Sports meet fashion

Cerruti’s saleable show

PARIS, June 24, (AP): It’s rare that an event can upstage a top Paris Fashion Week show taking place in the French capital’s ornate Grand Palais.

But guests arriving at the Cerruti display witnessed one — and flocked to take in a major aquatic spectacle happening on and below the gilded Alexandre III bridge as Paris tried to woo Olympic officials in its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Here are the highlights of Friday’s spring-summer 2018 menswear collections at Paris Fashion Week.

Fashionistas gathered around cheering crowds Friday as synchronized divers plunged off diving boards on Paris’ famous Alexandre III bridge, twisting in the air before splashing into the cool water.

To boost the city’s 2024 Summer Olympics bid, Paris created an ephemeral Olympic swimming pool in the River Seine.

“It’s an incredible distraction,” said Flaunt magazine fashion editor Long Nguyen, spectating. “Paris is a global capital for fashion, wouldn’t it be great if it were the same for sports and athletics?”

High-divers plunged, while trampoline athletes somersaulted inside the Petit Palais art museum. Runners raced on a floating track as the City of Light turned some of its worldfamous landmarks over to sports for two days in the hopes of wowing the International Olympic Committee.

Cerruti

“Chief Creative Officer” Jason Basmajian of Cerruti 1881 brings as much a business approach to his fashion designs as an artistic one. Friday’s saleable collection was a case in point.

While the 49 looks didn’t break any molds— barring the odd gold tuxedo — they were elegant, masculine and highly wearable.

Loose suits with baggy, sometimes Bermuda, shorts and wide-pleated pants defined the pared down aesthetic — rendered crisper by the show’s bright white medical lighting. Slicked back hair, round shades, belt straps hanging from the waist and tassels accessorized these styles alongside large wide-toed leather shoes or sneakers.

This display was very much tailored for a masculine man who’s not interested in modern menswear’s flamboyant excesses.

Despite this, Basmajian was not afraid of using color. Yellow-green, coral, pale peach, navy, burnt caramel, cream and dusty ultramarine all made it into Cerruti’s menswear fashions — but they were always handled with restrain.

Berluti

Chicago Bulls NBA star Dwyane Wade and his actress wife Gabrielle Union joined fashion power couple model Natalia Vodianova and husband, LVMH luxury group heir, Antoine Arnault at Berluti’s splashy evening fashion show.

Inside the storied stone courtyard of Paris’ former mint, guests basked in the last rays of sunlight and hobnobbed with the stars before Friday’s last major show got off to its tardy start.

Men’s, and some women’s, styles (on models of both sexes) fused effortlessly in the color-rich and saleable display.

But this collection remained firmly masculine in its unfussy shapes, boxy silhouettes and simple color palette of sienna, blue gray, stone and white.

Gently pleated pants — baggy and loose on the hip — touched on one of the season’s trends — and provided the collection’s leitmotif: a thick colored waistband that bisected the body.