By JOELLE DIDERICH, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 18, 5:54 PM ET
PARIS - Paris menswear designers set their sights on the youth market Friday, with vibrant collections that breathed new life into that perennial wardrobe staple — the two-piece suit.
Once the preserve of investment bankers and CEOs, suits have found increasing favor with younger men looking to shed their cargo pants and hooded tops.
But forget the stuffy shirt and tie. Today's customer is just as likely to throw his impeccably tailored jacket over a loosely buttoned T-shirt and to top it off with an oversized scarf.
At French label Sonia Rykiel, a body-skimming gray pinstriped suit was jazzed up with a black-and-white leopard-print shirt and a V-neck sweater in kingfisher blue.
A burgundy plaid jacket was deliberately mismatched with midnight blue velvet pants, while fuzzy wool overcoats reflected this season's trend for elaborate textures.
"I don't see why men should have a very strict rapport with fashion," said Nathalie Rykiel, the president and creative director of the label founded by her mother.
"Mixing and matching is not just for women. To a certain extent, it's a question of taste and education, but as long as you know what you're doing, practically anything is possible," she told The Associated Press.
British designer John Galliano took the concept one step further with his parade of medieval princes, jesters and executioners decked out in drop-crotched britches and swaggering coats tufted with fur.
Looking battered and bloody, his models stomped down a catwalk shrouded in dry ice fog wearing outfits that owed as much to historical figures like King Henry VIII as they did to contemporary street style.
The designer is famous for staging over-the-top displays and saving his commercial savvy for the shop floor, but it was hard to pick out the wearable elements in this show.
By the time a model posed in a jockstrap, an executioner's hood and a thick rope wound around his neck, Galliano had definitely crossed the line of bad taste.
French label Kenzo stayed true to its tradition of melding East and West with a short but sweet collection inspired by Thomas Blake Glover, a 19th century Scottish merchant who traveled to Japan.
The outfits, showcased on a revolving catwalk with moving backdrops and fake snow, told a compelling story. But the casual suits worn with beanie hats and the sturdy fly fishing coats firmly anchored the tale in everyday life.
A final sequence of black Mao-collared jackets featured removable panels of gold embroidery inspired by the battle armor of Samurai warriors.
It seemed a sensible compromise in a season overshadowed by fears of a U.S. recession, rising energy prices, the subprime mortgage crisis and a weak dollar.
"We're obviously seeing a lot of suits at the moment in these collections because people are hoping to show stuff that will definitely sell, in what everyone says is going to be a difficult year for retail," said Charlie Porter, associate editor of the British edition of GQ magazine.
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