Men’s Fashion Week Wrap-Up—Celine, Dior, Vuitton... and La Canicule

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2:14This is The Run-Through. I'm Nicole Phelps. I'm joined here in the studio by Vogue Runways Senior Fashion News Editor Max Berlinger. Hi, Max. Hi. Welcome back from Paris. And Luke Leach, our longtime contributor who is dialing in from London. He is fresh off the plane, like barely 12 hours from Corsica, where you saw a very energetic Jacques Mousse show. It's true, Nicole. And hi, Nicole, and hi, Max. And yes, you know what? Today I'm feeling what I can only describe as something that I can barely remember, but it's called coldness for the first time in about two and a half weeks. And it's quite refreshing.

2:56But honestly, Nicole, I feel like I am in London and I am stationary for about 10 days before heading to Sicily. But I also feel like my molecules haven't settled. and they're back somewhere between Corsica and Paris because I only got in at about midnight last night. Well, we must start with the thing that I heard about nonstop, which is the heat. You were together in Paris on the three hottest days in Paris's recorded history. Paint us a picture of what it was like to sit outside at Rick Owens underneath the blazing mid-morning sun. It was hot. I will say that here, I wrote famously about how I liked the heat and that it didn't bother me.

3:43But although I will say I had an air conditioned hotel room at night, the Parisians do not have wide access to air conditioning. And they all talked to me about how it's hard to sleep and that they were tired. But I mean, it was, it was a lot. I think like, you know, two or three days of heat is one thing. But for it to be like seven days of sort of 100 plus Fahrenheit degree heat was a lot. Yeah, a few designers had to change the times of their shows at last minute or venue. So it definitely affected sort of the whole undergoing of the week. And the big question is, did it affect or impact the clothes?

4:19I know that the collections are developed for months ahead of time, but who do you feel answered the call for light, breezy, airy clothes best? um off the top of my head i would say uh breezy julian at drissi i think that was very breezy um you know there were the open backs there were the you know the short shorts the little ballet slippers with tie-up straps um so i think uh but i think also that perception is also based on the fact that there was such a lightness of touch and i was actually going to talk about three years later because it's one of my two real standout shows. But quite a few people talked about lightness as a concept, but I think not so many achieved it.

5:10And to go back to the general point about heat, I think I love a hot season. I always love June menswear over all seasons. Then comes September womenswear because it's obviously more of a pleasant experience. But in June, especially, you know, clothes have to work. Clothes are at first a response to the elements. And sure, you have outerwear seasons, but it's fun. I remember there was a season back in 2018, maybe, where it was also extremely hot in Paris. And it felt similar to that. I remember people losing their temperature and losing their minds in an Issey Miyake show. And, you know, every time I saw Max, he had a popsicle.

5:50the Dries Van Noten I actually thought a funny like through line and I wish I took more pictures because I would have written about it but like at the Dior Risi they had these really lovely like shaved ices that had like flowers on them there was popsicle stands at Dries there's like cold berries at the Hermes appointment just like the little sweet treats that were cold or the ways that they tried to you know do something to alleviate the heat was sort of sweet and very French to me But what is the word? La collicule? That was like a word. It's heatwave in French. And it's a word that I hadn't ever heard seven days ago.

6:25And then I heard every day 10 ,000 times a day. All right. So we've talked about the heat. Now I want to hear about who's hot or not in the designer world. The sense I got watching from afar was that everybody was crazy for Michael Ryder's Celine. Yeah, I would agree. I think that that was sort of, I don't want to say show of this season, but it was a really exciting high point for a lot of people, I believe, myself included. What did you like about it? I think, you know, I think Sarah Mower wrote the review and I think she kind of nailed it in that some designers sort of like stick to two or three ideas and sort of iterate on them.

