Lanvin’s New Bad Boys Rule in Designer Clothing

If any collection best captured the current state of play in men’s fashion it was Lanvin, whose exhilarating show Sunday morning, June 28, in Paris was a real double whammy: The coolest collection of designer clothes in the most assuredly staged show.

Where previously Lanvin was all about the sensitive man, poetic figures whose clothes all looked designed for dinner parties where only Bordeaux vintages are served, for Spring 2010 Lanvin’s man's first destination will be a nightclub.

That much was clear from the pre-show ambience in the Salle Wagram - a Berlin techno track and bordello red lighting, where the start of the show was heralded by the volume brusquely turned way up.

Lanvin, the house that spawned the current obsession with wearing bowties - everyone from Lower East Side hipsters to Milanese dandies wear dickie bows these days – has suddenly walked away from the phenomena. They were absent from this show.

“It’s our anti-uniform collection and all about why not? Why not a nightclub? Why not iced coffee for breakfast," said Lanvin’s creative director Alber Elbaz with a laugh, who took his bow, as is customary, with menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver.

Though not many men can afford Lanvin’s pricey menswear, its influence has been huge – just take a look this spring in the windows of Zara, the giant Spanish fashion retailer, crammed, as they are, with the muted hues, frayed hems and sensitive fabrics the Paris house made its signature.

They should get ready to re-do the shop front for Lanvin’s after midnight collection emphasis on faille rocker dandy redingotes and a great new trouser cut – in taupe, ivy and battered burgundy – cut forgivingly down the thigh and tapered at the ankle. But the best idea was a series of pants and suits in cool tartan or club tie stripe fabrics which will be de rigueur for all hipsters next Easter.

Added to the mix were some great footwear, either Hobbit-like chunky brogues or fabric strap sandals, worn at the strong ecru colored finale where calf leather bomber jackets, worn inside pants, Querelle style singlets and off-the-shoulder trenches starred.

The only thing missing was a backstage pass around their necks or an after-party invite in their hands for Europe’s two mega tours of the summer – Depeche Mode and U2.

Source: FWD

Through the Wind and Rain in Burberry Designer Clothes

The most outstanding designer clothing collection seen Saturday, June 20, the opening day of the Italian menswear season, was Burberry, whose stroll through the wind and rain was the show that most connected to the current economic zeitgeist.

While the clothes were very much in step with the gentleman explorer aesthetic of Burberry’s creative director Christopher Bailey, the Spring 2010 collection nonetheless reflected the current global mood of wariness, dressing elegantly but never loudly and with an overriding sense of humility.

No designer anywhere, given the lack of action at cash registers, is trying to reinvent the wheel, but Bailey, to his credit, at least addressed the global mood with a show that began in with a downbeat opening and then morphed into a celebratory high-end nomad moment.



“I wanted to begin in the rain and end in the sun, a typical English day,” Bailey said backstage.



His opening was all about new takes on Burberry’s symbolic garment, the trench, showing new shower-proof waxed cottons and linens that had distinction but were never loud. He also revamped the classic padded country jacket with a shiny finish and a nightclub attitude.



Christopher also dipped into one major trend seen the last time the economy was in a tailspin, the bondage shirt, sending out several tops with multiple surgical straps around the torso that were early eighties and edgy.

But his best looks were bulky double-breasted dusters in technical finishes or redingotes in hefty linens that responded to men’s yearning for a look that is both protective and yet posh.



A series of polished, yet also worn, Chelsea boots and some masculine high-tech yachting parkas added to the air of rugged cool.

Source: FWD