tunic vibrantly opened the show, which fused Africa ideas with Western styles.

This show also had political overtones. Multicolored African wraps contrasted with T-shirt prints that humorously celebrated African multiculturalism in France, a political hot potato with the growing popularity of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front party.

A top in blue spelled out the famous Gallic mantra “Vive la...” (“Long live...”) with an image of the African continent instead of an image of France.

Paul Smith

London in the ’70s was in vogue for British designer Paul Smith, who produced a typically splashy collection.

Exaggerated retro shoulders defined the silhouette of myriad suit jackets and shirts — in checks or monochrome — that were twinned with the famed high-waisted pants.

Many of the looks borrowed from large “Saturday Night Fever”era shirt collars, fusing them with the more colorful, checked and striped London styles of the time.

Smith’s signature touch is, of course, color — and no hue was left behind. Royal blue, Cerulean, lime yellow and wild grass strongly contrasted with vermillion and titanium yellow in the runway designs.

As the last of the Paris menswear collections go down runways Sunday, we survey the big themes of the week’s fashion shows.

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