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Paris —
During a suffocating heatwave that took hold of countries across Europe last week, temperatures in Paris hit dangerously high levels — closing landmarks, breaking trains and driving up a heat-related death toll. Still, a surprising number of attendees at the city’s bi-annual Men’s Fashion Week proved their commitment to a look and arrived in mind-boggling layers: funnel-neck jackets, jeans, even a fur shawl. Professionally styled celebrities, models and servers perhaps fared the worst in the historic heatwave, wearing what had been decided weeks earlier, from the claustrophobic latex stockings and trench coat Connor Storrie wore to the Saint Laurent show, to the poor waiters dressed in full horse costumes at the Acne Papers garden party in the Palais Royal. One hard-as-nails publicist working the door at a show on Saturday said they were powering through heatstroke.
Out on the runway the broad suggestion from the big designers about what men should wear next summer was equally head-scratching: suede suits, coats and fur-lined pyjama tops-turned-jackets at Dior, thick bomber jackets at Kenzo, as well as suede trousers, leather jackets, fur-trimmed padded coats and parkas at Louis Vuitton. At Sarah Burton’s menswear debut for Givenchy, the textile du jour appeared to be leather: trousers and rugby shirts were cut from it and styled together, while leather tracksuits in black, red, orange, zingy yellow, green and blue filled an entire room, a reissue of the version Timothée Chalamet loves to wear.
