Rather than relying on predictable tropes, Paris Men’s Fashion Week SS27 delivered an interrogation of existing fashion codes. Driven by the capital’s relentless summer heat, designers turned extreme weather into the season’s primary creative catalyst, embracing hyper-specific silhouettes built for a changing climate. Pharrell Williams set this visual tone at Louis Vuitton by bringing a full-scale coastal paradise to Paris. Emerging from a massive, sculpted tubular wave, his models showcased a surf-and-skate-inspired collection defined by sun-faded hoodies and distressed denim.
At Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello opted for a foggy atmosphere, enveloping the Bourse de Commerce in a dense cloud of steam created by artist Fujiko Nakaya, which served as a sultry backdrop for power shoulders, sheer tops and a gold lamé finale. Even the front row matched the intense energy, braving the sweltering heat in last season’s infamous latex PVC socks while Charli XCX and Madonna caught everyone’s eyes.
Rick Owens took over the Palais de Tokyo with water arches and an Adidas collaboration featuring inflatable tracksuits equipped with their own built-in body-cooling ventilation systems, perfect for the rising temperatures.
Instead of rewriting the masculine wardrobe entirely, the most impactful collections focused on dismantling and reassembling classic staples with an intentional eye. Michael Rider’s highly anticipated debut menswear offering for Celine felt like an illustration of the effortlessly cool French wardrobe, refusing to commit to a single silhouette by pairing tight suits with fluid trousers, cummerbunds with basic T-shirts, and finishing the looks with tucked ties and stacked keyrings.
Willy Chavarria stripped away the theatrics for his collection, Comunión, focusing on garment construction to deliver a lineup of billowing shorts, slouchy pinstriped tailoring and buttery leather jackets punctuated by flashes of pastel colours. This relaxed sentiment carried over to Soshi Otsuki’s softer cuts and casual, unbuttoned shirting that suggested the ultimate corporate holiday, while Rei Kawakubo offered a optimistic perspective for Comme des Garçons Homme Plus, layering relaxed blazers over ruffled shorts before a joyful finale where models skipped down the runway.
The energy surrounding the week was further elevated by a heavy emphasis on intentional, real-world casting that moved beyond typical runway expectations. Willy Chavarria leaned into a culturally relevant lineup by sending NBA star Jordan Clarkson down the runway in a Knicks-blue leather jacket paired with plaid boxer shorts and brown loafers.
At Dior Men, Jonathan Anderson delivered a collection sound-tracked by Fred again.. inside the Musée Nissim de Camondo. In his collection, houndstooth was printed rather than woven, traditional formal tuxedos took on a looser, youthful fit, and classic archive scarf motifs from 1979 were subverted into intricate silk embroideries alongside cannage-quilted denim totes and fields of shimmering sequin polka dots.
Julian Klausner’s third offering for Dries Van Noten captured the midday haze, translating Stéphane Mallarmé’s 19th-century poem L’Après-midi d’un faune into a dreamlike vision of luxurious fabrics. The collection fluidified heavy outdoor archetypes by rendering classic trench coats entirely transparent, using washed pongé silks for parkas, and presenting raw, sleeveless hunting jackets with grosgrain belts alongside lingerie-inspired charmeuse silk layers and charm jewellery.
Over at Givenchy, Sarah Burton paired her colour-blocked tailoring with a campaign featuring iconic men of varying ages and backgrounds, including filmmaker Don Letts and photographer Sir Don McCullin, offering a refreshing perspective to the industry’s standard youth fantasy. From the unexpected, transparent PVC heels designed by Corrado De Biase at Saint Laurent to the ditsy, eighteenth-century floral motifs shown by John Alexander Skelton in an early Georgian house showroom, the week proved that the future of menswear lies in the freedom to rewrite the rules.
