Paris menswear displays ended Sunday with a flourish of flowing jackets, schoolboy bow-ties and profusely pleated pants as designers here refused to bow to the gloomy recession aesthetic that has cast a pall over other fashion capitals.
French label Lanvin put its money not on pinstripes or other business-friendly fabrics but sumptuous woolen knits that billowed or clung to the body in soft waves, creating a sensuous, romantic look.
Across town, Dior Homme was all hard lines and sharp angles.
Although the house sent out mostly black suits — a menswear staple in hard times — its innovative tailoring pushed the look forward.
British designer Paul Smith staged an energetic show that drew inspiration from the mischievous English schoolboy.
Throughout menswear week, which began on Thursday, other Paris designers also put flight and fancy above pure pocketbook concerns.
Highlights included John Galliano — who sent out models made up as Pan, the man-goat hybrid — and Givenchy, with its medieval sadomasochist look.
DIOR HOMME
Black suits that were anything but boring dominated at Dior Homme.
Asymmetrical cuts, strap and metalwork closures and heaps of pleats created an edgy, bold silhouette that played on volumes and contrast.
Designer Kris van Assche — who in 2007 replaced Hedi Slimane, the creator of the ultra-slim suit that was the house’s star piece — dared to go big, sending out billowy pants that bucked the overall trend in the Paris menswear shows toward slim trousers. A plethora of pleats fanning out from the low-slung waist band gave the pants an almost bubble cut through the hips and thighs.
Jackets dispensed with buttons, with one often asymmetrical flap closing over the another with hooks or graphic straps.
Turtlenecks, a recurring favorite at the Paris shows, were given a graphic twist. Cut in stiff white broadcloth, the generously draped necks stood straight up with contrasting black lining on the inside.
The entire show was black and white, and the closest thing to gray was a double-breasted overcoat in black and white bouclee.
French actress Beatrice Dalle praised the collection, which she called “really nice, really sober.”
“Although sobriety is not necessarily what I look for in a man,” Dalle said with a smile.
PAUL SMITH
The English schoolboy, with his tweed-heavy wardrobe and penchant for irreverent mixing and matching, had the run of the catwalk.
The collection was whimsical and fun even if Smith, whose flair for giving classics a twist has won him a worldwide following, didn’t stray far from his label’s hallmark style.
Tweed professor blazers were paired with slim plaid trousers and smart wool jackets were worn over cycling jerseys in bright primary colors. Flashes of hot pink lining peeked out from a blazer in oatmeal-colored houndstooth.
Bow-ties largely replaced conventional neckties, somehow managing to look dapper and not too out of place on the teenage models.
The same cannot be said for the show’s clunky plastic eyeglasses.
Those wearing the heavy, Clark Kent-style frames looked as if they were itching to rip off the nerd gear and re-emerge in tights and spandex.
Behind a car repair business on a nondescript Thai street are the cherished pets of a rising TikTok animal influencer: two lions and a 200-kilogram lion-tiger hybrid called “Big George.” Lion ownership is legal in Thailand, and Tharnuwarht Plengkemratch is an enthusiastic advocate, posting updates on his feline companions to nearly three million followers. “They’re playful and affectionate, just like dogs or cats,” he said from inside their cage complex at his home in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Thailand’s captive lion population has exploded in recent years, with nearly 500 registered in zoos, breeding farms, petting cafes and homes. Experts warn the
No one saw it coming. Everyone — including the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — expected at least some of the recall campaigns against 24 of its lawmakers and Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) to succeed. Underground gamblers reportedly expected between five and eight lawmakers to lose their jobs. All of this analysis made sense, but contained a fatal flaw. The record of the recall campaigns, the collapse of the KMT-led recalls, and polling data all pointed to enthusiastic high turnout in support of the recall campaigns, and that those against the recalls were unenthusiastic and far less likely to vote. That
A couple of weeks ago the parties aligned with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), voted in the legislature to eliminate the subsidy that enables Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to keep up with its burgeoning debt, and instead pay for universal cash handouts worth NT$10,000. The subsidy would have been NT$100 billion, while the cash handout had a budget of NT$235 billion. The bill mandates that the cash payments must be completed by Oct. 31 of this year. The changes were part of the overall NT$545 billion budget approved
The unexpected collapse of the recall campaigns is being viewed through many lenses, most of them skewed and self-absorbed. The international media unsurprisingly focuses on what they perceive as the message that Taiwanese voters were sending in the failure of the mass recall, especially to China, the US and to friendly Western nations. This made some sense prior to early last month. One of the main arguments used by recall campaigners for recalling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers was that they were too pro-China, and by extension not to be trusted with defending the nation. Also by extension, that argument could be
RSS