In Paris, lunch at Givenchy and overnight at Egonlab

This Wednesday in Paris, a great stylistic contrast between the chic Café Society by Givenchy, during lunch, and the After 3AM night owl energy of Egonlab itself. We were there for both parades.

Givenchy: very Café Society elegance

No one came to say goodbye this Wednesday, at the end of the Givenchy show, because it was a collection officially designed by an in-house team. But whoever created it would deserve a standing ovation, because damn, what an impressive and confident parade!

All the elite men’s fashion editors were there, with barely 100 seats comfortably arranged around tablecloth-adorned bistro tables where lobster rolls, truffle sandwiches and sweet treats were served.

It’s a pure French collection, with stretched cuts and a good dose of good experimentation. Starting with these ultra-high-waisted pale blue suits or this double-breasted tuxedo thanks to the addition of a fifth center button. But also these elegant leather safari jackets, with slanted pockets.

Givenchy borrows from the current big men’s trend – both in street style and haute couture – and decorates its short and long coats with horsehair, applied to the whole look or just as a finishing detail.

But the leitmotif is a 1953 drawing of a cat by founder Hubert de Givenchy, which is used on light gray silk tops, soft coats and white astrakhan T-shirts. Some of these cats even have bright orange eyes, a wonderful allusion to the orange cat Diamonds on the sofawhich the film star Audrey Hepburn, also the muse of Givenchy, simply called “Cat”.

The whole thing sometimes exudes a bit of old-fashioned charm, like this series of jacquard shirts or the embroidered safari jacket at the finish. We still don’t know who will be the next artistic director of the house. But overall, between the departure of Matthew Williams on December 1st and the arrival of his successor, this collection embodies a perfectly successful period in between.

Since the author of these lines is probably the only one who attended the founder’s last collection – with the possible exception of LVMH big bosses Sidney Toledano and Michael Burke – it’s tempting to push the praise further. We doubt that even the great Hubert would appreciate this parade very much.

Egonlab: spectacular cuts full of character

The rain that continuously fell in Paris this Wednesday clearly failed to spoil the atmosphere at Egonlab, whose thirty-year-old designer duo Florentin Glémarec and Kévin Nompeix presented a punk chic collection as dynamic as it was energetic.

The key was an incredible variety of silhouettes: Eisenhower jackets with shoulder pads and pointed collars, for example, worn over baggy wide-leg trousers. Or these flat tuxedo jackets with equally peaked lapels, spectacularly fitted and cinched at the waist, and paired with silk shirts in the shawl style above.

The collection is inspired by strong suits from the 1980s, but they are systematically revised, with oversized jackets that fit perfectly.

Everything will be perfect for red carpet eccentricities, like this fabulous copper vinyl coat, decorated with hundreds of meters of tassels, or this faded gradient denim jacket and these rockstar jeans.

“We like spectacular things,” smiled Florentin in the packed backstage of the Palais de Tokyo, after the show.

Everything was carried along by the dizzying rhythm of Russell Ga’s dance rock anthem, 3AM, and it was a fantastic performance, a chance to remember the amount of talented creators present in Paris this week.

This duo is so talented that they manage to combine transgressive fashion and punk chic style with ultra strict and extremely competent art of couture. Down to the last duo in a glossy Prince of Wales beige fabric, draped and gathered, available in trousers and coats worthy of a haute couture collection.

In short, a superb demonstration of two extremely talented creators, who emphasize their very unique point of view.