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Paris men's fashion week set to begin
After a jampacked week in Milan, the fashion elite will flock to Paris from today to see what men will be wearing next spring and summer, with about 40 runway shows and 20 showroom presentations on the agenda.
JeanPaul Gaultier will kick off the springsummer 2004 collections in the French capital this evening with a catwalk show followed by a launch party for his first line of cosmetics and skin care products for men.
The other muchawaited moment of the week, due to run through Tuesday, will take place late on Monday when Hedi Slimane for Christian Dior and Tom Ford for Yves Saint Laurent unveil their visions for next spring one after the other.
Men's readytowear, long seen by the industry's top labels as playing second fiddle to women's fashion, is now an integral part of the development and marketing schemes implemented by the major luxury goods firms.
Accessories are also on the rise, with everything from leather goods to sunglasses to watches and other jewelry becoming ever more popular with fashionconscious men and starting to win pride of place on store shelves.
A case in point is Dior Hommes after being relaunched in 2001, it posted growth of 41 percent last year, identical to that of Christian Dior.
"This year, growth (for Dior Hommes) will eclipse that of the signature label, especially as we are about to open stores in New York and Paris between September and December 2003," Christian Dior chief Sydney Toledano said.
Gaultier, Slimane and Ford will not be alone on the Paris catwalks: industry heavyweights Helmut Lang, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, Paul Smith, Yohji Yamamoto, Dries van Noten and Veronique Nichanian for Hermes will all be there.
Lining up to challenge the fashion Goliaths will be a host of lesserknown designers like the avantgarde Bernhard Willhelm, the elegant Oswald Boateng and Christophe Lemaire, back on the Paris runway with his own collection after a stint with Lacoste.
Other big names like Hussein Chalayan, quirky Dutch duo Viktor and Rolf, Belgium's Veronique Branquinho and Karl Lagerfeld for his own Lagerfeld Gallery have opted for subdued, less costly showroom presentations this season.
Many of their younger colleagues have done the same, in a reflection of the effects of the global economic downturn on the fashion world.
"The younger labels are 90 percent dependent on exports,[url=http://www.holisteroutlet.cc]hollister outlet[/url]," explained Didier Grumbach, president of the French fashion federation. "In the current context, it's difficult, but we just need a bit of an upswing and sales will pick up."
Those missing from the Paris lineup are Kenzo, due to return in January after changing designers and moving offices, and Jose Levy, currently in financial trouble.
Always looking to set himself apart, JeanCharles de Castelbajac will stage a runway show on July 1 not of men's clothing but of dresses handpainted in the 1980s. They are to be sold at auction at Christie's two days later.