From easy elegant uniforms for feckless aristocrats at Dior Homme to Damir Doma's business formal from some bygone age to the world's most expensive mechanic's coveralls at Hermès, Paris' autumn-winter 2011-2012 menswear shows had something for everyone on Saturday.
At Kenzo, designer Antonio Marras looked to Britain and its star sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, to crack the case, while Germany's Bernhard Willhem gave the world all the knit long johns we could possibly need.
Mayhem broke out on Dior's set — decorated like a tiny Paris town house, complete with working fireplaces, twinkling chandeliers and wooden parquet — when music mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs and Chanel uber-designer Karl Lagerfeld arrived. Usually, several A-listers turn out for the Paris shows, but this season it's been slim pickings celebrity-wise, so every TV journalist, blogger and fashionista in the house was all over Combs and Lagerfeld.
KENZO
Kenzo delivered a whodunit of collection that looked to British sleuths to solve the mystery of menswear.
Antonio Marras cracked the case this time, serving up a strong collection that managed to be at once very British and classic Kenzo, with bold mixes, eye-popping colours and kooky knitwear.
Sherlock Holmes' favorite fabric — tartan — dominated the collection of snug Saville Row-style suits, paired with V-neck argyle sweaters and droopy satin bow ties.
Trouser-kilt hybrids were surprisingly fetching, requiring only a bold, fearless personality to pull them off.
Still, it was hard to imagine a personality bold enough to work the trousers with gathered paper-bag waists that reached the mid-chest. The sole glitch in an otherwise outstanding collection, the pants gave even the beanpole male models an unflattering gut paunch.
DIOR HOMME
Soaked in old school Parisian decadence, Dior was tailor-made for aimless, world weary nobles circa about 1975.
Filled with ample pants and swingy cardigans, this was a collection for those who don't have an office to report to, those whose only dress code is easy chic and no-fuss elegance.
Sweater trenches and poncho coats in chocolate and gray cashmere were the perfect antidote to a long night of carousing: Shorn of their fussy buttons, with casual tie closures, they exuded devil-may-care glamour, requiring little effort and no thought.
"There was lots of cashmere, a lot of knitwear, to be really comfortable and elegant at the same time," the label's menswear designer, Kris Van Assche, said.
And did the collection's decadent ease strike a chord with Combs and Lagerfeld, the two biggest celebrities to hit the Paris shows all week?
"I liked the capes," Combs pronounced.
HERMèS
It was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most expensive mechanic's coverall of all times.
Hermès delivered its take on that most humble of garments, with two small differences: First, Hermès' coverall was in shearling, and second, it would probably cost the yearly salary of the average mechanic.
Veronique Nichanian's collection was also made up of the classics that have long been the label's hallmark: Two-button jackets, lightweight flannel, perfectly cut trousers, slim cardigans and long, lean coats.
It was all there — in olive drab and navy tones, punctuated with eye-popping Ceylon and deep Bordeaux. And as per usual with this house of unparalleled workmanship, it was all exquisite.
