Entertainment | Celebrity

Slimane’s experimentation at Saint Laurent debut

Designer’s menswear collection mixes up violently clashing styles

AP
Published: 10:20 January 21, 2013

Image Credit: AFP
A model displays a creation by Yves Saint Laurent on January 20, 2013 during the men's fall-winter 2013-2014 fashion week in Paris.

There was an air of the self-searching Seventies student in Hedi Slimane’s debut menswear show at the rebranded Saint Laurent.

Long, striped thick-knit scarves, oversized jackets and ripped skinny jeans were worn by shaggily coiffed models who stomped grumpily down the catwalk rather than walked. Just like a confused teenager trying to find his identity, in this fall-winter 2013 show Slimane mixed up violently clashing styles. A whiff of sexual experimentation could be detected with the often androgynous models who donned feminine jackets. Sometimes it was hard to tell if the models were male or female.

But at least one thing was clear: The wardrobe confusion was intentional.

This was seen most clearly in a look that combined leather motorbike pants in black and white with zippers, yellow tan Cuban heels, a casual oversized check shirt and a truncated red carpet tuxedo. Slimane is definitely trying hard to mark out an original style at the storied house.

Luxurious-looking this show certainly was not, but through pure eccentricity some ensembles ended up working. A printed cape with a black and white abstract patterning and tuxedo lapels came up trumps, albeit surprisingly, alongside a lame red blown-up leopard print top and lumberjack shirt.

Alas, like in Slimane’s womenswear debut, the confusion translated into the silhouettes. Great individual pieces were almost drowned out here because of droopy coats, big flaccid capes and floppy scarves. They flapped about, sometimes blurring the accompanying clothes’ shape.