On the Boulevard de Cliché Men’s Fashion

At six o’clock tonight I went down to the street to find my driver, Bernard Alloux, and go and buy a baguette for the trip home. On the way I stopped and bought a pair of stilettos at a place called Ernest, a real dump, but the ladies were nice and I left with the shoes in a gold plastic bag that said:

ERNEST
Le Specialiste du Talon Haut
PARIS

I lead such a decadent life in Paris, though only on account of the fact Bernard knows the best bakeries.

An oversized wool coat with ribbed neck warmer and skinny trousers in the Yves Saint Laurent men’s fall winter 2007 show.

I want to thank everyone who has been reading the blog, and I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to post every day during the men’s shows. It’s just that I’ve been working on an article about Anna Wintour, about her deal-making within the fashion industry, how she attempts to place designers at fashion houses. One of the most interesting comments in the article, I think, comes from François-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of PPR, which owns Gucci Group (Balenciaga, YSL). I ran into Pinault, in fact, on the runway Sunday at Stefano Pilati’s men’s show for Saint Laurent, and he said, in effect, that Wintour doesn’t get upset or anything if a fashion house executive can’t do what she wants.

“But she makes you understand,” Pinault told me, “that if you could do something, she would be very supportive with her magazine. She really makes you understand that.”

Anyway, you might find it interesting. It will be in Thursday Styles. And I promise to be a better blogger during the New York shows, now that Citizen Anna is out of my hair. Also, I’m glad so many people liked the digital flipbook of the Lanvin dress. To the fellow in Shanghai who asked about a look into Azzedine Alaïa’s studio, it’s already on the boards. Alaïa, of course, is one of the great designers and watching him do a fitting is an amazing experience. That’s what I think we’re going to do: put a video camera on him and let it run awhile with just the silence of the room. We’ll have it up during the Paris ready-to-wear.

I thought the Paris men’s shows were a bit of a bust, really. On the top of the list I’d put Raf Simons, John Galliano and Pilati. The virtue of Pilati’s collection was that he dropped a lot of the Milanese effects. He had an idea (I know, he had a few other peoples’ ideas, too) that looked focused, and the collection had a well-made, elegant look. A lot of people near me said they could see Kanye West in the clothes, especially a black wool jacket over a black hooded sweater, with these wide black wool pants. The wide trousers aren’t new (Raf), but I thought Pilati did a pretty good job. Now if he can translate everything — the ads, the women’s collections — into something that feels sharp and coherent.

Men’s fashion from the Christian Dior fall winter 2007 show in Paris.

You’re probably wondering about Hedi Slimane’s show for Dior, which was last night. Join the club: so was everybody. Though I don’t know how many people really care, at this point, if Slimane has worked out his contract issues with Dior. The collection didn’t go forward and it didn’t go backward. The silhouette was lean, like pulled taffy through the torso; there were some great coats (classic Hedi) and suits. It was sort of a product-replacement collection, like one of those shops that stocks out-of-stock china. For half a second, after the finale, I wondered if people were going to clap. They seemed sort of stunned and sad. But they clapped, though not much, when Slimane came out.

I didn’t have time last Saturday to say anything about Simons’s show except to capture the immortal “schatzi” moment by the ice-hockey game with Klaus Stockhausen. Simons had this enormous swinging wooden sculpture by the British artist Conrad Shawcross set up in the center of the room. It had two long, lattice-like arms with lights on the ends and every revolution the lights would come close to touching. The Shawcross piece was a good way for Simons to suggest something that was futuristic but which also felt ordinary, was made of ordinary materials. I think he understands pretty well that the futurism trip in fashion can begin to look like a feeder road in Orlando. Unbelievably gadgety. The clothes still have to look real and masculine on the street.

A swinging wooden sculpture by the British artist Conrad Shawcross for the Raf Simons show in Paris.

You could also see that his head is more into design; he knows more about design since he’s been at Jil Sander. He told me after the show that he’s more and more interested in a performance. I think that has to do with his interest in contemporary art, or maybe it just feels like a fresh expression for him. The clothes this season have a very distinct silhouette — you knew after the first few looks that these clothes were different than anything else in Paris. The silhouette is slim, though not super-skinny, with a strange, almost mechanical looking bulkiness through the shoulders. And there were long leather gloves that made me think of robot arms. You know these shapes and details are going to influence other people.