A model walks the Prada runway during the menswear fashion week in Paris. It seems that a slimmer silhouette is back in fashion. Photo: AFP
The sign in the Levi’s window on Rue Etienne Marcel declared it: “La Saison Du Baggy” (French for "the season of baggy"). And so it was. Here in Paris clothes are wide, loose, flouncy.
Yet nothing kills a trend faster than being mainstreamed, and Levi’s? That’s mainstream.
The recent fashion week shows in the city provided an indication of who was reveling in and who was rejecting this supersize norm.
It began one morning with Japanese label IM Men (part of the Issey Miyake brand universe).
Black pleated trousers flapped like sails, and skirts in primary colours were folded over at the hem like too-large tablecloths. Models arrived laden with jumbo fringed scarves.
They looked like armchairs, covered in throw blankets. It was baggy but also beautiful.
Read more: Menswear leans classic at the recent fashion weeks, but with bold twists
California label Amiri sat somewhere in the middle. The dominant trouser cut hugged the butt, went straight through the leg and flared at the hem.
It was in keeping with Amiri’s vibe – if a musician wore it in Rolling Stone 50 years ago, it’s good for everyone else!
It’s also good for Jeff Goldblum, who sat smirking in the front row in a patterned dinner jacket suited for Elton John.
Out came high and tight leather jackets, pearl-buttoned Western shirts, faded-at-the-knees jeans and Buddy Holly frames. The “Laurel Canyon 1976” T-shirt literalised what was clear to see.
The longer and leaner cut at Rick Owens delivered more of a jolt.
This was advanced Owensology. Models wore shorn, calf-squeezing denim capri pants with what Owens called “grotesque police boots”, their heels higher than a pint glass.
When the models walked, they flashed a naughty hint of knee.
“I usually do something super tight or super, super wide,” Owens said.
This time, he said, “it was all about that cropped pant”. It was also about the tight-on-the-body overcoat, a silhouette we first saw at Prada, which was seconded by Owens and confirmed as a trend at Dries Van Noten later on.
Read more: From neckties and loafers to cargo pants, fashion’s past is back in style
But Owens doesn’t so much as lengthen or widen the line as explode it.
Take his straight-up-and-down car coats. They could’ve been made by a prim Italian brand, but Owens capped them off with angular, ear-high collars, Dracula style.
The showstoppers, though, were magnificent overcoats with flexy forms extending across the shoulders. Picture a hammerhead shark or a tuna’s tail across the top of the jacket.
“They were just a flourish,” Owens said.
If he had his way, menswear would enter “La Saison Du Poisson” ("the season of the fish") next. – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
