PARIS MENSWEAR WEEK A/W 2025/2026 – Pynck

LOUIS VUITTON, PAUL SMITH, ISSEY MIYAKE, WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK, DRIES VAN NOTEN, COMME DES GARCON and LANVIN

Fashion Reflects Life, and Whilst Paul Smith and Issey Miyake Revisited the Classics, Walter Van Beirendonck and Comme des Garcons Sent Out their Respective Messages of Peace.

Deconstructed military paraphernalia. At Comme des Garcon

Image Credit Paris Fashion Week

The skies may have been grey over Paris, with fashionable umbrellas the accessory of necessity… but the heavyweights of men’s fashion were steadfast in their quest at the paris menswear week a/w 2025.

A hefty offering of 37 shows and 30 presentations made for a week jam-packed with all the insider’s info every fashionista and fashion professional worth their salt wanted to get up close and personal with.

As memorable as the shows were, the pavements were populated by equally striking ensembles, as fashion-forward visitors dashed to their favourite designer’s presentations.

As for the shows, the usual pack of Paris stalwarts Paul Smith, Dries Van Noten, Issey Miyake, Comme des Garcon, Kenzo, Hermes, Dior Homme, Rick Owens, Yohji Yamamoto et al gave us their tuppence worth of what Autumn/Winter 2025/6 will look like fashion-wise – if they have anything to say about that.

The global mood was most certainly reflected in the collections, especially as the shows came close on the heels of significant world events like the devastating Californian wildfires and the US presidential inauguration. Many Californian-based brands pushed on with their collections despite obvious challenges. Many designers issued messages of peace in what are unprecedented turbulent times.

As for trends, there was a overt return to showcasing classical, if tried-and-tested, styles this season rather than succumbing to the whims of fashion purely for the sake of it. And collections looked decidedly elegant and sophisticated for that. And every now and again designers simply couldn’t resist throwing in the odd curved ball, which didn’t go unnoticed! Many designers opted to include militaria into their collections – underscoring a message of the follies of war.

We invite you to sit back and enjoy a snapshot of some of the most enticing offerings at Paris Menswear A/W 2025/6.

WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK

Watch snippets from Walter Van Beirendonck’s show here: https://www.instagram.com/debonairafrik/reel/DFLblUntXQ

The aliens have landed (but you’ll be relieved to know they come in peace)!

A designer with a cult following (40 years in business now) who always pushes the boundaries of fashion, thought it befitting to introduce some extra-terrestrial vibes (do look for the silicone finger extensions!) into his offering. In no uncertain terms Van Beirendonck is looking to the future, not the past.

Trousers were extra-voluminous and ballooning, jackets elongated and narrow-cut for contrast. Traditional plaid and tweed got the Van Beirendonck treatment, knits came with new-age symbolism and in vibrant shades, signature oversized bowler hats and alien-esque, tactile shoes completed the ensembles. Baseball caps came with alien motifs – just to underscore the message.

The message? We believe Van Beirendonck sends one of peace to the world, via each set of deliberately composed ensembles.

Image Credit Style Echo on Instagram

Image Credit Style Echo on Instagram

DRIES VAN NOTEN

Pirates ahoy! (But we promise you’ll love these peaceful, doe-eyed brutes.)

Maestro Dries Van Noten retired a season ago (we’re still inconsolable) but good news is creative director Julian Klausner did a stellar job launching his first menswear collection for the House of Dries Van Noten. (A mammoth task it must be to fill the boots of this magician of colour, texture, shape and accessorizing…)

The new Romantics immediately sprang to mind upon seeing the collection, but Klausner tells us the pieces were partly influenced by The Wild Boys by Beat Poet William Burroughs. The clothes are dashing and cavalier – in contrast to their wearers, who appeared in soft focus, all doe-eyed and romantic, with head scarves framing their delicate faces for protection. These beautiful vagabonds could easily be the crew of a pirate ship, washed ashore.

Oversized flower corsages decorated the wide lapels of velvet ‘pirate’ coats. There was a magnificent pink trench coat, a knitted patchwork coat, jackets with regal pink lining, coats with sheepskin collars and all sorts of divine accessories (dapper little neck scarves and over-sized pussy-bows, for example) to complete the ensembles. Trousers were high-waisted and jackets nonchalantly tied – in contrast to the painstaking tailoring of the garments, by means of a rough, simplistic rope.

It’s the contrasts in this voyage for A/W 2025/6 that may just be the most intriguing aspect of Klausner’s (first) menswear offering. Be that as it may, we’re very much looking forward to what Klausner’s journey at Dries Van Noten will bring next.

ISSEY MIYAKE

Come fly with me, come fly, come fly with me!

Watch a snippet of the end of the iconic Issey Miyake show here: https://www.instagram.com/elli_ioannou_photomedia/reel/DFLkeunsQ_x/

You could say this collection was a tribute to the late Miyake and the House of Issey Miyake by Sen Kawahara, Yuki Itakura and Nobutaka Kobayashi (the co-designers who were fundamental in conceptualising the now iconic ‘Fly With Issey Miyake’ together with Miyake himself), that was held in Tokyo and Kyoto in 1977.

