The Kurator's Paris Men's Fashion Week SS27 round-up

Those of us in Europe or the UK right now - holidaying, fashion-weeking, or just trying to get to the Tube without melting - know exactly how serious this heatwave has been. Outfits are a daily negotiation. Puddles of sweat are met with paper fans and a newfound respect for linen. Now imagine doing all that while sitting front row at a fashion show. France logged its hottest day on record mid-week, the Louvre and Eiffel Tower closed early, and Dior and Rick Owens both moved their shows to dawn to dodge the worst of it. Models still wore leather, shearling, and in one case, internal cooling fans sewn into the garment. 

Despite the conditions, this was one of the more purposeful seasons Paris menswear has had in a while - six days, a cast mid-transition: a new solo voice at Celine, Hermès in its gap year between legends, Pharrell five seasons into Vuitton, and Jonathan Anderson at Dior treating the archive like a record crate. Here's what actually happened.

Anthony Vaccarello opened the week inside a fog-filled Bourse de Commerce, building a 40-look collection around the idea that real seductiveness comes from not needing to try. The tailoring backed it up - a three-button jacket cut higher than expected, narrow trousers, an athletic blouson reworked into delicate technical taffeta. Gold ran through the collection not as flash but as transformation, turning something as humble as a trench into an occasion piece while keeping it wearable. Footwear did the most talking: sculpted, sheer, high-gloss shoes, including elongated translucent derbies that exposed the foot the way clear heels once exposed the ankle - a taboo menswear hadn't touched until now. The slightly off, deliberately imperfect proportions throughout felt less like an accident and more like the entire point.

Louis Vuitton

Pharrell built an actual breaking wave inside the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris and ran the catwalk across real sand, later donated to the campus volleyball courts. The "Surfer Dandy" collection mixed multicolor knit hoodies and board-short-inspired trousers with a wearable pinstriped suit, painted python jackets, and waterproof separates built for cycling in the rain. New original music featuring Future, Lil Baby and Quavo scored the show, and a new Combi sneaker in monogram canvas stood out as one of the season's strongest accessories - a high-low mix that's become Pharrell's signature move at the house.

Anderson's third Dior menswear show ran on a custom Fred again.. mix featuring KTNA, Mabe Fratti, Jamie T and original Christine and the Queens vocals, and the clothes followed the same remix logic as the soundtrack. The tuxedo loosened into a new, baggier silhouette dubbed the Bobby suit. Houndstooth got printed instead of woven. Polka dots became a continuous field of sequins. An embroidered silk shirt revived a trompe l'oeil scarf motif lifted from a 1979 Dior couture collection. Nineteenth-century embroidery turned up hand-replicated on suede lace-ups, and a vintage zigzag blanket was reborn as a tote. The whole show worked like sampling a record: familiar pieces of Dior history, chopped and reassembled into something new.

Rider's first true solo menswear show closed the week, and the consensus was that it refused to be pinned down - not quite preppy, bohemian, rocker, or Goth, and all the better for it. The approach felt almost improvisational, like a wardrobe built from instinct rather than a single fixed idea. On the runway: sarouel trousers in turquoise and coral, loose gabardine coats, ankle-tapered trousers, fringed headbands, semiprecious stones pressed to the forehead. It read less like reinvention and more like a designer settling comfortably into a voice that's now unmistakably his own.

Mike Amiri usually exports daylight Los Angeles to Paris; for "American Pleasures," he flipped the lights off, channeling American Gigolo through hotel bars and Hollywood Hills mansions. The opener was a sharp gunmetal suit, followed by precise shoulders, high-waisted trousers, and sequin-coated houndstooth. The brand's first fine jewellery line, with Spinelli Kilcollin, debuted alongside a new Biscotto bag. The real moment, though, was personal: Amiri's parents were in the audience for their son's first Paris show, an emotional beat that grounded the collection's California glamour in something much more sincere.

Owens titled his show "Stone" - a meditation on people who arm, train, retreat, or freeze in the face of menace - and staged it outdoors in the worst heat of the week, which made the metaphor land harder than planned. The real headline was his first Adidas collaboration: technical track pants, runner shorts, and longline hoodies stretched into capes, plus a new cleated running shoe. Some looks were fitted with internal battery-powered fans; others used Adidas's Climacool tech to inflate jackets into vast, light silhouettes somewhere between protective gear and sculpture.

This was always going to be the quiet season. Véronique Nichanian, the longest-serving creative director in fashion at 38 years, stepped down earlier this year; her successor, Grace Wales Bonner, doesn't debut until January 2027. In between, the in-house studio kept things steady - a 40-look showroom presentation of breezy shirts, perforated leather jackets, and featherweight knits in pewter, ice white, and chocolate. It felt like a clear sense that the real story at Hermès is still seven months away, and we couldn’t be more excited.