Runway Report: Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2024 Menswear Highlights

From Jonathan Anderson’s eclectic vision of the American celebrity experience to Pharrell Williams’s interpretation of the American West at Louis Vuitton to Olivier Rousteing’s sapeurs, our Paris Fashion Week autumn/winter 2024 menswear highlights have something for everyone. 

Keep reading to discover the Paris fashion week autumn/winter 2024 menswear highlights

Louis Vuitton

At Louis Vuitton, menswear pays tribute to the quasi-mythological American West. Straying from their luxury roots, this time the Maison has turned its focus towards travel – a core instinct and ever-lasting source of enlightenment for the brand. Through masterful craftsmanship, incorporating everything from exquisite gemstones to intricate hand-painting and embroidery techniques, this collection pays homage to the origins of workwear. Collaborating with artists from the Dakota and Lakota nations, as well as renowned bootmaker Timberland, this journey is rooted in community. Denim becomes a medium for creative director Pharrell Williams’s artistic expression: the fabric adopts intricate embroidery in pearls and sequins, beads and various washes, looking surprisingly fresh as vaquero jackets, suits and even skirts. 

Givenchy

An ambitious study of its founding genius is how Givenchy’s autumn/winter 2024 men’s collection can be described. It was as if the spirit of Hubert de Givenchy paid Avenue George V a visit. The pristine white blouse, once donned by Hubert de Givenchy in his creative space, is now transformed into a sophisticated staple for everyday wear. Following this lead of the dressmaker’s uniform, the collection presents a range of impeccably tailored suits and coats, crafted with intricate armhole detailing beneath the sleeves as a nod to Givenchy’s love for capes. The signature sapphire hue, a personal favourite of the founder and considered an alternative to black, imbues the collection with its distinct colour palette. The refined silhouettes reminiscent of dapper Parisian gentlemen are elevated by exaggerated volumes in the trousers, juxtaposed with daring cuts and textures inspired by punk and glam influences in outerwear.

Sacai

Uniforms have been on fashion designers’ mood boards for seasons now – years even – but there are very few that can do it quite like Sacai’s Chitose Abe. For her autumn/winter 2024 menswear collection, Abe elects a (mostly) monochromatic palette as a vehicle of her vision, and it plays out beautifully: A-line puffer jackets mingle with double-breasted bomber-coat hybrids and more conventional mackintoshes. A pleasant surprise is the fair isle knits – as deconstructed halter neck tops, majestic oversized mohair cardigans and one sleeveless floor-length dress. As if playing a game of deception, the traditional form of uniforms is transformed into delicate pastel hues, evoking an air of fragility and tenderness. Knit patterns are reborn in woven fabrics and adorned with glistening sequins, before being intricately cut and sewn into elongated forms. Emerging from this metamorphosis are novel silhouettes for men, characterized by billowy trousers and hybrid bomber jacket shirts that redefine the concept of shape itself.

Dior

For his autumn/winter 2024 menswear collection, Dior Homme’s creative director Kim Jones elected Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as his unyielding muse. Jones unearths the maison’s founding genius’s archival tailoring elements from his tenure at Saint Laurent – those are voluminous suits, pleats and vents – together with key aesthetic elements from the 60s and 70s, like single-breasted silhouettes and flared trousers. The collection, despite its utilitarian feel, doesn’t let one forget Christian Dior’s couturian provenance, reflected, for example, through the silver uchikake kimono executed in a hikihaku weaving technique, which also reproduces Nureyev’s own infatuation with kimonos. Another archival couture element that found its way to the autumn/winter 2024 menswear collection is embroidery, particularly the one found on the Debussy dress, worn by Margot Fonteyn in the 1950s.  

Valentino

Le Ciel – Pierpaolo Piccioli’s autumn/winter 2024 menswear collection for Valentino “explores pure colour as a tool of communication of ideas and ideals.” As one can imagine from reading the title, the colour was blue (or azure, rather). In the intricate designs of clothing lie profound shifts in perspective and thought – traditional tailoring is given a tender touch to produce a kindhearted gentleman, movements merge the worlds of classic tailoring and high fashion, delicate details and adornments that not only transform exteriors but also entire identities. A celebration of skill and artistry mirrors humanity itself. Legends from ancient lore are woven into the fabric of tailored pieces – tales of morality and existence, embodying timeless human principles. The sculptural method, known as Valentino Altorilievo (High Relief), brings a sense of depth and complexity to the garments – stretching over jacket shoulders, it challenges and redefines conventional notions of masculinity.

Loewe

In the spirit of perpetual artistic collaborations, Jonathan Anderson joined hands with artist Richard Hawkins for Loewe’s autumn/winter 2024 menswear collection. Anderson imagined a collaged world inspired by American iconography, tabloids, paparazzi shots and social media. “The expression is so straightforward it becomes blatant, with a restlessness running throughout,” reads his show notes. We open with croc-embossed leather coats with whimsical neckties before moving into a range of double-breasted suits. Knitwear, with embroidery mimicking Hawkins’s works, matches the bags and the mise-en-scène. Each outfit is imbued with a sense of entrapment as if caught in a moment frozen in time. Bold and unambiguous, this collection showcases a range of statement pieces – from coats and suits to jackets, jumpers, trousers, and footwear such as Biker and Combat boots or skater sneakers. Each element is meticulously linked together – shoes to socks, socks to trousers, belts to waist – in a clever attempt to dictate rather than suggest a specific appearance.

Balmain

Olivier Rousteing outdid himself with Balmain’s return to the men’s fashion week this season. Reimagining the legendary sapeurs (members of a subculture popular in Congo, who mimic dandies in the way they dress), Rousteing formulates a vibrant visual language, consisting of graphic prints, surreal portraiture executed in the best traditions of pointillism (the ones one could expect to see on a set of Fornasetti plates) and – duh – gold. The show opened with a “kiss” for the audience – a crystal-embellished top and coat that depicted lips, followed by a three-piece (turtleneck, coat and pants) covered in, once again, lips. Then came the looks with the Ghanian artist’s arrestingly colourful prints, which made way for more ambitious sculptured pieces (like the white tunic shaped into an eye somewhat resembling the MacGuffin in Series of Unfortunate Events). In the finale, Rousteing took this eclectic collection back to what his reign of Balmain is most commonly associated with – gold. It manifested in a series of sculpted jewellery, appliques and, of course, the bouquet attached to Naomi Campbell’s trousers.