Men’s Fashion Week Wrap-Up—Celine, Dior, Vuitton... and La Canicule

The Run-Through with Vogue - Vogue

Paris Men's Fashion Week faced record-breaking heat, influencing show logistics and design focus on breathable fabrics. Standout collections included Michael Ryder’s Saline, Oralee’s refined tailoring, and Rick Owens’ bo

Key takeaways

• Heatwave impacted show schedules and clothing choices

Transcript preview

This is the run through. I'm Nicole Phelps. I'm joined here in the studio by Vogue Runways Senior Fashion News Editor Max Burlinger. Hi Max. Hi Max. Welcome back from Paris and Luke Leach, our longtime contributor who is dialing in from London. He is fresh off the plane like barely 12 hours from Corsica where you saw a very energetic Jacques Moose show. It's true, Nicole, and hi Max, and yes. You know what, today I'm feeling what I can only describe as something that I can barely remember, but it's called coldness. Oh, okay. For the first time in about two and a half weeks, and it's quite refreshing. Oh, good. But honestly, Nicole, I feel like I am in London and I am stationary for about 10 days before heading to Sicily, but I also feel like my molecules haven't settled and they're back somewhere between call sicker in Paris because I only got in at about midnight last night. Well we we must start with the thing that I heard about non-stop which is the heat. You were together in Paris on the three hottest days in Paris's recorded history. Paint us a picture of what it was like to sit outside at Rick Owens underneath the blazing mid-morning sun. It was hot. I will say that here. I wrote famously about how I liked the heat and that it didn't bother me but although I will say I had an air-conditioned hotel room at night that Parisians do not have wide access to air conditioning and they all talked to me about how it's hard to sleep and that they were tired but I mean it was a lot I think like you know two or three days of heat is one thing but for it to be like seven days of sort of a hundred plus Fahrenheit degree heat was a lot yeah a few designers had to change the times of their shows at last minute So it was definitely affected sort of the whole undergoing of the week. And the big question is did it affect or impact the clothes? I know that the collections are developed for months ahead of time, but who do you feel answered the call for light breezy airy clothes best? that was very breezy. You know, there were the open backs, there were the, you know, the short shorts, the little ballet slippers with tie-up straps. So I think, but I think also that perception is also based on the fact that there was such a lightness of touch and I was actually going to talk about please later because it's one of my two real standout shows. But, you know, people, a lot of quite a few people talked about lightness as a concept. so many achieved it and to go back to the general point about he I think I love a hot season I always love June men's wear over all seasons then comes September women's wear because it's obviously more more of a pleasant experience but in June especially you know clothes have to work clothes are at first a response to the elements and sure you have out to wear seasons but it's fun I remember there was there was a season back in 2018 maybe where it was also extremely hot in Paris and it felt similar to that. I remember people losing their temperature and losing their minds in an Itsymyaki show and you know every time I saw Max he had a popsicle. The Dries van N'I actually thought a funny like through line and I wish I took more pictures because I would have written about it but like at the Diorreese they had these really lovely like shaved ices that had like flowers on them there was popsicle stands at Dries, there's like cold berries at just like the little sweet treats that were cold or the ways that they tried to, you know, do something to alleviate the heat was sort of sweet and very French to me. But what is the word, the Calicule? That was like a word, it's heat wave in French and it's a word that I hadn't ever heard seven days ago and then I heard every day 10,000 times a day. All right, so we've talked about the heat. Now I want to hear about who's hot or not on the designer world. I got watching from afar was that everybody was crazy for Michael Ryder's Saline. Yeah, I would agree. I think that that was sort of, I don't want to say show this season, but it was a really exciting high point for a lot of people I believe, myself included. What did you like about it? I think, you know, I think Sarah Moer wrote the review and I think she kind of nailed it in that some designers sort of like stick to two or three ideas and sort of iterate on them, but he really gave such a broad idea of like who the idea of like who the in different silhouettes and pieces. They were all mixed together expertly. You know, I mean, a lot of times you'll see a show and I'm like, I could have watched, I could have flipped through the slideshow on Vogue runway, but this, there was such like a dynamism, there was like these billowing capes where the pants had sort of this cool swish to the, there was these haramy pants that like really just moved. So there was like energy and movement to it too. And it was just styled beautifully, there was great colors. It was. It was the accessories. The accessories. The accessories were incredible. every guy seemed like his own different guy. Luke you missed Saline because you were on your way to Jacques Moose is that right? Yeah I mean it's actually really interesting hearing from Max because really regrettably I had to miss Saline and I was I was really looking forward to it to seeing it live but I felt I had to make sure that I caught the plane to the show that I was actually reviewing so I did that but I really felt from the pictures quite like I need to be at the show to understand the show kind of a person but the flip side of Max's impression is that the pictures made total sense to me I think what I've seen it in the shows previously from him but more here than ever before what I think he's got going for him is an incredible breadth but a feeling for bringing in so many ingredients within a kind of philosophy of eclecticism so you had formality in formality, and it didn't feel like it was broken into chunks or movements and then there was a lot of really playful as you said accessories details and I think that that would have been my highlight even though I wasn't there show of the season because I think an easy approach to eclecticism and a kind of everything everywhere all at once approach it feels to me like it's the mood if there is a mood of the moment it's the closest thing to the mood of the moment there is where there isn't finding made and so I thought that was the most exciting show or collection that I saw this season for sure. Yeah there was a lot of like Phoebe isms you know he famously worked under Phoebe at Saline and then went to Ralph Lauren and there was like those billowing capes reminded me of that one of her last shows where they were sort of these jackets that like blew out behind them and you know there was also a lot of Ralph stuff just like the really strong like primary colors and you had like the attention to detail and the styling and just you know these guys had like these guys had like these guys had like a little Packer, they would hold a coat. It was just very, it was so good. He was excellent. What other shows to you really, really stood out? If Saline sort of took the top prize, who else, who else made waves for you? I mean, I loved Oralee. I thought Oralee was really wonderful, sort of, I don't know if he's up and coming because he's sort of, a lot of people know about him in the mens wear a but he is a real fanatic about fabrics and he has a really good sense of color so you know all these shirts sort of it looks like a plaid shirt you could kind of get anywhere but it's a wool silk blend that he developed himself or all these things and it also had great styling it had these sort of flip-flops and sandals and you know I would say like a smushed little shoe is kind of like a thing I was seeing everywhere it's very Simone Belotti like he I would say also as a side note the front row there was a lot of those his Moccasins and also I see the Jill Sander ones which also sort of have that like sort of smushed look but I feel like there's a lot of sort of short low slippery sandally you know a loafery sort of ballet slipper shoes but the show altogether just really looked lovely it was about of somebody being in the office dreaming of vacation so it's sort of like