After two years of pandemic punctuated by confinement and teleworking, formal suits and experimental outfits seem to be losing ground on the catwalks. This season, many brands are offering a simple wardrobe, brightened up with small distinctive details. “Nobody wants to take the lead right now. People are looking for everyday clothes with dog! », says Isabel Marant. How to achieve it? For her, the jeans are baggy, very supple, washed out then re-dyed… in an orange-red. His shearling leather jacket merges with the hooded sweater. The whole forms a comfortable and cheerful collection, boosted by mixes of prints (stripes, checks, camouflage).
In this area, Pierre Mahéo, of Officine Générale, has nothing more to prove: each season, he varies his pragmatic wardrobe with a touch, to maintain the desire. “I know that others would turn everything upside down, but I stick to well cut, well made, that you want to touch”, he defends. It is always by touching his clothes, in fact, that one grasps their value. For Fall 2022, he added cashmere to knits, tried an electrifying indigo on a velvet ensemble, spent weeks choosing his materials so that an olive hue looked exactly the same on the wool of a coat and the The scarf worn with it makes some coats or pants swell.
Jil Sander, discreetly singular
In fact, the total streetwear look is often put on the backburner, in favor of a classic silhouette (suit, work clothes) with a zest of audacity. The American-Portuguese duo Ernest W. Baker, who continue to offer impeccable little jackets and seventies pants, enhanced this season with quilted suits, looped sweaters and a faux fox belted coat, observes: “A few seasons ago, buyers wavered: “yes, maybe, to see, let’s talk about it again”. Today, our purpose is more in tune with the times, we sell more easily. »
At Jil Sander, the designer duo Luke and Lucie Meier also tend towards this idea of a simple but sublimated wardrobe. The suits are supple and without buttons, the pants are tucked into leather boots, a crocheted knit neckband dresses the whole. The large herringbone wool coats are broadly belted and adorned with a gold metal plate that catches the eye. The pace is easy and yet unique.
“We want silhouettes where we don’t feel the effort”, explain designers Sarah-Linh Tran and Christophe Lemaire. Everything seems fluid and natural with these Lemaire men wrapped in structured sweaters and jackets, with slightly short pants, all in beige, black or ocher. “Having an intriguing look without the clothes particularly attracting attention: that’s style”summarize the creators.
Paul Smith is making movies
To make an overly classic wardrobe stand out, having fun making it bigger remains a proven recipe. The turtlenecks and long coats of Rémi Bats and Hugues Fauchard, the Uniform duo, which produces in France from surplus textiles (95%) and works this season around the figure of the volcanologist, envelop the bodies, swallow heads. Similarly, Israeli Hed Mayner puffs up his jackets and coats like never before, to the point that they look like burying duvets. “I wanted to recompose ordinary silhouettes but giving them a dramatic effect with an almost architectural gesture”he explains.
“We are not like the big groups: we do not mainly sell bags, said straight out a Paul Smith in great shape. People really live in our clothes. » He looks towards the New Wave, discovered cinema “at the age of 20 in a small hall in Nottingham”and 1980s films.Breathless or of Jules and Jimzigzag effect borrowed from the “red room” of Twin Peaks on boots or mesh, blue à la David Lynch, jacket with pockets “director” to slip in his glasses and his screenplay… We notice here the slightly flared trousers which no longer have a belt buckle, there a suit but cut for the first time in a faded Nylon. “Practical, portable. And then, did you notice? No logos! »