Paris Fashion Week

Partnership was the name of the game for The Kooples for spring. The Parisian label, which hosted a presentation during Paris Men’s Fashion Week for the first time, is expanding its conceptual universe from (ad)dressing couples to celebrating duality in a broader sense — via siblings, business partners and the like.

This was a mellow spring offering by Maison Margiela, and not just because models were strolling to the soothing tunes of “Last Year’s Man,” delivered by Leonard Cohen.

With an appealing mix of streetwear and ethnic references, Istanbul-based Bunyamin Aydin traveled to the Sahara for spring, incorporating Tuareg and North African designs and inspirations into his collection, for which he staged a Paris presentation for the first time

Barnabé turned to seersucker suits and flocked nylon parkas for lightness. He worked with layering, as seen on papery shirt jackets worn over thin chambray shirts, and made the models dance in a wide range of pleated tapered pants, proving instantly that tailoring can and should be comfy, without compromising the look.

Dries Van Noten’s knack for old mansions and their lavish gardens has inspired more than one of his collections, and this season followed a similar pattern. “An imagined view from Kelmscott Manor [the country home of writer William Morris] on arts and crafts today,” the notes to his show informed. That translated into romantic visuals based on photo prints of floral tapestry and tonal patchworks.

When Yohji Yamamoto started his men’s collection in the Eighties, he was “against the standard business suit,” he explained backstage after his show.