Fashion Blog

PARIS, Jun 26, 2008 / FW/ — Here’s another French and Japanese designer pairing for the Paris Menswear Spring 2009 season – Jean Paul Gaultier and Number (N)ine who gave us their familiar repertoire yet very new and for all intent and purposes marks a new beginning for both of them.

Number (N)ine

Takahiro Miyashitashi, designing for his own label Number (N)ine made his mark among the fashion crowd with his rock & roll inspired clothes with Kurt Cobain as his favorite muse. Miyashitashi’s original cult following has expanded towards a wider audience, some of them actually in the mainstream already.

Thankfully, Miyashitashi continued to be true to his original design philosophy and this season, the Japanese designer was still very much entrenched in rock & roll, but this time, his muse is Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

The collection entitled ‘The Lonesome Heroes’ had the models wearing platinum-blonde wigs and bowler hats that actually made you think of Johnny Depp’s Sweeney Todd with a touch of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Yet, with the use of very rich colors and layering, especially when the velvet overcoats over ruby-red waistcoats came out, the British royal court during the Victorian age came to mind. Trousers came in different length from Bermuda short to mid calf to full length. Don’t think that these are ‘informal’ because there is a regal touch in them actually.

Jean Paul Gaultier

Number (N)ine

Jean Paul Gaultier

We have been getting used to seeing women on the Jean Paul Gaultier’s menswear shows, and this season, the French designer brought them back not to underscore femininity but as part and parcel of the presentation. And while one of the strongest trends this season are the ‘female influences to men’s clothing’, Gaultier whose ‘Gaultier2’ touts having the ‘same clothes’ that can be worn both by men and women are all about being masculine for Spring 2009.

So, once again, it is familiar, the Jean Paul Gaultier we know with his masterful tailoring and imaginative color blocks, using stripes in the most unexpected places, proposing loose fitting trousers on the same runway that suggests pencil thin is in. Formal suits that even President Sarokozy will wear mingled with the biker jacket in leather.

This is the Jean Paul Gaultier we know; we are very familiar with him. Men’s clothing that are just for men… now, that is a change or direction for reigning king of French fashion.