Paris become a catwalk, as Kenzo models take to the streets

Kenzo makes a catwalk of Paris’ streets

PARIS — Fashion stopped the traffic on Saturday, as models at Kenzo took the show off the runway and onto a central Paris plaza, where a spinning rainbow of vintage Citroen cars awaited them.

Fashionistas in vertiginous heels followed the models out into the street and curious passers-by snapping cell phone pictures jostled for a spot on the sidewalk as faux police officers tried to keep a lid on it all.

The day’s other menswear shows couldn’t help but appear tame by comparison.

Still, Kris Van Assche served up a strong and innovative fall-winter 2010-2011 collection of high-water pants and blazers with trompe l’oeil flaps and unexpected vents at Dior Homme, while Hermes turned out more of the timeless, beautiful pieces that have forged its reputation for excellence for going on two centuries.

Jil Sanders’ designer Raf Simons fielded an edgy signature collection filled with suits with Velcro panels and ribbed sweaters with odd removable aprons. Hugo, Hugo Boss, the German suit maker’s avant-garde line, went casual, with a collection dominated by chunky sweaters and colored jeans following the departure late last year of designer Bruno Pieters.

Paris’ menswear displays wrap up on Sunday, with shows by coveted French label Lanvin, British dandy Paul Smith and a host of smaller-name brands.

Still, much of the global fashion glitteratti will remain in Paris for the haute couture shows — where labels showcase their savoir faire through extravagant, handmade dresses that cost as much as a (very expensive) car. The three-day long haute couture displays kick off on Monday, with shows by heavy-hitters Dior and Armani.

KENZO

It wouldn’t be a Kenzo show if it didn’t end with a grand, theatrical bang. But a traffic jam straight out of Paris circa the mid-20th century? That’s a show-stopper — even by the zany label’s standards.

Designer Antonio Marras looked to legendary French filmmaker Jacques Tati for inspiration, sending out a collection steeped in a 1950s aesthetic and built around the director-cum-actor’s hallmark uniform of tight jackets, high-water trousers and argyle socks in eye-popping hues. Models in chunky grandpa cardigans, with smart printed ties, cropped pants and flashy socks ambled through the sprawling boutique where the show was held, some carrying oversized totes and umbrellas.

“I love Tati’s freedom, his joy, the way he was always whistling as he walked through the streets,” Italian-born Marras told The Associated Press in a backstage interview. “In his films, we get the idea that he’s looking at everything through a child’s eyes, and that’s what interests me: I want to look at things with his sense of amazement and see the joy in things.”

And because it was Kenzo, the show culminated with the re-creation of a scene from Tati’s 1971 movie “Traffic,” featuring vintage cars jostling round Paris’ Place des Victoires. Guests spilled out of the boutique, and passers-by snapped photos as the models walked in circles around the center of the plaza, a rainbow of long, futuristic Citroen DSs spinning around them, with faux gendarmes in period costume directing traffic.

The scene was one of controlled chaos — full of cacophony and wide-eyed surprise. Jacques Tati would certainly have approved.

DIOR HOMME

Models in Amish-looking suits skulked Dior Homme’s catwalk, proving that wide-cut vests and high-water trousers can be the height of Parisian chic. Designer Van Assche sent out innovative variations on the classic suit, which he slashed and distorted, giving it new proportions and a faux Amish Country silhouette.

“I (wanted) to give the skinny black suit more fluidness, more comfort, with big coats on top in heavy materials, but I didn’t want coats that weigh 100 pounds,” the Belgian designer told The AP in a backstage interview. “Luxury, creativity and comfort” were the guiding principles of the fall-winter 2010-2011 menswear collection, Van Assche said.

Working in a reduced palette of black, charcoal and oatmeal, the Belgian designer served up oversized jackets with long, fluttering front panels that tapered into dangly V-shapes, pairing them with generously cut cropped pants. Some of the jackets were fitted with trompe l’oeil flaps on one side, while others had lapels that morphed into scarves.

Models in bulky overcoats and bathrobe-inspired trenches traced half-moon shapes around the set, which was spread with chunks of coal — a reminder, Van Assche said, of the kind of warm, smoldering color he had in mind while designing the collection.

Sisters of Mercy’s “Temple of Love” reverberated through the dark, cavernous hall where the show — the most star-studded of the first three days of Paris’ menswear displays — took place. Chanel uber-designer Karl Lagerfeld, himself a huge Dior Homme fan, took in the spectacle from his first row perch, which he shared with French Vogue editor-in-cheif Carine Roitfeld and fashion photographer Mario Testino.

HERMES

Hermes stepped back from the fashion fray, delivering a collection of timeless pieces that willfully snubbed trendiness.

The storied label made nearly no concessions to the fads that have swept other Paris catwalks, including proposing slouchy longjohns as a stand-in for pants and relieving blazers of their sleeves. Instead, Hermes’ menswear designer, Veronique Nichanian, served up to-die-for suits with straight-leg pants remarkable only for their perfect cut and sweaters that retired French soccer star Lilian Thuram — a front row guest — said he was already coveting.

“For me, what’s important is to have clothes that last and age gracefully,” Nichanian told The AP in a post-show interview. “Season after season, I tell the same story — of quality and effortless chic — and the wardrobe of the (Hermes) man gets richer with each season.”

Nichanian’s sole nods to ever-shifting street-style were the neon orange lining on some of the blazers, a zip-front jacket in crocodile that looked like the world’s most expensive hoodie and the bad boy chains dangling from the belts (albeit sterling silver chains).

The rest of the pieces — which included slim overcoats worn with leather belts, velvet jackets in slate and mauve and cashmere V-neck sweaters — were timeless in a manner befitting a house that has been forging a reputation for handmade excellence since its start as a saddlemaker in 1837.

HUGO, HUGO BOSS

Heavy on nubby sweaters and rugged jeans, the collection was much more casual than the label’s usual sleek offerings. Inspired by volatile German movie director Werner Herzog’s 1974 hike from Munich to Paris, it was full of rugged pants and cozy sweaters. After all, Munich to Paris by foot is not the kind of journey you make in a slim-fitting three-piece suit.

The collection’s palette of forest-y greens and browns, snowy whites and icy blues referenced different stages of Herzog’s overland journey, according to the notes. Belgian designer Bruno Pieters stepped down late last year, and a new design team was behind the fall-winter 2010-2011 collection. It was shown not on the runway but at a presentation, where the looks are on hangers instead of models.

RAF SIMONS

Wearable clothes peppered with just the right dosage of weird: That was the recipe at the Belgian designer’s signature label, where well-cut suits were punctuated with a sprinkling of shiny metal closures and Velcro strips nipped the waists of bulky trench coats. Some of the models wore ribbed turtlenecks with a removable wrap apron in the same material that made them look like form-hugging dresses. Another sported a kind of bulky, ill-fitting bustier in some sort of padded, Space Age fabric over an otherwise nondescript suit. Again, strange but compelling.