Paris kicks off stand-out men's fashion week on Tuesday
While the London and Milan weeks have been trimmed down significantly, the French capital's Men's Fashion Week is buoyant, showing remarkable resilience despite a number of names dropping out of the calendars, as mixed-gender shows become ubiquitous. Starting on Tuesday 16th January and until Sunday 21st, Paris will therefore showcase a top-notch selection of Autumn/Winter 2018-19 menswear collections.
The calendar features 55 catwalk shows, compared to 52 last June, including, among others, those by Valentino, Rick Owens, Louis Vuitton, Yohji Yamamoto, Dior Homme, Hermès and Lanvin. And a plethora of presentations, of course. Among the top names, the news is that Balenciaga has dropped out of the calendar.
Following in the footsteps of Givenchy, which was absent last season and showed the men's and women's collections together last October, Balenciaga chose to go co-ed, and will present its winter collections in a mixed show at the women's fashion week in March. However, this January the Kering-owned label will introduce its very first men's pre-collection, and its Creative Director Demna Gvasalia will of course join the Paris fray this week.
He is sure to cause quite a stir with the eagerly awaited show of his Vetements label, back on the catwalks after opting for a presentation last season. The Vetements show was initially included in the official programme, but will eventually take place off-calendar, away from the French capital's posh districts.
Another highlight will be the return of Maison Margiela, which stopped showing menswear after June 2016. The show is eagerly awaited, and will be the chance to discover the very first men's collection designed by John Galliano.
Elsewhere, major labels will be billed alongside emerging designers and up-and-coming fashion stars: no less than four labels will join the official calendar of the French Federation of couture and fashion for the first time, and another three will be making a comeback.
Besides Martin Margiela, Swedish label Acne Studios will return to Paris for this winter season, opting like Vetements for a classic catwalk format again, and so will Off-White by Virgil Abloh, which showed at Pitti Uomo in Florence last June.
Another novelty for Paris will be the presence of Dunhill London, the British label now designed by Mark Weston, formerly Senior Vice-President Menswear at Burberry, which previously showed in London. The Dunhill show is scheduled on the week's closing day, Sunday 21st January.
The calendar will also include three highly interesting emerging names, each with a very different story. The first to hit the catwalk will be Palomo Spain, on Tuesday 16th at 6 pm. It was founded in 2015 by Spanish designer Alejandro Gomez Palomo, a graduate of the London College of Fashion, and its wardrobe has a distinctly feminine aesthetic.
On the same day, it will be the turn of another rookie, GmbH, a label infused with a streetwear/workwear vibe, designed by a Berlin collective headed by artist and photographer Benjamin Alexander Huseby and Turkish-born German designer Serhat Isik.
Parisian label Nïuku will showcase its urban, androgynous fashion with a show entitled 'Retro-futur', scheduled on Thursday 18th at 8 pm. The label, whose timeless style blends recycled items and design creativity, was launched in 2014 by Lenny Guerrier, an aficionado of fashion archives and vintage culture, and young designer Kadjahdjah.
The Paris men's Fashion Week will feature yet more creative sparkle though, as nine new labels will join the presentation calendar for the first time, including French brand Arthur Avellano, Paris-based Canadian Nicolas Andreas Taralis and Japanese labels Ambush, Undercover and Takahiromiyashita the Soloist. The latter two have just arrived from Florence, where they showed at the tail end of Pitti Uomo.
Also on the menu are Amiri, founded in Los Angeles by Mike Amiri, Myar, launched by Italian designer Andrea Rosso (son of the founder of Diesel), Sadak by Berlin-based Serb designer Sasa Kovacevic, and finally London-based designer Yang Li.
In addition to this array of new names, countless parallel events and parties will add to the Ville Lumière's dazzle during the Fashion Week.
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