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Catwalks: Monochromatic looks ahead

With the look now filtering down to the high streets, fashion is off again in another direction…

Catwalks: Monochromatic looks ahead

(Getty Images)

For the last two years, catwalks have been flooded with sulking teenagers hiding in hoodies, huge trailing trousers and enormous coats inside of which you could shelter a small family. But with the look now filtering down to the high streets, fashion is off again in another direction.

Paris Fashion Week has been remarkable for how the spring/summer collections are bringing clothes back to the body, with a much closer cut to shake off the studied shapelessness of the last few seasons. For example, Virgil Abloh, the en vogue American designer at OffWhite so beloved by rap stars for his riffs on sweatshirts and streetwear, has embraced the well-cut power suit, matching a doublebreasted white jacket with bicycle leggings.

Everything looks much more classic, wearable and designed to flatter. Even Rick Owens, the over the-top Los Angeles radical who took oversized to extremes, seemed to be cutting his cloth much tighter.

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Black and white

It is not so much a trend for next spring and summer as the rule. Although pastels and strong colours usually dominate the spring and summer collections, this year, many brands have gone back to the essentials of black and white. The list of those who have gone binary is long, from sexy Saint Laurent, Off-White, Balmain, Mugler, Isabel Marant and Ann Demeulemeester to Paco Rabanne, Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, Drome, Lanvin, Andrew Gn and Lutz Huelle. Silvery greys are also in with Guillaume Henry, in particular, using them to very polished effect for Nina Ricci with safari coats and French military jackets with epaulettes topped with Foreign Legion kepis.

Good sportswear

Sportswear is everywhere. At first look, it might seem like fashion has finally surrendered to the football shirt-wearing masses. Koche, the smart French label set up by Christelle Kocher, who is known for her couture savvy – sent out a series of re-imagined silky tops from French football club Paris Saint-Germain. Lacoste, which has quit New York for Paris, delivered its reliable fare for the sporty upper-crust with tennis star Novak Djokovic looking on. Elsewhere, Veronique Leroy gave the swimsuit a couture-over, layering her creations on top of bikinis and one pieces while Glenn Martens at Y/Project pulled bermuda shorts way up the market. And polo dresses made an appearance at Carven as well as up-and coming Atlein.

Big in Japan

The Japanese always turn heads, be it with their crop of insanely gifted designers or the incredibly “looked” tribe of fashion editors, bloggers and photographers who follow the fashion circus around the globe. But they have been outdoing themselves with Watanabe at his brilliant best, giving black-and white prints from Finnish textile house Marimekko a whole new and completely unexpected punk life. There was also a new vampire gothic sexual edge to Yamamoto’s deeply black collection. Yoshiyuki Miyamae’s very ethereal evocation of Iceland for Issey Miyake with shimmering dresses and capes also had many admirers. And you could not help but love the sets of zany 1950s “twins” that Underground sent out in outfits loosely inspired by American artist Cindy Sherman.

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