Paris Fashion Week: Givenchy refines its tailoring, Issey Miyake presents an ode to bamboo

British designer Sarah Burton presented her very first men’s collection for Givenchy on Thursday during Paris Fashion Week, blending her mastery of tailoring with the history of the French luxury house, with a nod to actor Timothée Chalamet.

The 52-year-old designer, who had previously designed menswear for the brand, made her debut on the official schedule of Men’s Fashion Week in the capital. At the brand’s headquarters, where the presentation took place, the showroom was divided into three areas.

The first featured perfectly tailored double-breasted suits, loose-fitting pants, and shirts with detachable collars. Leather also features in the collection, notably in the form of bomber jackets and perfecto jackets in textured or smooth leather. More surprising: a black-and-white striped polo shirt, paired with an electric blue scarf, both made of leather.

But the season was above all marked by embroidery, which transforms synthetic jackets, knit vests, and wool coats into a medley of beige, orange, and red. A significant portion of the collection leaned toward beige and brown, notably featuring a stunning coat with a velvet collar. But the most memorable pieces were a brown jacket entirely embroidered with daisies and white chrysanthemums, and an ochre coat embroidered with wisteria and peonies. Enough to delight lovers of fine craftsmanship.

One of these outfits was paired with a pendant featuring three figures, one of whom pays homage to the brand’s founder, Hubert de Givenchy, wearing a white lab coat with his glasses in his pocket. In the second section, tracksuits made entirely of leather in intense shades of blue, yellow, or candy pink.

In the haute couture section, the immaculate white suit worn by Franco-American actor Timothée Chalamet at the most recent Oscars ceremony was notably on display.

Issey Miyake

The Japanese fashion house Issey Miyake unveiled the latest collection from its IM MEN label, titled “In Praise of Bamboo Shadows”—an ode to bamboo, its shade, and the lightness of its foliage—featuring very fluid, very loose-fitting, and sometimes oversized ensembles.

Inside the Césure cultural space, some forty models walked the runway in mostly subdued tones, starting with shades of white and black before transitioning to shades of brown and green, light sage, anise, and fir. There were also a few much more colorful outfits in royal blue or fuchsia pink.

Bamboo was at the heart of this collection, not only in its colors but also in its techniques and patterns: a long white coat or suit with black shadows, tops that appeared to be made from bamboo leaves glued together, revealing the body, woven-pattern pants in shades of brown, and two long openwork coats with horizontal and vertical bands interwoven.

“The silhouettes undulate like waves. The lines overlap and blend together. Figure and background intertwine. A presence that wavers between absence and reality,” stated a press release from the line led by Sen Kawahara, Yuki Itakura, and Nobutaka Kobayashi, three members of the Miyake Design Studio.

Among the few headpieces presented were gavroche caps, conical hats that fell to eye level, and bamboo-like stems assembled to form a wide-brimmed hat.