Paris Men’s Fashion Week F/W 2018 Part 1

Black plays, puffer jackets and outerwear

Ermenegildo Zegna F/W 2018

Valentino F/W 2018

What are you supposed to do when you have been a leader in men’s wear trends for the past few years? Valentino brought the Haute Couture touch to men’s, made hand-embroidered back of coats a signature, extensively used camouflage on expensive fabrics everywhere, pioneered the fashion sneaker, made studded garments normal and had message T-shirts and sweaters for many seasons now. When there is not much to add, it’s all about taking away and stripping it down and creating a blank page. That’s what Pier Paolo Piccioli did last night with his men’s wear collection for Valentino. He went black. Nearly the entire line-up consisted of black or dark blue clothes in simple but authorative shapes. In a multi course meal, the sorbet is considered the palate cleanser and Piccioli cleaned up his multiple trend messages with black.

What was best?

From the first look, it was clear that Piccioli was keen on showing off his tailoring skills. Tapered pants and deconstructed unlined black wool coats made for a somber but powerful message. Adding silver studs on the shoulders of jackets proved that the belief for individualization has not been lost.

Classic tailoring remains Piccoli’s asset, this season silver studs made an appearance in outerwear

The Val factor?

The house understands it needs to go the extra mile so cool celebs like Narcos star Pedro Pascal were in the audience and for the post show cocktail an entire gentlemen’s club was created from scratch with vintage leather couches.

The soundtrack?

For the finale, the models came out to the beat of Visage’s Fade to Grey which in this case should have been called Fade to Black.

Black plays the leading role in Valentino’s A/W 2018 collection

What’s new?

When Moncler announced that they stop their Giambattista Valli and Thom Browne lines, it was clear that they would not stop interacting with high fashion. The Valentino collection featured four exclusive collab pieces between the Roman Haute Couture house and the king of the slopes. Cool looking puffers telegraphing the new Valentino logo VLTN on the back; it added a fresh touch to the tailoring message.

Valentino x Moncler collaboration: one of four exclusive puffer jackets.

Ami F/W 2018

Lots of things are going on for Alexandre Mattiusi at Ami. First of all he is launching a men’s collection for women with exclusive first looks realized for 24Sevres.com the new LVMH online shop. Just look at it. He changed his show time from a late evening slot, which suited his fun and party vibe to the first show of the day on Thursday. In one word, he means business so he stuck to his roots of easy but well made outerwear for his latest runway outing.

What we liked best?

Of course, the gals who closed the show. One beautiful black model with cropped hair was dressed entirely in black short leather jacket and black wool pants with white sneakers.

Ami gals: cool as the next French winter in smoking hot outerwear.

Alexandre’s ace?

His outerwear always impresses. Long double breasted camel coats worn open on guys and girls as well as checked numbers where the pants came in his new favorite color camel. Mattiusi likes his guys in double-breasted.

Camel: the trend color of the season – the perfect fusion of casual wear and proper business allure.

The mood?

Even when it’s early morning, Ami is about fun in life. So the Parisian rooftop set stayed close to the roots and the couple opening the show clearly had a naughty night behind them.

In one word?

Ami sums up the new real clothes for real people mood Paris has been celebrating, in fact he ushered in that era.

Ami stands for real Parisian lifestyle, no matter if you are female or male.