Clothes! Paris Goes Back the Crux of Fashion For AW22

This season, clothes, the crux of fashion, were brought to the forefront. These collections were quiet in their revolution but still made radical waves.

This season, clothes, the crux of fashion, were brought to the forefront. These collections were quiet in their revolution but still made radical waves. While Milan offered a modern twist on the traditional notions of dress, Paris felt more like a celebration of simplicity. The devils in the details, the craftsmanship, and the fabrications. We honed in on what we need - clothes that last, feel easy to layer or style, and are versatile for our unforeseeable futures. None more so than Hed Mayner, whose silhouettes and lines set the bar across the industry. Tailoring is back in a big way. Many this week created phenomenal pieces, but Hed masters proportion, who thinks about the relationship between garment and wearer and their space.

Kim Jones is one whose tailoring is worth noting, with arguably one of his best Dior collections yet. Colours were muted, letting the luxe fabrications and embroideries sing for themselves. Birkenstocks and soft fleeced trousers were the icings on the cake, a nod to the WFH aesthetics of yore (we hope) but an equilibrium of ease and safety amongst the couture-inspired sashed suit jackets. The duo of GmbH, Benjamin and Serhat, also played with couture ideas. Faux-Astrakhan coats, signature cross-body accents and aesthetic whispers of the bourgeoisie were subverted with flesh-baring kaftans and thigh-high boots. A triumph.

Those that didn’t take the path of tailoring worked with texture and craft. Kiko Kostadinov gave us tactile, loose hanging cardigans that seemed to fizz against his concrete setting. There was a welcome nostalgia to Wales Bonner’s recycled cashmere, and handcrafted cotton, Bianca Saunders’ warped check prints challenged the flat surface. Junya Watanabe worked with the Secretariat of Culture of Mexico and the Pendleton Woolen Mills to capture Jay Kay of Jamiroquai’s charm.

A few stood out for creating clothes through a much bolder vantage. Loewe, much like its JW Anderson counterpart, was a riot of experimentation. Unlike the aforementioned timeless tailoring, this was purposefully jolly, silly, and fantastical. Louis Vuitton, too, Virgil Abloh’s posthumous show, was a 360 production of bold, dream-scape versions of men’s wardrobes. But it was Nigo’s debut at Kenzo that perhaps perfectly homogenised the circling elements of Paris this season. From timeless Japanese workwear and reimagined archival classics to Parisian-style-through-a-Tokyo-lens silhouettes. Longevity, ingenuity and quiet revolution.

Back to Editorial