Lanvin fuses sartorial and street to cap Paris menswear week
PARIS » Actress Gabrielle Union joined French actor Reda Kateb on the front row of the edgy Lanvin show at Paris Fashion Week.
Here are some highlights from Sunday, the last day of springsummer 2018 menswear collections.
LANVIN’S HYBRID STYLE
It was sartorial fused with street. As VIP guests looked on, Lucas Ossendrijver’s passion for hybrid styles found its voice on the catwalk for Lanvin.
The veteran Dutch menswear designer took suits with a flavor of the 1950s and mixed them up with sports references, on-trend baggy pants, hoodies and sneakers. The combinations produced a strong spring-summer collection from the storied Parisian house.
A loose, rippling gray worker’s overall was given a luxurious makeover, worn under a dark gray wool knee length coat. Loose double breasted jackets with retro rolled up sleeves were accessorized with white, ‘50s belts and white streetwear sneakers.
But it was not all wintery — owing to unexpected flashes of bright red summer Bermudas.
There were also plenty of clever fashion ideas.
A sartorial Prince of Wales check jacket was fused into sportswear with geometric patterning on the shoulder, zips, studs, tassels and an exposed bright orange interior. Bright Cerulean blue gave a freshness to an inverted sartorial raincoat and made guests dream of the ocean.
FASHION NAVEL GAZING
The stereotype of young VIP Fashion Week attendees as rich, soulless attention-seekers wasting their parents’ money has now been transformed into a fashion concept.
“Enfants Riches Deprimes” (Depressed Rich Kids) was founded some years ago by a conceptual artist not lacking in irony called Henri Alexander Levy. Levy was profoundly marked by his education at the super-rich Institut Le Rosey boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland, and various other boarding schools. He decided to turn those experiences into fashion.
Since 2013, one of the core values of the house is simply to maintain exorbitant price tags — Tshirts cost up to $1,000 and couture jackets are priced as high as $95,000.
Its first Paris Fashion Week show was being held — in a humorous touch — at the symbol of all things moneyed — Christie’s auction house.
The label’s style of juxtaposing tailored wear with brutally ripped garments at eye-watering prices has earned the house somewhat of a cult-like following.