7:04But he really gave such a broad idea of like who the Celine man could be. There was just a million different silhouettes and pieces. They were all mixed together expertly. there was you know I mean a lot of times you'll see a show and I'm like I could have watched I could have you know flipped through the the slideshow on Vogue runway but this there was such like a dynamism there was like these billowing capes where the pants had sort of this cool swish to there was these haramy pants that like really just move so there was like such like energy and and movement to it too and and it was just styled beautifully there was great colors it was the accessories were incredible it was just really really thoughtful every guy seemed like his own different guy.

7:41Luke, you missed Celine because you were on your way to Jacques Mousse, is that right? Yeah, I mean, it's actually really interesting hearing from Max because really regrettably I had to miss Celine and I was really looking forward to it, to seeing it live, but I felt I had to make sure that I caught the plane to the show that I was actually reviewing. So I did that. but I really felt from the pictures um and normally I'm quite like I need to be at the show to understand the show kind of a person but the flip side of Max's impression is that the pictures made total sense to me I think um what I and I've seen it in the shows previously from him but more here than ever before what I think he's got going for him is an incredible breadth, but a feeling for bringing in so many ingredients within a kind of philosophy of eclecticism.

8:35So you had formality, informality, ceremony, lack of ceremony, athleticism, and it didn't feel like it was broken into chunks or movements. And then there was a lot of really playful, as you said, accessories details. And I think that that would have been my highlight, even though I wasn't there, show of the season, because I think an easy approach to eclecticism and kind of everything everywhere all at once approach, it feels to me like if there is a mood of the moment, it's the closest thing to the mood of the moment there is where there isn't a defining mood. And so I thought that was the most exciting show or collection that I saw this season for sure.

9:14Yeah, there was a lot of like Phoebe-isms. You know, he famously worked under Phoebe at Celine and then went to Ralph Lauren. And there was like those billowing capes reminding me of that in one of her last shows where they were just sort of these jackets that like blew out behind them. And, you know, there was also a lot of Ralph stuff, just like the really strong, like primary colors. And you had like the attention to detail and the styling. And just, you know, these guys had like a little earring or like the way the backpacker, they would hold a coat. It was just very, it was so good. He was excellent.

9:43What other shows to you really, really stood out? If Celine sort of took the top prize, who else, who else made waves for you? I mean, I loved Orly. I thought Orly was really wonderful, sort of. I don't know if he's up and coming because he's sort of a lot of people know about him in the menswear space. But it's just like beautifully done, very straightforward garments. But he's a real fanatic about, he's Japanese, Ryota Awai, I believe is how you say it. But he is a real fanatic about fabrics and he has a really good sense of color. So, you know, all these shirts sort of, it looks like a plaid shirt you could kind of get anywhere.

10:18But it's a wool silk blend that he developed himself or all these things. And it also had great styling. It had these sort of flip-flops and sandals. And, you know, I would say like a smushed little shoe is kind of like a thing I was seeing everywhere. It's very Simone Bellotti. Like, I would say also as a side note, the front row, there was a lot of those, his ballet moccasins. And also I see the Jill Sander ones, which also sort of have that like sort of smushed look. But I feel like there's a lot of sort of short, low, slippery, sandaly, you know, loafery sort of ballet slipper shoes. But the show altogether just really looked lovely.

10:57It was about somebody being in the office dreaming of vacation. So it was sort of like. I know that feeling. Yes, of course. And then I think runner-up for last year's CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund, Julian Louis Obero, he held an appointment. And his stuff is just really touched by hand. It's a lot of upcycled scraps from like the previous season. and you just see these jackets that have a bunch of scraps that he like hand sort of like places and sometimes they're really like wild and undulating and sometimes they're a little more structured. But it's just something feels very, very special. And like a man in a room took something and made this thing for you.

