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In Paris, men's turn at style
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Paris is known for its chic women; the men have always slightly paled in comparison, appearing safe and nondescript. In the past few years, however, there has been a remarkable improvement.
"There's less cheap clothing and more allure," says Jean-Jacques Picart, a fashion consultant.
According to Lucas Ossendrijver, menswear designer for Lanvin, "It's become about mixing looks and wearing many more individual pieces."
And the shoe designer Christian Louboutin emphasizes the "charm element" ? "implying a certain negligence, even if it's taken hours to achieve."
In general, as Paris makes itself ready for the menswear shows at the end of this month, there is a new wave of nonchalant elegance shown by certain uniforms: single-breasted suits worn tie-less with somber-colored sneakers;, skinny leather blousons or narrow-shouldered velvet jackets and jeans teamed with Converse sneakers or Richelieu shoes; and the turtleneck under a peacoat, worn with corduroys.
Of course, these looks have existed before on various individuals ? but they were a rarefied group. Nowadays such style is omnipresent.
"The Internet has helped a lot," says Robert Ferrell, director of Marilyn Agency, the modeling business based in Paris and New York. "Kids spend their life surfing, looking at celebrity images and it's bound to influence."
Picart suggests two other sources: Zara Homme and H&M ? Hennes & Mauritz. "We cannot underestimate the effect that these two lines have had," he says. "They're selling well-cut clothes at affordable prices."
Even Picart, a die-hard Hedi Slimane client, is tempted by a parka at Zara Homme "which only costs ?79," or $103.
Another important factor is that French men are paying more attention to themselves. "They work out, they're more conscious of their body and they're choosing clothes to show their new shape," Picart continues.
Skin and hair are being cared for and, according to Ferrell, dental work has improved dramatically: "Before, there was always a joke about the French teeth,"
There also is the influence of French television celebrities, who are more looké (French slang for groomed allure) than the older generation who favored slouchy broad-shouldered double-breasted blazers. Stéphane Bern, the society and royalty expert, chooses loud pinstripe suits and allows his long curls to touch the back of his shirt collar; the program presenter Benjamin Castaldi, the one-name comedian Arthur and the news reader Harry Roselmack choose slick, Matrix-like, single- breasted suits.
Jackets tend to be snug and, according to Thomas Lenthal, co-owner of Paradis, the new men's magazine, "it's all thanks to Hedi Slimane."
"He almost had a cleansing effect by offering the concept that clothes that fit look better than clothes that hang," Lenthal says. "Before Slimane, French men wore suits that were really two sizes too big and there's nothing less flattering than a suit that bags."
According to the fashion historian and author Xavier Chaumette, Slimane has had an influence on a thriving movement among adolescent schoolboys. He says, "Their look consists of glove-tight jackets, tiny legs cased in drain-pipe jeans to the floor, a teeny cardigan or short sweater and winkle pickers," the British slang for the exaggeratedly pointed shoes worn by the Teddy boys of the 1960s.
It is a Modish look and reminds Chaumette of the "Minets," a group of young men who wore narrow- shouldered Renoma jackets, tight trousers and hung out at the Drugstore on the Champs-Elysées in the early '60s. (Jacques Dutronc ridiculed them in one of his songs.)
What intrigues Chaumette about the current fashion wave is that it involves the bourgeois, who haven't started a style for about 20 years. "Relatively speaking these are rich kids, they live in the 6th, 7th and 16th Arrondissements," he says. "Prior to them, the big influence was the rapper look from the suburbs."
Paramount to their appearance is the hair. It is either combed and stiffed forward into extravagant quiffs or is brushed and swirled extravagantly around the head. "Throughout history, hair has symbolized virility and eroticism," Chaumette says.
Bernard Burgalat, the record producer and musician who represents the teen group "Les Shades," says "the hair is a reaction to all those stupid bald DJs," noting that "the hair is now on the head, not the face" as "the whole goatee business has gone by the wayside."
Among the boys outside the Alsacienne, a popular private school on the Left Bank in Paris whose alumni include Paloma Picasso and Jean Touitou, the founder of the design group A.P.C., the looks range from vintage tweed and velvet jackets to leather blousons occasionally trimmed with vast fur collars and usually teamed with extremely tight trousers. With their hair, cheekbones, sensual mouths and insolent expressions, a few resemble baby Rolling Stones. And their popinjay appearances definitely outshine their low-key female classmates.
Yet, according to Chaumette, French male youths have a tradition of going through a narcissistic period, referring to "Les Incroyables," the young aristocrats during the Directoire period of the late 1790s who showed their scorn of the revolution by dropping their 'Rs' and dressing provocatively. In the late 1970s, Chaumette had his own BCBG (bon chic, bon genre) moment, with Lacoste polo shirts, Levi jeans and American loafers.
Today's boys from the Left Bank, call them the Luxembourgeois, wear only fripée, or secondhand clothes. Two of their favorite shops are Free "P" Star and Noir Kennedy, both of which are in the Marais neighborhood of Paris.
And apart from their cigarette jeans ? "April 77" being "le brand" ? they slightly scoff at labels.
"Slimane, doesn't he dress aging rock stars?" asks one cheeky chap.
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I hate the high neck:-) But JS is all about high necks