How menswear left last season’s over-styled opulence behind and opted for a precisely tailored look, rooted in traditional know-how, yet full of surprises.
Calvin Klein Collection
The expression “less is more” appropriately sums up this Fall/Winter 2013 menswear season. Eye-popping prints and color-splashes, voluminous, edgy shapes, and androgynous looks were gone. Indeed, real men needn’t be excessively styled in order to look good. The City of Lights offered a platform that instead showcased a very tamed menswear collection, made for the discerning modern-day gentleman.
One was left with the feeling that menswear needed to somehow cleanse itself and return to its roots of impeccable, manly cuts and ingenious fabric choices. And yet, the omnipresent focus on sartorial tailoring always came with an edge. “I was thinking about sartorial tailoring, as I wanted to stay true to Cerruti’s Italian roots and mine as well.” confirmed Aldo Maria Camillo, Cerruti’s newly nominated head designer. “The quest for softness in menswear was also challenging. I wanted to show that softness in menswear is not about loose and oversized proportions, it’s about controlling those proportions.” continued Camillo, who showcased his first menswear for the luxury house, paying homage to Nino Cerruti with well-fitted, unadorned suit silhouettes.
Balmain
In this precise tailoring context, outerwear ruled this season’s runway, and paired functional cuts with edgy detailing: Balmain’s kimono-like belted tuxedos, Vuitton’s smart leopard patterned luxe overcoats, Simons’ double breasted jackets with a band of fabric imposing itself horizontally across the chest, and Dior’s buckle-belted trenches were among the many coveted pieces worn over both fitted and cropped menswear outfits.
The color palette was discreet with only a hint of cherry red, sapphire blue, or lime green that crept in now and then on a collar, a lapel, a patched pocket, or a sleeve. Dusty black, midnight blue, anthracite, light grey, taupe, light camel, and burgundy set the main tones across the runways, occasionally coming on desirable tweed mélange optics or on patent leathers.
Christophe Lemaire
Knitwear centered on fishermen and cable knits, designed in a chunky way or sometimes accompanied by sarcastic jacquards—a motif of two business men following a lady at Raf Simons’—while drop-crotched pleated pants were seen at Balmain, and wool-alpaca chinos and silk pajama pants were spotted at Christophe Lemaire. It all came across in a surprisingly laidback fashion—there was no attempt to blur or deconstruct the silhouettes. Despite the trompe-l’oeil knits (trick the eye) made out of a patchwork of beanies, even Maison Martin Margiela was incredibly tame this season.
Mugler
Then, a few edgier brands—think Mugler and Boris Bidjan Saberi—interpreted the tailoring diktat in their very own, distinguished way. In this context, military tailoring was their common denominator: troops for Saberi and air force for Mugler. Nicola Formichetti and Romain Kremer—artistic director and menswear designer of Mugler, respectively, finally went from styling to designing and showcased silhouettes that first kicked off with monochromatic looks and evolved slowly but firmly to two-tone outfits with flashy triangular patterns and detailing, on flight jackets, double-breasted storm coats, and sharp overcoats amongst other silhouettes, that underlined the aeronautical look. On his side, the half-German, half-Iranian designer Boris Bidjan Saberi showed off his handicraft skills, by proposing hooded parkas with obvious piping and desirable tailored overcoats that came with asymmetric panels, created with an innovative square cut technique.
Saint Laurent
On the very last day, finally, Saint Laurent came. Or rather, Hedi Slimane’s vision of Saint Laurent. Breaking with the general sartorial tailoring trend, Slimane brought youthful, androgynous and grungy looks to the runway. His iconic slim suit outfits, re-interpreted with rock’n’roll leather and tartan aesthetics were an expectable choice, but then—ripped jeans and sloppy scarves? Does Mr. Slimane really expect the Saint Laurent clientele to buy second-hand looks? This said, most of his menswear propositions were so utterly down-to-earth that one can clearly see them hanging in a man’s wardrobe for a few seasons and beyond. No need to constantly follow the winds of change to look good.
