By Giacomo Cavallari, guest editor
Images from our Archive
In recent years men’s fashion has seen itself grow, waited with excitement every six months on the catwalks of Milan and Paris.
It has gained so much more visibility, that London Fashion Week now dedicates an extra day to the menswear collections. Such a significant factor, even some of the oldest and maybe more traditional fashion houses have seen themselves being taken over by this younger generation of menswear designers. Last year we witnessed Kim Jones’ fresh vision completely changing and restyling the uber-cool/traditional House of Louis Vuitton, and this January the focus is on both Humberto Leon and Carole Lim of Open Ceremony, and what they are going to do with Kenzo.
Hopefully it will triumph over the past womenswear collection, one of the most fashion forward collections from last September. It seems like the trend of mixing an evident sportswear feel with a luxurious aesthetic will be present in great deal this winter. This is something London has been seeing for a few years now, with Kim Jones in the past and more recently Christopher Shannon’s outrageous menswear and even E-Tautz’ Savile Row sportswear.
It’s obvious nowadays that it’s not all about evening suits. Cashmere or Satin tracksuit bottoms are elegant and perfectly compliment a relaxed evening look. Like the ones we see these days in Selfridges, by young new menswear talent Richard Green, a Central Saint Martin’s graduate turned Selfridges-window-displayed designer, alongside a number of other new extremely talented designers like Sorcha O’ Raghallaigh, all thanks to ‘Bright Young Things’. It’s mostly in London where we witness the start of new trends and it’s a rather positive fact that the British Fashion Council is conscious of this, being very supportive of new designers and talents.
From Fashion Fringe, East and MAN, there is a great amount of opportunities to be noticed. It shouldn’t come as a surprise; London is in fact, home to the best fashion schools in the world and it is a massive source of inspiration. The past year has been a turning point for menswear. It has seen a resurge of creativity, and for the first time in a while colours made their come back in most of the main catwalk shows. Colour blocking had been a massive trend in 2011, and it opened the door braver experimentations. Six months after menswear is back with collections inspired by all that is fun and loud. Prints and patterns are everywhere.
Influences from Mexican artefacts, African Art, and Birds of Paradise! If this trend continues and matures, the New Year could bring us a sense of moderation through a subtle and elegant compromise and a more mature vision coming from the young and very fresh mind. It could, in fact, be the next exciting step for Menswear.