11:34Have you been to Julian's studio? I have, yes. I mean, talk about a room. It's smaller than our studio here. It's really incredible. It's incredibly tiny. It's kind of close to my house. And it's, yeah, it's just bins of fabric. And he's like, you know, when I need to make a coat, I go through these bins of fabric from two seasons ago and just place them and listen to music and just go for it. And it was I just thought it was really beautiful. But he also expanded and did a little bit more cut and sew stuff and more sort of commercial pieces. So I think he's sort of building out what that brand can be beyond those sort of one off special pieces because he does have to make, you know, he's limited by time and material on those real special pieces.

12:12So it's starting. It's a very he's from Northern California. It's a very beachy, kind of skatery vibe, like these sort of big baggy shorts and like these flowy shirts. So that was a real highlight for me too. Highlight wise, I was really struck by how sophisticated, not that he wasn't before, but how very focused and tight, especially after last season's kind of big production show, Will Each Ever Hears show was. I thought that each look was kind of perfect and very, very clean. And I thought that the quality of the pieces, the sort of the consideration and discernment that was evident in every look, even if the look was very informal or from a very informal tradition was really stood out.

12:56So I thought that that was really striking. And then the show that I thought was possibly like the smartest of the season, but maybe almost a little bit too smart was Junior, which was called Bling, Bling, Bling. and it was all about crashing all the different genres of excess and decoration into single garments so you got like extremely formal tailoring points mixed up with like you know chains and stones you got um you know he brought he brought in all of the elements of display from across the spectrum of menswear and then put them into one i think i said big smoothie um so to watch It was brilliant as a kind of piece of installation work.

13:43And I loved it almost more than any as a watching show. But I think to wear, it was almost, it was like wearing a crossword puzzle. You know, it was about, it was a show, it was a collection about meaning rather than about wearing it on the streets. Because I think that it became almost parodic in a way. But it was a brilliant show to watch. I guess let's rewind, go back to the beginning. Ralph Lauren, the brand, was back in Milan for the second time in two seasons a season ago. So January, Ralph Lauren was the most viewed men's show on Vogue Runway, and probably because he hadn't done a solo men's show in literally, like, years slash decades.

14:23And this felt, you know, very, very of a piece with what he did in January. I loved sort of zooming in, and I think you wrote about this on some of the textures of the suits and the workmanship was really special in close up. Really, really special. I mean, they show two collections at once. So they, this time around, they showed purple first, which is the Italian made, the sort of highest line in the current Ralph universe architecture, architecture of the brand. and then immediately after they showed polo which is much more in terms of price it's much more accessible and it's manufactured not in italy it's manufactured in many different places and i have to say i was really struck i just see a lot of clothes and i really appreciate high quality um but i i went and saw this on the rail before the show as well and you know i think that the the polo pieces looked absolutely brilliant in terms of quality as well um definitely not as elevated in terms of fabrications of some of the other pieces.

15:32But I think one of the reasons, beyond it being his first show since the mid sort of first decade of the 2000s, why it was so popular on Vogue Runway last season, is that Ralph is a hugely populous brand. Lots of people are really, truly interested in seeing what Ralph has got to offer. And I think some of it was just i think we'll find out when we get the results for of the vogue runway um snap poll later this week but i'm sure it will be out there again this season uh and this this season was beautiful it had many many ralph constance in it i love the madras um which was kind of like a psychedelic patchwork madras in some field jackets and also in a fishing jacket which it wasn't just me but several people were commenting that this was absolutely made for philo um our street style photographer mr street pooper himself yeah so if ralph is seeing this like you need to think about phil um you need to you need to shoot him in the campaign because it was so it was so up his street and he of course his his brilliance and eclectic eyes reflected in his clothes but it was uh it was a very very good show indeed and i hope they're going to do more okay we're going to take a quick break

17:03Let's talk about Prada. Max, you weren't there, but I'm sure it was the talk of Paris in the early days because it was at the end of Milan. What were the guys saying? What's the reaction? I think the big, you know, the big thing was skinny, skinny, skinny. It's all about a really slim, a really slim silhouette. And also Luke in your review, as you noted, it was sort of a lot. It was very denim heavy, not blue jeans, though. It was like dyed, as you had mentioned. And you sort of got Mrs. Prada and Raph talked about how they were not denim people. I think did Mrs. Prada say she had just never worn jeans in her entire life?

