January 2016

Balmain's army aren't that great at camouflage. Well, they're not unless you’re trapped in a giant glitter ball. Or a chandelier factory. Or the Swarovski HQ in glittery, shimmery shiny Austria, who must celebrate February 23rd as a national holiday

Looking back without nostalgia. That was the challenge Kris Van Assche set himself at Dior Homme - plus the added pressure of translating whatever that would look like into clothing. He settled on the hybrid - skate meeting New Wave.

The Japanese word for "Love" is super close to the Japanese word for "Life". That translation inspired Chitose Abe's Sacai menswear for winter, where the brands love of hybrid - a coat mashed with a sweater, a scarf fused with

An ode to fans, past and present. That was the inspiration of Carol Lim and Humberto Leon at Kenzo, who thought not of rock icons but of said icons' legions of faithful followers for autumn/winter. But forget scruffy band t-shirts

Lovely honest-to-goodness clothes. That's what A.P.C. delivers, not heavy fashion. Jean Touitou would like that, we think - he's said before he's not a fashion designer, he just makes clothes. Clothes he wants to sell, clothes people will want to

Alessandro Sartori  went to the desert to find inspiration for his latest Berluti collection. It wasn't Lawrence of Arabia or anything overwrought like that, more to the desert landscape of Marfa, Texas, and its palette of scrubgrass beige, granite, and

Botswana renegades, a hot Moroccan palette, a few snakes, Berlin clubbers and a dozen haute couture gowns. Shake it all together and bake in a hot pink box for ten glorious minutes. That's a recipe for Givenchy success. An ode

The armour of peace. That's what Rei Kawakubo declared her intention was, for winter, for her for Comme Des Garçons' garçons. She showed articulated plate armour-style suiting blooming with brocades and topped with hairpieces threaded with roses. Kawakubo may have

Jason Basmajian is the new man at Cerruti 1881 - their chief creative officer, which sounds a bit military. And indeed, there was a military precision to what he offered for winter 2016, in a tight palette of airforce blue,

Magic mushrooms and over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders. Those were the big things going on at Loewe. The boulder-shoulder stuff was actually a gargantuan backpack borrowed from Great War soldiers, which sometimes came plastered with the fungi motif, hand painted. That was a technique

Think Ann Demeulemeester - now helmed by Sebastian Meunier - is all about dour, dreary black? Pallor and bones and no fun? Think again. It isn't exactly a laughriot mind: Meunier takes his clothes seriously. So do Deneulemeester clients. For

"Finding the humanity and acknowledging the machine." Maison Margiela love to get philosophical. But their menswear kine has always been subtitled "a wardrobe for men" and hence imbued with a sense of pragmatism. They called this show a pastiche of

We love Joy Division. Who doesn't love Joy Division? Idiots, that's who. Junya Watanabe played nothing bar Joy Division at his show, which was worth the trek to the 20th arrondissement just to listen to, never mind watch. But luckily,