Top Looks From Paris Fashion Week Men´s Collections A/W´20

Paris is home to some of the biggest names luxury fashion; Dior, Louis Vuitton, Dries Van Noten all show here and have done forever. The weight of those brands means Paris Fashion Week has a rep for being a serious affair with lots of serious ceremony surrounding it, but this season we saw a few surprises and plenty of looks to take from the runway.

Rick Owens

"A Rick Owens show is a startling affair. Impossibly tall models strut the runway in stack heeled boots and waist length hair kicking up clouds of dry ice – a menacing and uncompromising silhouette.

"This season, Owens was partly inspired by Bowie’s famous knitted Ziggy Stardust one-piece jumpsuit by Kansai Yamamoto from the early Seventies. Look 22 – my spirit animal with his long grey locks – stopped me in my tracks at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. A glimpse of flesh, a hint of leather and all thrown together with that razor sharp, pagoda-shouldered coat."

Acne Studios

"For his latest collection, Acne’s Jonny Johansson had a future-facing trick up his sweatshirt sleeve, collaborating with Robbie Barrat, a “generative artist”, who rose to internet fame by creating a “rapping AI” that uses Kanye West’s discography to write its own songs (terrifying and brilliant).

"The clothes that appeared in a big white room were led by Barrat’s algorithmic black magic. Thousands of former Acne looks were fed into his software, resulting in a sexy, surreal, tailoring runway. While I’m not quite ready (or lithe) enough for the leather suit, the oversized Klein blue mountain parka is a perfectly realised piece of outerwear. It also fits into one of my favourite proportion playing combinations: tailoring under proper outdoor jackets. Thank you Acne. Thank you new fashion robot overlords."

Casablanca

"There's little to compare to Casablanca: a streetwear-cum-tailoring-cum-terry towelling tribute from French-Moroccan designer Charaf Tajer. The latest collection, a military marchin Dalmatian prints and pastels, was no different. The surprise, though, came in the resort-wear focus.

"Yes, yet another murky phrase within the fashion lexicon. But Casablanca took resort-wear literally. There was skiwear for a lodge in a yet-to-be-made Wes Anderson film. There were silken suits for drinks on the balcony of Liberace's middle eastern holiday home. And also this: a boxy, double-breasted silver suit, that you might wear for a wedding in a Vegas casino in the Seventies. Or just every single event I've got planned in 2020."

Jacquemus

Following on from an Insta-friendly show in Provence (Jacquemus won 1.8 million new followers following last season's walk through a field of lavender), founder Simon Porte Jacquemus was keen to prove his brand wasn’t just a social media phenomenon. A fabric inspired by the first garment he ever made for his mum was the linen spine of he entire show.


"Overall, this wasn’t as energetic as his S/S '20, with an overarching palette of tan or sage. The men's looks were styled clean and uncomplicated: camp collar shirts, loose casual suiting and the odd double-trouser (open fly) layering. But it was wearable: a point Porte stressed before the collection's release. Look 19's Gallic flip-flop, camp collar party piece is very 'me going to the boulangerie before work'."