Men’s Fashion Week, Fall 2017, kicked off in London on January 6th and is ongoing in New York City. The first few shows in London were led by designers Craig Green, a notable up and comer who has been gaining traction with each season, and Gordon Richardson of Topman Design. There were a few similarities between the London shows. Perhaps the most striking was at Vivienne Westwood and J.W. Anderson — colorful knitwear, often patched up with an equally colorful but contrasting design. Up next was Milan and Salvatore Ferragamo, headed by Guillaume Meilland, who is fairly new to the brand and did a nice play on the classics. Meilland’s too cool models wore a mostly cool color palette, with the occasional camel and burgundy sweater or shirt. But it was the outerwear that stunned: icy grey suede trench coats, luxurious black leather and camel shearling jackets and navy blue fur coats hung, and sometimes clung to the models as they made their way down the runway. The highlight of Milan was Ermenegildo Zegna. The icy blues at Zegna were particularly nice and it was impossible not to fall in love with every suit hiding a turtleneck underneath. The standout look was a luxe sport outfit worn by up and coming model Luke Zilch; it consisted of a navy blue baseball cap, brown fur vest, white quilt top, navy blue bag, black rimmed and slightly retro sunglasses, and brown leather gloves with black lace details. Somehow the outfit managed to look wearable and not too overdone. Several models wore crisp low v-necks tucked into their trousers — often in white or blush colors – although never the main focus, they were a nice detail that helped to find the balance between sport and tailoring. Meilland’s take on the modern coat also deserved applause: the navy blue puffy bomber jacket was spectacular. Moving on to Paris, Valentino’s men sported snakeskin bags of varying shapes and sizes. The unofficial logo of the show, placed on sweaters and caps, was, “Beauty Is A Birthright, Reclaim Your Heritage.” The trackpants also added a sporty edge to the looks, complimented by colorful tennis shoes. Dries Van Noten took it a notch down this season, but not in a bad way. The fine tailoring of the utter basics: crisp white button downs, grey cashmere sweaters and blazers in varying shades across the black and white spectrum felt very wearable and relaxed. Of course, Dries Van Noten wouldn’t be Dries Van Noten without the occasional showstopper, and although they came in neutral tones, the brown leather jacket with engraved flowers and the occasional cowhide pattern, on both shoes and sweaters could hardly be missed. On Friday the 20th, Ann Demeulemeester competed with Maison Margiela for the early afternoon slot, they showed an hour apart, but Demeulemeester stole the show. Although Margiela had some interesting texture combinations: fur jacket, leather pants and leather shoes or a cotton bomber with rope details and suede pants, Sebastien Meunier at Demeulemeester has mastered the art of romanticism so effectively that it was hard to think about anything else after watching his men, and women, parade through a whitewashed industrial warehouse. It seemed impossible for Meunier to top last season. The “Red With Love” logos scattered on sheer tank tops and dresses are still appearing in editorials and seem to grow more relevant with each passing day. However, this season’s abundance of lace, feathers and ribbons felt, if possible, even more relevant. Never garish, or unnecessary, the tenderness and femininity of the collection were the perfect balm to the aggression and hate populating the American media and pervading our society. The show said loudly and clearly that softness and femininity are beautiful, necessary qualities that need not, and in fact shouldn’t be exclusive to one gender. These young men were the antithesis of the uber masculine and patriarchal figures that seem to be trying to turn America back a few generations. While designers throughout the recent men’s and women’s shows have made statements about the current political climate — Dior and Prabal Gurung most noticeably (Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior created shirts stamped with, “We Should All Be Feminists” while Gurung, in a similar manner, stamped his with “This Is What A Feminist Looks Like”) — Meunier’s approach feels the most sophisticated. While the graphic shirts were powerful, they also felt similar to a social media post. Writing the post or wearing the shirt gives the same self-congratulatory feeling, but in the long run does nothing to change the direction society is heading. The necessary change is a shift in cultural attitude and behavior; by implementing femininity into our everyday lives, incorporating softness into what we present to the world, we can hopefully start to dissolve the damaging attitude of hatred, towards women and countless other groups, not with violence but with kindness and grace that Meunier and his clothes were presented.
