Lanvin's Elegant High End Hiker

Paris – If any brand is writing the book on the new romantic elegance that is overwhelming Paris men's runways this season it is surely Lanvin, whose active sports meets high concept tailoring collection was the freshest expression of today's youthful sophistication.
This was haute chic meets high technology, from the magnets that kept shut the great opening detective trench coat in felt wool to armored looking flaps that wrapped around the modernist hiking boots that many models wore.
Jersey thermal, bonded and then coated, made the woolen fabric look as it was neoprene, and leather over treated with jersey gave the clothes an almost industrial finish. But the cutting was always lean and refined. Inevitably, edges were frayed in that signature old money but new attitude Lanvin style.
"Elegance is never used to describe a young guy, always older men or women. Young men are meant to be cool or awesome, never elegant. So I thought it would be an interesting exercise to take elegance into fashion, but with an active element," explained Lanvin's creative director Alber Elbaz after the show, staged Sunday, Jan. 23, in the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum.
Each suit had sportswear elements like a great silvery gray double-breasted suit that design director Lucas Ossendrijver termed a "double, double-breasted" since it had an interior set of hidden buttons. Ossendrijver himself wore the latest Lanvin hipster accessory, a belt made from a high altitude mountaineer rope, held in place by a climber's large anchor.
For evening, Lanvin offered satin tuxedos and jodhpurs in unlikely contrasting colors of medical pill yellow or early gray.
Accessorizing the collection with a selection of great new two-tone fedoras was also smart, toughening the allure.
This was not a collection that riffed on popular culture. Instead, it was a visual essay on how to make young men elegance, but with a 21st century aesthetic.

Source: Yahoo News