Dior Homme photography by Patrice Stable. Rick Owens photography by Valerio Mezzanotti, courtesy of OWENSCORP.
LAST LOOKS: BEST OF PARIS MEN'S FALL 2016
For Fall 2016, Paris’s menswear designers were avidly focused on the individual, on independence and originality, and a way to stay sane and sound in a frenetic world. The solution came from both directions, with some finding the answer in armor, and others reverting to the comfort of the lived-in and well-known—both possibilities are present in The Last Magazine fashion director Alastair McKimm’s ten favorite collections below.
Virgil Abloh’s Off-White made an impressive and eye-catching men’s runway début, with a glowing orange set and clothing slashed across the back in hommage to Lucio Fontana. Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli gave their men at Valentino the chance to find themselves, whether it be in the Pacific Northwest or the desert south, or anywhere else on the road. Junya Watanabe looked to the outdoors, proposing a range of outwear that could withstand the elements and also—thanks to built-in solar panels—keep the wearer connected. Kris Van Assche gave his elegant designs at Dior Homme an athletic edge, shown against skate ramps that glowed neon red and topped with mountain-ready touks.
In a somewhat pessimistic vein, Gosha Rubchinskiy took inspiration from the classic Russian saying “save and survive,” which was printed in Cyrillic across his edgy designs, which had a Nineties punk vibe. The team at Maison Margiela sent out a similarly grunge-y collection, with oversized coats, loose-knit baggy sweaters, and patchwork jeans. Rick Owens went both prehistoric and post-apocalyptic, with a show called “Mastodon” full of loose fits, sharp lines, and a closing puffer coat that seemed ready to swallow the model whole.
At Comme des Garçons, Rei Kawakubo tempered the toughness of her armor-inspired designs with sprays of flowers and wreaths of blossoms crowning the models’ heads. There was a similar dichotomy at play in Raf Simons’ designs, which combined a hard edge of strong shapes with a looseness in the compellingly oversized sweaters and coats. But even as designers seemed ready to hunker down in tough times, there was still comfort to be found in places, as at Lanvin, where Lucas Ossendrijver celebrated ten years designing their menswear with a collection that had a pared-down simplicity that was reassuring in its ease and confidence.
Take a look at Alastair’s favorite Fall 2016 men’s collections from London and Milan.