A house famous for their magical and radically innovative treatment of cloth – from using just one piece of cloth to create an entire garment to their famous origami-like pleats to create their wavy, rippled and billowing silhouettes, went back to basics for this A/W 2025/6 menswear collection.

The collection started with monochromatic, mostly white garments layered around the body, and became riotously colourful as the show progressed: purple, burgundy, yellow, duck-egg blue and tangerine all shone with pure Issey Miyake vibrancy.

Most pieces were created from the famous ‘one piece of cloth’-concept. Voluminous, kite-shaped garments reinforced the idea of velocity, of cloth almost flying away.

At the close of the show models ‘deconstructed’ their garments, peeling off the layers until they were literally displaying these pieces of fabric like flags.

Metaphorically the viewer made a journey through the thought process of the designers, leaving us with the beauty of pure, unadulterated simplicity.

COMME DES GARCON

Never one to shy away from unpleasant truths, Rei Kawakubo’s show notes stated in no uncertain terms,

“To hell with war!”

A military collection (of course dressed up with all the wonderful Comme des Carcon idiosyncrasies) stared us in the eye: piece after piece after piece presented the reality of the horrors of war and of living in fear of being sent to war.

But Kawakubo’s soldiers, in their deconstructed military uniforms, their hats decorated with colourful flowers and fabrics, were dissenters. Who would send such a motley crew to a war?

Kilts (traditionally part of the Scottish regiments’ kit), deconstructed military jackets, pieced together uniforms (thoroughly unconvincing as a serious army uniform), came in various renditions, with shiny military buttons, oversized military pockets and all.

Kawakubo’s message couldn’t be any clearer.

LOUIS VUITTON

Damoflage, lobsters and cherry blossoms seal a 25-year friendship.

Watch Louis Vuitton’s show here: https://eu.louisvuitton.com/eng-e1/magazine/articles/men-fall-winter-2025-show

When Pharrell Williams joined forces with his friend of 25 years, A Bathing Ape founder and creative director at Kenzo, Tokyo streetwear legend Nigo, the result was always going to be extraordinary. Both men’s passion was filtered through every piece of design, and the end-result was spectacular.

Wardrobe staples, workwear, streetwear and tailoring got the Williams & Nigo treatment: denim, carpenter’s trousers, firemen’s jackets, bomber jackets and boxy blazers all got a playful twist as the pair mused together to create unique and ultra-memorable pieces.

Take for example the lobster handbag, which will no doubt go down in fashion history. Story goes, that when Williams visited Nigo in Japan recently the pair went fishing and accidentally caught a lobster – hence the tongue-in-cheek inclusion of the crustacean in this collection.

Japanese street culture featured in many instances – the cherry blossom check, for example, as well as classic plaid, tweed and oversized loafers.

Oh, and baby doll pink was the colour pop of the collection as seen in some of the Damoflage suits – think heavenly cherry blossoms in Spring in Japan!

Image Credit Style Echo on Instagram

Image Credit Style Echo on Instagram

PAUL SMITH

Think a suave Michael Caine, and you will have nailed the mood of this collection.

Veteran designer Paul Smith, now an experienced 78 years old, presented 18 looks to an audience who were visibly glued to his every word. Smith said prior to the show, ‘I think the world’s gone a bit mad with these shows everywhere around the world. I think it’s so lacking in personality. So I thought, why don’t I just talk to everyone and show the collection?’

He explained how the start of the collection was his discovery of a treasure trove of photographs taken by his father, who gifted him his first camera at age 11, a medium that taught him to ‘look and see.’

The collection was introduced by a signature Paul Smith stripy knit, but soon morphed into twills, woven wool, herringbone and suiting in the shape of workwear jackets, five-pocket trousers, ‘schoolboy’ V-neck jumpers and cardigan ‘twinsets’, corduroy trousers, Barbour jackets, roomy coats and various delightful camouflage renditions of jacket, shirt and tie combos. Quirky linings, like the one of birds and a cow (very Paul Smith!) completed the maverick collection.

The collection has a decidedly 60s/70s feel to it, but not in a nostalgic way – it all felt very 2025/6. Think a current-day super suave Michael Caine, and you’ll have nailed it.

LANVIN

The future may be brighter than the past (here’s hoping…)

Incoming creative director Peter Copping opted to look retrospectively at the wealth of treasure of the legendary Jeanne Lanvin’s Art-Deco and Nouveau jazz-era for A/W 2025/6. And boy, did those jewel-esque tributes to the 1920s and 1930s shine brightly!

Jeanne Lanvin’s signature vintage-style lace featured boldly in the collection, as did metallic dresses, velvet jackets, mirror-embroidered T-shirts, velvet capes, chevron knits and a very bold leopard coat, to single out but a few.

From what we’ve seen in this collection, it seems Copping has a repertoire of design ideas that will keenly include past inspiration, and effortlessly marry these to his own contemporary and progressive creative ideas for Lanvin. Very exciting!