Kanye West, Julia Fox and other highlights from the Paris Fashion Week menswear shows

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Written by Nick Remsen, CNN

CNN Style is one of the official media partners of Paris Fashion Week. See all coverage here.

Even in a world increasingly obsessed with the metaverse, Physical Fashion Weeks remain the trendsetters of our wardrobe. Over the past two years, these summits have fluctuated, largely due to Covid-19 and its variants, back and forth between digital, in-person and “figital” presentations. Despite the upheaval, the fact remains that there’s no more powerful showcase than what’s going to happen stylistically than these events – and it’s not always just about clothes: Fashion Weeks initiate conversations about identity and self-presentation and how attitudes evolve fit or reflect popular culture.

Kanye West and Julia Fox arrived together at the Kenzo show. Credit: Pascal Le segretain / Getty Images for Kenzo

The latest edition of Paris Fashion Week, which unveiled a bounty of menswear for the Fall-Winter 2022 season, has taken a wave of demolition of the old menswear conventions as a new normal continues to be established. With ideas that were often dismantled or mixed according to genre, infused with surrealism and other uninhibited motifs, the designers pushed forward an agenda that seemed broader – and bolder – than usual.

Read on for highlights from seven standout shows.

Buzz in the front row at Kenzo

Stylist and musician Nigo, who founded streetwear label A Bathing Ape in 1993, presented his first collection for the Kenzo label in front of a lively crowd, including a Kanye West (or Ye as he prefers) dressed of jeans that was there with Julia Fox (Fox wore a denim look by Schiaparelli). Pharrell Williams was also spotted wearing eye-catching Tiffany & Co. diamond-rimmed sunglasses.

Pharrell Williams at the Kenzo show wears a pair of Tiffany & Co sunglasses.

Pharrell Williams at the Kenzo show wears a pair of Tiffany & Co sunglasses. Credit: Victor Boyko

Nigo’s appointment was something of a circular occasion. The brand was founded by the late Kenzo Takada in 1970, the year Nigo was born. They are both from Japan and both studied at the prestigious Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo. Takada’s first show was held at the City of Light’s Galerie Vivienne, where Nigo chose to hold his.
The catwalk was the first show of the new artistic director, Nigo.

The catwalk was the first show of the new artistic director, Nigo. Credit: Pascal Le segretain / Getty Images

While stylistic references to the year 1970 were seen in the form of embroidery and patches on caps and varsity jackets, there was a fashion trend in the collection, with a plethora of separate pieces and a safe use of plaids, patterns and colors. Both tailoring and workwear cut a genderless silhouette.

Great ideas at Loewe

Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson is an outgoing thinker, adept at channeling disparate notions into noteworthy double clothing designs.
Playful images and bare skin were the key components of the Loewe show.

Playful images and bare skin were the key components of the Loewe show. Credit: Peter White / Getty Images

For Fall-Winter 2022, Anderson offered an overcoat decorated with holiday lights, denim micro shorts, a gloved sweater with long tendrils of fabric running down the fingertips, and a sweater with a heart-shaped keyhole that showed her left nipple. He also sent a knitted muumuu featuring a meme-worthy cat with a parakeet on his head. The designer told the media that the collection was partially inspired by what we see, day after day, on the screens of our phones.

One last moment at Louis Vuitton

The late Virgil Abloh’s latest collection for Louis Vuitton was another extraordinary moment. The lineup was fantastic and dreamlike, and played with the signatures and clues that Abloh had woven into his work during his three and a half years at home before his untimely passing last year. There were men in skirts, lace suits worn as wings, hats with spiked ears, a Wizard of Oz motif, colorful Keepall duffel bags, comic-style illustrations, and so much more (as was typical of Abloh, ideas didn’t they never really stopped).

Behind the scenes of the Louis Vuitton fashion show.

Behind the scenes of the Louis Vuitton fashion show. Credit: Matthew Dortomb / Louis Vuitton

Stylist and editor Ib Kamara, who led the show, told CNN Style that the team “wanted to keep it where [they] thought Virgil was with [them]but push him where Virgil would have taken him. “

Cutting-edge Fun by Rick Owens

Meanwhile, Rick Owens, who has long been dancing along the most avant-garde frontier of fashion, did not disappoint with his Fall-Winter 2022 collection.

Helmets inspired by ancient Egyptian artifacts have been fastened with light bulbs and hoods have become zippered face covers, complete with tiny cutouts for visibility. A sleeveless shirt cheekily uttered the word “urinal”.

Rick Owens adorned his new collection with working light bulbs.

Rick Owens adorned his new collection with working light bulbs. Credit: Valerio Mezzanotti / OwensCorp

Speaking to CNN Style last season, Owens said, “The fact is, all my life, I’ve been trying to present something that is an alternative to a very rigid aesthetic that we see in this world. we adhere to but I try to blur the boundaries. And not in a militant way, but in a way that says, ‘I propose this as an alternative to the standards you are used to.’ “
The collection included T-shirts with unusual writings written as

The collection included T-shirts with unusual writings such as “Subhuman”, “Inhuman”, “Superhuman” and “Urinal”. Credit: Valerio Mezzanotti

Hints of Gaultier at Y / Project

Y / Project by Glenn Martens, who first trained as an architect, has become a benchmark for daywear with a conceptual twist. Interestingly this season his new collection featured a series of iconic trompe l’oeil body prints of legendary designer Jean Paul Gaultier, in a prelude to what will happen during this week’s haute couture shows: the year last it was announced that Marten’s will serve as a guest creative director for a single season for the Jean Paul Gaultier label, as part of a new designer rotation strategy that saw Sacai’s Chitose Abe take over last summer months after the retirement of Gaultier.
The Y / Project show featured a range of body prints from head to toe.

The Y / Project show featured a range of body prints from head to toe. Credit: Peter White / Getty Images

Blue marble

Bluemarble – by Anthony Alvarez – hosted its first show this season. Alvarez coined his label after a nickname for planet earth, which originated from a photograph taken by Apollo 17 in 1972. Blending American sportswear, European savoir-faire and Filipino handcrafted touches, his production has produced funky clothing, fun and cozy looking like like a generously broken pair of denim pants, lined with a twist cut with glittery fabric strips.

The Bluemarble collection was full of fun details.

The Bluemarble collection was full of fun details. Credit: Blue marble

Dior

On Dior Men, art director Kim Jones worked under the apparent specter of Christian Dior himself to celebrate the label’s 75th anniversary. In the past, Jones has generated considerable hype by touching third-party collaborators, such as artist Daniel Arsham and, last season, rapper Travis Scott (this collection is suspended indefinitely, following the tragic events of Scott’s exhibition. Astroworld in November 2021).
Kim Jones' latest collection paid tribute to the founder of Dior.

Kim Jones’ latest collection paid tribute to the founder of Dior. Credit: Stephane Cardinale / Corbis / Getty Images

Jones’s introspection proved remarkable. Most notable was his version of Dior’s famous “Bar” jacket, introduced in 1947, for women. It features a cut and construction that adds subtle hourglass curves to the garment’s architecture, and Dior’s idea was so groundbreaking at the time that he suggested a whole nickname for his creative work: the “New Look”. The men’s versions of Jones featured double-breasted finishes with topstitched seams.

Top image: Dior recreated the Alexandre III bridge for its menswear runway.

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