17:41And which tracks? you know I mean it was just this this thing that they I guess it's cool to imagine both of them embracing this thing that they do not really have like a sartorial connection with and then you know again just like that really really slim body hugging silhouette and then those like kind of funky they almost reminded me of like um cyclist shoes like they were sort of loafers and they had big like velcro I don't know if they were velcro but big straps kind of like poking off of them yeah the shoes I think were a styling gambit to fight against what people might have felt was the sort of almost the basicness of the proposition.

18:20But they owned the basicness because Mrs. Prada said, okay, we want to start with the most fundamental garment and we want to riff off a baseline garment. She said, I'm sick of, what was it? She says, I hate useless design, so things that haven't been designed for a reason. And they were quite interesting in the chat about how they wanted, you know, I think it was Rafi who was saying that we see a lot of clothes, we see a lot of garments and styles, we see them on runways and we see them in fashion events, but we never see them on the streets. And, you know, of course there was a case of having your cake and eat it going on, although Mrs.

18:59Prada also acknowledged this. She says, don't tell me I'm a company that has to sell clothes. I know. But I think it was a valiant attempt to try and really be focused and democratically focused. And to, as they said, what they wanted to see is they wanted to see people taking the Prada collection and really riffing on it and loving it in a much more vernacular, real popular way. Is there anything else you want to weigh in about Milan? Tom Brown was a name that we don't usually see in Milan. Yeah, it was great. I mean, I've seen many Tom Brown shows in Milan in my time, and there were some really memorable shows, but they were all under the label of Montclair Gambler, which was the line that he did.

19:47So it doesn't feel like... And in fact, many of his show tropes were kind of evolved in those collections and those brilliantly under-regarded shows. So it was good to have him back. Of course, it was a very, very hot day. I would say it was our first major menswear collision with the weather event at this time. Half of the audience were in the direct sun, half of them weren't. But Tom, and you asked this earlier on, Tom is another designer whose core uniform, especially his shorts, are made for this weather. So it works very well. But he's really defining, he said that he was all about reimposing his core métier, which is structured tailoring.

20:27And if you think about it, almost every brand that talks about tailoring, and there are a few other exceptions, but they make a virtue of the fact that they're unstructured from the neapolitan tradition of being almost like a shirt and actually that leaves a slight um slight gap for those who you know maybe they want to get the definition not from the gym but from the garment uh so i think that he's you know within the zenu group of which he is a part along with tom ford i think um it made sense to come back to Milan and show the menswear in what was a super memorable show. Should we move on to Paris?

21:03It started, I believe... On Tuesday, officially? Well, yes. Tuesday night. Yes, with the Saint Laurent show, right? Which famously had weird shoes too. Oh, yes. See-through plastic Oxford. Yeah, it's been years in the making, but people are really into a foot these days. It's like exposing the foot, being kooky about a foot, sand. There's so many sandals. There was like a lot of guys were wearing, it kind of reminds me of a few seasons back, there was that Mew Mew show where they had those rope sandals and they're almost like kind of like almost hiking sandals or something. But now a lot of people make versions of them.

21:39Guys were wearing them in the front row. I noticed, you know, people were, it was, it's just like a funny, like how, how minimal can you make your sandal almost? And this is kind of inherited from tech wear, but you're right. I think it's almost like the nude foot, the foot is becoming, you know, as it has been in menswear, right? If you look at the Chanel shoes recently, and I think Saint Laurent has done that naked, I mean, I think he's done that naked shoe at Saint Laurent for women in the past. So it was an extension of that. But certainly at Jacquemus, there were the translucent, brilliant beach ballets.

