Paris Men’s Fashion Week
IF MILAN MEN’S FASHION WEEK FALL / WINTER 2021 WAS TO BE A PRAGMATIC PROPOSAL OF FUTURE DRESS, ITS PARISIAN COUNTERPART IS THE COMPLETE HYPER-C ONCEPTUAL OPPOSITE. PHYGITAL FORMAT ASIDE, THE VAST MAJORITY OF PRESENTATIONS CUT COVID-19 OUT OF THE CREATIVE EQUATION, NIXING DESIGN INPUT FROM THE VIRUS. Depending on how your relationship with getting dressed has shifted through lockdowns, this may or may not appeal to you. However, whether you’re taking Zoom calls in Calvin’s or Comme des Garçons, if you love fashion you’ve likely missed runway shows not about isolation, impending doom, the apocalypse, or anything else COVID-19 related. Back in November, Paris’ Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode announced alongside The British Fashion Council and Florence’s Pitti Uomo trade fair a 2021 fashion week schedule amidst pandemic lockdowns. Since then, government restrictions have waxed and waned, but ultimately it’s not surprising the majority of this year’s presentations in Paris were digital. The 126-year-old house of Berluti was tasked with kicking off the week and though it presented a (very) short film
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entitled “Living Apart Together” it did not actually show its Fall/Winter 2021 collection. Instead the heritage house took a tongue-in-cheek approach, revealing fractions of colorfully dyed cashmere hats, matching wooly sweaters, and sleek dress shoes over the 1 minute, 1 second long video. To top it off, the clip concluded by announcing the debut of the collection would actually take place on March 5, in Shanghai, long after Paris events have ended and far away from where they took place. Symbolic satire at its finest.
