Physical shows back on Paris Fashion Week calendar with menswear

Business is beginning to resume post-lockdown, and thanks to the vaccination drive’s acceleration, little by little fashion is returning to a certain degree of normality. As shown by the next round of menswear fashion weeks for the summer season, with a number of physical events on the cards, after the previous season was wholly virtual.

Three catwalk shows are scheduled in Milan, while Paris has announced six genuine shows with a live guest audience for its Spring/Summer 2022 menswear calendar. Plus the show by Jacquemus, scheduled on June 30 not far from the French capital.

Jacquemus has announced its catwalk return with a co-ed show outside the French Fashion and Haute Couture Federation’s official calendar, presenting a collection that will be immediately available for purchase. The goal “is to maintain momentum between our presentation and the products’ availability. To us, this way of doing things seems more relevant, more realistic,” said Jacquemus in a brief note, indicating also that it now intends to be “less seasonal.” The show will give the label the chance to stage a “transition towards a more adaptable, modern, flexible approach.”

Entitled ‘La Montagne’, the new collection by Simon Porte Jacquemus, some of whose items have already been unveiled on the label’s Instagram account, will be presented at a yet undisclosed venue in the vicinity of Paris. In a similar spirit to the label's last show, which took place in July 2020 in a wheat field in the Oise valley, to the north-west of Paris.

Paris Fashion Week Men’s official programme features 72 labels, with 39 catwalk shows on the calendar. A number of major names are absent, like Saint Laurent, which will show in Venice on July 14, Givenchy, Comme des Garçons, Junya Watanabe, Balenciaga and Ami, which has scheduled an online show on July 3, but the Parisian event can still count on the presence of several leading labels. Like Louis Vuitton, Issey Miyake, Lanvin, Yohji Yamamoto, Jil Sander, Dries Van Noten, Walter Van Beirendonck, Paul Smith, JW Anderson, Lemaire, Thom Browne, Y/Project and Vetements.

Dior Homme and Hermès are set to hold physical shows respectively on Friday June 25 and Saturday 26. The four other labels that are planning catwalk shows are LGN Louis-Gabriel Nouchi on June 24, Officine Générale on June 25, Casablanca on June 26, and Bluemarble, which will stage a presentation on Wednesday June 23.

With the exception of a handful of invitation-only events, most of the collections will be presented via online videos on the Federation’s website, as in recent seasons. Among the new names at this year’s Paris Fashion Week Men’s June edition there is Courrèges, making its return to menswear. The French label’s men's line had been launched in 1973 and then abandoned in 1986, with the exception of a few licensed items. Nicolas Di Felice, Courrèges’s new creative director, has designed a capsule collection for the occasion, to be unveiled on June 23.

Four other labels making their Parisian debut are also on the presentation calendar. The first is Georges Wendell, on old, virtually unknown brand from Paris’s Sentier district, bought and relaunched in the midst of the pandemic by Pierre Kaczmarek, the young designer who founded Afterhomework. Then there is Mr. Saturday, founded in Toronto in 2017 by self-taught designer Joey Gollish, which has emerged via Canadian business incubator HXOUSE. Gollish loves music, and draws his inspiration from the club culture of the 70s and 80s.

The third label, Gravalot, was set up by Nigeria-born designer Onye Anuna after he moved from Lagos to London in 2014. His menswear is rooted in craftsmanship and sustainable solutions, and is described as an “expression of black culture” with a contemporary African style. Finally, Jan-Jan Van Essche is a Belgian designer who studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. He set up his own label in 2010, with a penchant for minimalism, snugly generous volumes and luxe materials.

After menswear, it will be the turn of Paris Haute Couture Week, scheduled on July 5-8 and notably featuring eight physical catwalk shows, by Dior, Azzaro Couture, Chanel, Giorgio Armani Privé, Balenciaga, Jean Paul Gaultier, Zuhair Murad and Vaishali S.

Physical shows back on Paris Fashion Week calendar with menswear

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