Highlights from Paris Men’s Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2024
Paris men’s fashion week spring/summer 2024 brought forth unexpected innovations, like cabochon jewels upon tailoring, wonders of up cycling and good ol’ ominous foreboding.
Here are our picks of the most memorable shows from Paris Men’s Fashion Week spring/summer 2024:
Rick Owens
Rick Owens’s intricate Italian creation, steeped in Victorian tradition and form, was a starting juxtaposition to his wilder design components. The rigidness of the shoulder cuts blending with the gentle curling fold of silk organza provided an eerie spectacle. What truly captivated the audience, however, was Owens’s entanglement of classic style and Flintstones-esque anarchy. The creator was indulging in excess, savoring each bite of the confection. But there was a discerning purpose to this extravagance – a rebellion against the societal norms, an outcry for change. It was like an explosion, magnificent yet ominous, a masterpiece meant for those who were doomed.
Dior
“…but I prefer a man who lives and gives expensive jewels,” was surely Kim Jones’s motto for his fifth-anniversary collection for Dior Homme. And jewels were plenty – sparkling in maroon, emerald and cobalt they adorned piqué polo shirts, cardigans and the impeccable tailoring. Jones didn’t shun borrowing the features from womenswear either – the dizzying array of tweeds and knitwear, for example, boasted the stylistic elements of the beloved Lady Dior bag, while the buckles on the loafers (which were presented in a fantastic range of colors and prints) adopted the Lady Dior fragrance motif.
Marine Serre
Every time one thinks that the plank of fashion innovation has been reached, Marine Serre raises it with grace and aplomb, as most recently tested by her spring/summer 2024 menswear collection. Most notable was the range of denim pieces made from deadstock fabric (especially the glamorous mermaid gown spun out of layered leg panels), yet it didn’t quite eclipse Serre’s whimsical upcycled pieces with a veritable cornucopia of prints – from baroque and beloved crescents to lions and flowers.
Givenchy
Matthew Williams decided to explore a new direction with Givenchy menswear during the spring/summer 2024 presentation, and we couldn’t be more joyful. He dialed it back, toned it down, stripped it to the bare bones and forced us to hark his craftsmanship. We started with a beautiful array of tailoring – smart and boxy, a little juvenile but never cartoonish. Then followed the jackets – varsity, bombers, MA-1 jackets, parkas – which were cropped at first to achieve expertly calibrated layered silhouettes and graduated to the lengths way past the waist, carving out those cavalier silhouettes we missed from the 90s.