(Paris) Still masculine on paper but de facto freed from gender for practical and commercial reasons, Paris Fashion Week, which ended on Sunday, went beyond any binary desire and unabashedly mixed men’s and women’s creations on its catwalks.
“The parades are even more mixed than last year and this is primarily for economic reasons,” explains Gert Jonkers, editor-in-chief of Fantastic Man, at AFP. “It’s very expensive to create a fashion show, so you might as well put two collections in it,” adds this observer of men’s fashion for 24 years.
Vuitton, Yamamoto and Kenzo put their cards on the table: the women paraded among the men or, if you prefer, the men among the women.
Just like AMI Paris, the very prominent French brand which started around ten years ago on a tailoring masculine before changing to feminine.
Its creator Alexandre Mattiussi has dressed Lætitia Casta in a proud brown riding coat that Vincent Cassel, his other muse, could just as easily wear.
The gender distinction of collections is not living “perhaps not its last (year) but most certainly one of the last”, estimates Matthieu Bobard Delière, fashion journalist at She, a women’s magazine which closely examines the trends in men’s wardrobe from which, according to the established expression, women now come to “pick”. And vice versa.
“There is no longer even a discussion,” he noted to AFP. “It happened very naturally, there is no longer a moment where we ask ourselves the question of what genre this piece is for.”
Degendering
This gives first of all suits to be worn by women or men, like at Meta Campania, in a three-piece vest version above the breasts and wide pants.
For winter, there were also gabardines and peacoats that were undeniably unisex and accessories, from handbags to large weekend bags, which go seamlessly from Monsieur to Madame.
Despite this degendering, men’s luxury designers are still rare to produce dresses or skirts for men, cut for their different body types.
And the resistance was all the more noticeable during this Parisian season at certain big houses like Dior, despite the ballet aesthetic, or at “Daddy Dries”, the Antwerp resident Dries Van Noten, 65 years old.
“Himbo”
On the red carpets, the icons of the new masculinity, including heterosexual and cisgender men, are also opening up to fluidity for their gala outfits, more flamboyant, sexy, sequined, rhinestoned (like the tops of the parade Balmain).
They dare, like Timothée Chalamet, who tried going bare back at the Venice Film Festival in 2022, shortly after Brad Pitt’s remarkable skirt at a premiere.
To accelerate this degendering for all, the phenomenon Ken, antihero of the film barbieand the bimbo man, the “himbo” who doesn’t care about the way others look at them, have been there.
Men’s fashion specialist and founder of the gay magazine BUTTGert Jonkers is happy to see fashion put an end to “strict division”.
But he warns against catch-all proposals during collection presentation weeks. “We must be careful that the “menswear“do not become a strange mixture, artistically and commercially weak, in which we end up putting everything and anything,” he warns.
Response from the main stakeholders: “Houses can introduce female models when they wish to develop their women’s collections,” explains Nicolas Delarue, one of the leaders of the Fédération de la haute couture et de la mode, organizer of Paris Fashion Week. .
“New generations and certain emerging creators are echoing societal trends […] mixing the codes of men’s and women’s locker rooms,” he concludes.