1.
Givenchy

Sarah Burton hosted her first menswear presentation for Givenchy during this edition of Paris Fashion Week Men’s. Presented in a “triptych” of rooms inside the house’s Avenue George V headquarters, the range delved further into some of the concepts and ideas that Burton had already started developing with her women’s collections. The results: loose, barrel-leg denim reworked for men’s bodies; sharp tailoring including double-pleated trousers and blazers with split lapels; and one-of-a-kind outerwear featuring delicate hand embroidery.

“I wanted this to feel very personal and intimate, and to reflect the conversations that I have with the friends of the house,” says Burton. She simultaneously presented a campaign shot by Juergen Teller and featuring the likes of filmmaker/musician Don Letts, painter Danny Fox and photojournalist Sir Don McCullin. 

Just like her campaign, her debut men’s collection revolves around a varied cast of characters, from the man who wants to wear a sporty bomber jacket, denim and sneakers to the collector who favours a handmade, statement-making coat. But what makes it really stand apart in an overcrowded market is Burton’s soft, romantic touch and her ability to add a couture feel in every garment, be it a humble car coat elevated using the finest silk or a chore jacket with a 1950s label embroidered on its front pocket. 
givenchy.com 

2.
Studio Nicholson

London-based label Studio Nicholson is far from a runway regular – and for good reason. Nick Wakeman’s clothes are best experienced up close, like when you touch the crisp cotton of a shirt or try on her signature double-pleated chinos to fully appreciate the seamless fit. 

But to mark the label’s 16th anniversary, Wakeman hosted her debut runway show during Paris Fashion Week, showing a collection filled with understated yet desirable summer pieces – from perfectly curved trousers to double-breasted suits worn with flip-flops and elegant leather jackets. The new format worked because of the intimate scale: Wakeman opted for a salon-style show, held inside the Hotel d’Évreux, with models walking close enough to guests to appreciate the details up close.

Wakeman spoke about returning to the sources of inspiration that have always defined her – Isabella Rossellini in tailoring, Japanese architect Tadao Ando, workwear – rather than seeking novelty for novelty’s sake. “I revisit the same questions, images and films that have been my own codes for 30 years,” she says. “It’s precious, studied, terribly subtle and quite esoteric.” Fellow designers take note.
studionicholson.com 

3.
Wales Bonner  

Grace Wales Bonner drew on documentary photography from South Africa and the intimacy of portraiture for her brand’s latest designs, which feel lived in and timeless. Think leather jackets with a worn-in effect, sharp suits with subtle touches such as a single satin lapel, sets in heritage checks serving as “an ode to tradition” and an immaculately tailored coat made with Anderson & Sheppard.

There were images of Arthur Ashe on display – the only black male tennis player to win singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open – who was known for looking immaculate in his uniforms. Bonner has long channelled the same sense of refinement in her collections, whether designing trainers and sporty polo shirts or a black-tie suit.

4.
Auralee

Ryota Iwai, the founder and creative director of Japanese label Auralee, wanted to capture transitory moments of summer travels in his latest collection, which showed in a colonnade of the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe. The in-between state of mind that comes with planning a holiday and leaving everyday routines inspired the show, which was told in three chapters. 

The first part evoked the excitement of planning an escape from behind a work desk with office-appropriate suiting in pleasing navy, butter yellow and grey. Then, the holiday, with models in striped T-shirts and jeans, sundresses and azure shorts. Some even carried terry-cloth towels. Finally, the return to reality but with a slightly shifted, perhaps more open, mindset that comes with a broadening of horizons. At Auralee, this came in the form of a willingness to incorporate more colour and pattern into the daily work wardrobe, with knitted vests, a bright red trench coat or florals. 

It was a clever way of framing a collection that, combined with Iwai’s ability to create fresh and surprising colour palettes, confirmed the brand as an industry favourite on the Paris Fashion Week circuit. 
auralee.jp 

5.
Louis Vuitton

This season’s most impressive set came courtesy of Louis Vuitton. The French luxury house created an eight-by-37-metre tidal wave in a courtyard of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris (CIUP), from which models emerged and paced down a sand-covered runway. The brand’s creative director, Pharrell Williams, delivered a collection of beach-ready pieces – think branded surfboards, wetsuits and even a racing bike – alongside longline coats, leather blousons and denim pieces embellished with shells. On show were beaded bags made to look as though they were encrusted with coral, while others sported mini-surfboard keychains. Meanwhile, Williams’s Acid Rain series reimagined the house’s monogrammed bags with colourful embroidery and weathering treatments were applied to clothes to make them appear kissed by the sun and ocean. Whether or not any of these pieces, especially the more formal shirts and ties, will ever be worn to the beach is another matter. 

Williams is bringing the spirit of Miami’s South Beach to Paris. As for the set, the water from the show was drained back into the French capital’s waterways and the sand was donated to the CIUP’s beach-volleyball courts. Louis Vuitton also pledged support to Coral Gardeners, a reef-restoration project in French Polynesia.
louisvuitton.com

6.
IM Men

The bamboo plant and its representation in East Asia’s decorative arts provided the foundation for the latest collection from IM Men, the menswear division of Japanese brand Issey Miyake headed by Yuki Itakura, Sen Kawahara and Nobutaka Kobayashi. The collection was titled In Praise of Bamboo Shadows – a riff on the seminal 1933 essay on Japanese aesthetics by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki – and explored how the plant can be used to create lightweight textiles for summer. 

Billowing jackets featured bamboo patterns by graphic designer Rikako Nagashima and denim sets were hand-dyed to mimic traditional ink-wash paintings of the plant. Some pleats referenced the nodes of a bamboo shoot, while others evoked the vertical repetition of a bamboo forest. While the collection began with a series of monochromatic looks, a shift into a hues of beige, green and blue gradually brought it energy, before a blast of vivid pink pieces provided the finale. Sandals and the new Sortie Veiled trainer, a take on a 1980s staple of Japanese footwear giant Asics, completed the laidback silhouettes. Eminently wearable and conceptually clear, it gave a glimpse into why the world of Issey Miyake consistently attracts a cult following. 
isseymiyake.com 

7.
Celine

Last but certainly not least, Celine closed the week with a collection that confirmed the brand’s artistic director, Michael Rider, as a name to contend with on the Paris circuit. The American designer’s ability to chop and change silhouettes in a manner that feels fresh and unexpected provided a connecting thread for an otherwise eclectic collection that featured slimline cigarette trousers, as well as ballooning shapes, dishevelled shirt collars and prim leather gloves, plus flip-flops alongside laced-up derbies.

As is often the case with Rider’s collections, the attention paid to the styling is as important as the clothes. It’s the imaginativeness of a silk cumberband layered over a red jumper or the way that a leather pouch is tucked under the belt of a trench coat. Such natty tricks are getting Rider, who took the helm at Celine in October 2024, increasingly noticed. 
celine.com