American designer Thom Browne's stellar Paris debut — a cinematic performance piece featuring models in identical space suits and visored helmets — closed the City of Light's spring-summer 2011 menswear show with an intergalactic bang on Sunday.
Browne's Space Odyssey display seemed destined to become a thing of legend — even in Paris, where the collections tend to be less commercial and the shows more creative than in Milan or New York.
Lanvin gave men a whole lot to lust for with a collection that was equal parts elegance, sportiness and menace.
Wacky British designer Paul Smith, a die-hard old school rock fan who got his start in fashion hawking tee-shirts at concerts by the Rolling Stones and other mythic bands, delivered a mismatched collection that felt like it was channelling a hung-over '70s rock star coming to after a long, hard night.
Thom Browne
It was a moment when absolutely anything was possible: When the four models in matching dark suits, mirrored Ray Bans and slicked back hair took their place, the crowd of habitually jaded fashion insiders faintly buzzed with childlike expectation.
And when almost the least foreseeable possible thing took place — and the "astronauts" in gleaming white space suits filed into the room — the collective sense of starry-eyed wonder was palpable.
The show cast the audience of fashion insiders as UN delegates attending a news conference to honour the "heroes", back from a mission in outer space.
The Blue Danube — the iconic symphony from 2001: A Space Odyssey — was piped in as the models traced figure eights through the secretariat and filed out again to remove their space suits in front of a scrum of photographers and video cameras. Beneath the blinding white coveralls each wore a shrunken short suit in wild patterns with matching knee socks with loafers.
It was like what the crew members of Apollo missions would have worn golfing in the 1960s — after the outfits had gone through the drier: Abbreviated blazers in primary colours or stripes or shark-and-fish prints and snug-fitting Bermuda shorts.
It was a tour-de-force for Browne, whose theatrical runway shows have made him a critical hit in the US.
The only slight hitch was that the clothes were reduced to mere props in the cinematic display, instead of being its stars.
Lanvin
The label that each season defines what women gave the men something to covet.
Silk blazers with bulky shoulders and raw seams were paired with tapered, high-water trousers, and plunging V-neck vests were layered over slim knit shorts that looked like the offspring that would result if longjohns and biker shorts were to mate.
Made largely from microfibres and other technical fabrics, the collection was meant to move, and raw-seamed flaps and panels that spiralled down the trousers and jackets quivered as the models tramped down the endless catwalk.
"There's this fusion between activewear and more classic, elegant tailoring," menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver said.
Paul Smith
Smith got into the hungover head of a '70s rock stars with this collection of T-shirts and skinny tie-dyed trousers that looked as if they'd been picked at random out of a pile on the floor after a long night of binge drinking.
Low-crotched, tapered trousers in ochre and purple tie-dye were worn with T-shirts, silk blazers and socks shot with Lurex for a glam touch. Oliver Twist blouses with droopy bows at the neck and long tails were paired with slouchy dress pants with sweatpant elastic at the ankles.
Smith shows traditionally end with rowdy antics, and Sunday's mix of models and real men — covered in tattoos and some sporting full beards — charged down the catwalk sipping beer from the can as Led Zeppelin blasted overhead.
