(PARIS) Maison Martin Margiela
The Maison Martin Margiela design team’s take on menswear was anything but ordinary. Suiting came in pieces like a black zip jacket with enormous oversize shirt cuffs, done up with canary yellow brushstrokes, which matched the slouchy trou streaked with paint stripe. A white buttondown featuring magenta megacuffs paired nicely with slouchy brushstroke pants. Pinstripes peppered the collection, whether in vest-laden pantsuiting with a knotted halter top that resembles a men’s tie or a skirt suit with armbands and a scalloped skirt fashioned to look like the curved hem of a suit jacket that had a bit of a mod look when paired with black calf-length booties. Eveningwear came in bannerlike silk columns with indecipherable writing cut up and hodgepodged together. Ever the trailblazers, it’s not surprising the enigmatic Margiela maison would put forth a translating-challenged message onto the runways.
Isabel Marant
This is how the French do punk, darlings. Madame Marant sent out her mods in edgy yet pared-down looks, like a midnight navy mini was layered with a black pull over micro top that revealed just a peek of cleavage was paired with black knee-high pony hair boots A silver tulip mini was fashioned from chain metal, mingling with a sheer black blouse. A long, oversized black tuxedo jacket also went with a very brief-hemmed skirt, and then paired with strappy booties. Black leather leggings and studded shirt were layered with a sheer sweater and slouchy coat. But punk doesn’t have to be noir! Marant sent out a cream suede flap lapeled moto-jacket worn over three layered cotton shirts in various shades of off-white, along with skinny eggshell white leggings and strappy booties or a mini layered sweater dress worn with a thin sequined scarf. Oh so Marant. The result? Marant’s hip cadre of loyalists will have plenty of cool staples for the Fall wardrobes, while still effortlessly looking the punky part.