22:13And yes, there were these at Saint Laurent. So I think maybe there is a bit of foot fetishism going on in Montefiore. For sure. Speaking of beachy, Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton, big old curl, right? Like out of Hawaii or something like that. That looked incredible. It looked incredible. It was a very cleverly made piece of staging that meant to resemble a breaking wave. So you had one wall of water in front and slightly sort of covering another to create a kind of tunnel that we were facing from the side. and then the water flowed in a curve down the front of the front wall. So it really did look like a breaking wave.

22:55And the models walked out of it, out of the tubes, just like you'd see a surfer popping out, having really caught the wave well. So it was a super cool setup. In terms of, you know, concept, it really reminded me, as close as I've got since those shows stopped to a kind of Lagerfeld show, it slightly reminded me of the Iceberg show. or the waterfall show, but the grandioseness of the set was very striking. And the show was obviously, thanks to that set, or not thanks to it, but as a partially in reflection of it, was inspired by surfing, which is sort of what makes you think of with Louis Vuitton.

23:35And there have been, indeed, Chanel has done surfboards. Many houses have done surfboards. I remember an retro surfing show, which was a bit of a reach. But really, this was more of a vibe. It was about skates as well. and I think Pharrell and I think the team, they did some really beautiful work in terms of taking more of a point of view and integrating it with some brilliant material work that wasn't always necessarily precious, though there were very precious pieces. Like there was a sort of, you know, there was a mink sweater that was supposed to look like you just pulled it out of the back of your camper van.

24:12But at the same time, you know, they did some quite basic but clever things they took the m65 jacket and then they turned around the top pockets of the the one that deniro wore in taxi driver but they turned it into different fabrications and the top pocket they swivel this way so you can wear it like that and these little touches were very clever uh so it was a good show there was a bit of stick because the shoes uh looked a lot like vans which which is the core skating shoe, the core vulcanized heel. But honestly, I don't think that when I went to look at the collection before, you could see the reference, but it didn't seem shocking to me because fashion is a game of references.

24:55Of course. As an obsessive Vanswear, I clock that too. But even Jonathan Anderson's Dior a few seasons back kind of had a Vans Authentic that had the Dior four-leaf clover on it. It's like, you know, that's one of those ones that's just such a part. It's like vans are not even part of fashion. They're so much bigger that I feel like everyone sort of references it or it's just part of like the collective, you know, experience. OK, we're going to take a quick break.

25:38I'm glad you brought up Jonathan Anderson because I know you were really looking forward to seeing his third Dior men's show. What did you make of it? It was interesting because it was sort of a little bit of like the mixing of the first two menswear runway collections. It was sort of like that tailored look and then it met that sort of rock star party boy. And it kind of I thought it had like a bit of a wistful energy. It seemed like these boys, like party boys, like the day after maybe in their house and they're like in their floaty robes. Speaking of clothes that seemed, you know, made for extreme weather, there were these like, I think they were chiffon suits that were just like, they just floated.

26:18They were barely even anything. They were so light. So it was very interesting. And then I went to the Reesey and there's just so many incredible details on all that stuff. You know, when you see everything up close, there's like one jacket I remember that was just super pleated, but you would never be able to see it from the runway and just seeing it up close was absolutely astounding. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. I thought there was sort of like a little bit of a sad or lost boy energy to it, but then also Party Boys. It was sort of these interesting dichotomy. I didn't get to see it, unfortunately, but I obviously read Sarah's review and looked at the pictures.

26:52And I thought it was very interesting that she suggested that the boys were from Eton, which is one of the sort of most privileged schools in the UK and almost has always been like held up as a crucible of the class system here. And, you know, most of our prime ministers have come from Eton. And this idea of the kind of the morning after a crazy house party was, it was almost a bit like Brideshead-y revisited, right? But in a sort of ultra-modern, post-modern way. So I thought it was an interesting way to approach the contemporary menswear discourse. Sarah Burden had her sort of soft debut of her menswear for Givenchy.