Give me five: the best five shows of Paris Men's Fashion Week SS18

Even Paris Men's Fashion Week has ended.

The designers have filled the catwalks of a feeling of renewed hope. Balmain celebrates the election of the new French President Macron declaring love to his nation; Demna Gvasalia chooses to turn Swiss family into models to homage his transfer to Zurich; Kris Van Assche has made his tenth anniversary at Dior and decides to give new life to the classic tuxedo; while Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino reintroduces the "VLNT" logo, which had already appeared in the 80's in the new athleisure collection.

Everyone interprets the dream of a new beginning, including sportswear pieces, Hawaiian shirts, and tailoring.

Take a look at nss' favorites five. 

Louis Vuitton

It all starts with a book titled Atlas of remote islands: fifty islands I have not visited and never will.

Someone gives it to Kim Jones, designer of the Louis Vuitton man line, and he, fascinated, uses it as an inspiration for the new collection turning hot Paris' Palais Royal into a portal that, once crossed, leads between Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island.

With Drake's new single Sign, created for the show, in the ears, ocean-washed hair, LV-branded sandals at the feet and Hawaiian shirts, Mr. Jones' guys look like super chic surfers, relaxed globetrotter accustomed to traveling all around the world, to experience different cultural identities. These casual men are hyper-accessorized. They carry gym bags, maxi backpacks, sacks, pouches and mix them with ultra-lightweight trenches, floral shirts, neoprene diving suits, over-volume shorts, cycling shorts, relaxed tailoring sits with soft and destructured jackets.

Kim Jones takes a surfer, a Hong Kong businessman, a luxury traveler, and combines these men to transforms them into a cool hybrid with a wardrobe in perfect balance between leisurewear and tailoring.

Dior Homme

Push the tailoring beyond its limits.

Take a used and abused look like the black tuxedo and transform it into something new, fresh and appetizing for Millenials.

Kris Van Assche celebrates its tenth anniversary at Dior Homme engaging in an arduous task and to face it has only one possible choice: to construct and deconstruct.

So the designer begins reprocessing Dior's most iconic piece, the "Bar Jacket", and gives it a fluider shape, flattened on the hips, and more tapered waist. He continues to play with the concept of blazer by removing the sleeves, turning the bottom into a kind of skirt to wear over the pants, sometimes even being deprived of some pieces.

Van Assche calls this collection Late Night Summer and tries to recreate through the clothes the moment your parents allow you to stay awake all night, you feel ready to fall in love and begin to be aware of how your look, the way he dresses, plays an important role in seduction.

The result is a clever mix of college hints, sportswear, and traditional tailoring, made romantic by small details like ribbons adorned with the words atelier 3, rue de Marignan or prints of the painter François Bard works.

All this while the Grand Palais decorated with a real grass carpet resound Radiohead and Depeche Mode notes.

Junya Watanabe 

Junya Watanabe chooses the colonnades of the Lycèe Jacques Decour to present his proposal for the SS18.

More than the simple collection of a single brand, a teamwork marked by a large number of collaborations.

The first and most impressive is the one with Carhartt, 48 pieces from jackets to coats, from t-shirts to trousers; there are then two jackets born of as many deconstructed and reassembled bags made with Karrimor; customized shirts in partnership with Turnbull & Asser; while further efforts are co-productions with The North Face, Levi's, Schott NYC., Regent, Merz b. Schwanen, Seil Marschall, Southwick and the German shoe brand Heinrich Dinkelacher.

All these new twinnings translate into a conceptual nobilitation of workwear, in an exaltation of normality, practicality, and simplicity, but with a cool twist.

Watanabe chooses a beige, camel, brown color palette painted varnish patchwork patchwork, artsy dirt studied along with English artist Alan Kitching, jeans with leather patches and denim jackets designed to be worn on striped shirts and Bermuda.

An impressive casual urban collection.

Balenciaga 

In the heart of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, in the shade of the thick foliage of the trees, while Kyle MacLachlan, star of Twin Peaks observed in the front row, Demna Gvasalia chooses a group of true Swiss families as models of his latest collection for Balenciaga.

Why? To show a new side of the businessman who had dressed in the previous lines, this time in his comfort zone, while relaxing with his children, a useful way to introduce the arrival of a line dedicated to childhood.

In terms of fashion, this family situation translates into clothing for real people: transparent raincoats, Hawaiian shirts, track suits, jeans, blazers, dress shirts, almost anonymous, polo, technical outwear. Everything is always a little bit out of shape, a bit '80s, always part of that ugly beauty that is the key to the aesthetics of Gvasalia.

AMI

Citè de la mode et du design and a pink sandy expanse.

In this location, Alexandre Mattiussi, the mind behind Ami Paris, staged his homage to Ville Lumiere with a tribute to La Vie en Rose and Paris Plages, the temporary beach of the Seine.

Staying true to the cool and easy style of the brand, the designer goes back in time to the 50s and imagine a small crowd of tourists invading the city in bowling striped shirts, rockabilly tops, Japanese nylon t-shirts, tropical flower or vinyl Bermuda, Hawaiian shirt, denim, relaxed suits and sandals with white socks. Bright colors inspired by Lego bricks, a vibrant palette of green, pink, blue and red, exalt a collection made of basic, portable, effortless clothes, an easy wear capable of interpreting everyday life, perfectly compatible with the philosophy that has always characterized Ami Paris.