Proving optimism often pays off, buyers rewarded commercially-savvy Paris menswear collections with orders increased by up to 15 percent. Maybe men's fashion really is the future, after all.
Traditionally, the Paris shows served as the venue for the more avant-garde among men's fashion, garnering more inspiration than commercial viability than some of the other cities. However, as the recession has already showed us in other ways, there's no such thing as tradition anymore - the Paris men's shows were packed with beautiful, practical and marketable lines that had the buyers biting. Among the week's favorites, Lanvin (so Pharrell wasn't the only one who loved it), Raf Simons, Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garçons and Rick Owens.
Saks men's fashion director Eric Jennings told WWD that, in this economic environment, what's usually just 'safe' is now 'smart' when it comes to the stores. In the meantime, it seems buyers are rewarding 'smart' fashion right now, which paves a nice road for the prospects of the women's collections to follow.
