When AI Meets Paris Fashion Week: Menswear Power, Haute Couture Fantasy
The first Paris Fashion Week of the new year brought autumn/winter menswear looks to Paris, blending practical and elegant styles with fun and forward-looking pieces, as well as whimsical, craft-heavy couture from storied fashion houses. But perhaps most notable from these shows was the presence of AI on the runways.
AI – from ChatGPT to image generators – is still finding its footing in the fashion world, but make no mistake, people are using it there, too. AI can be a powerful tool for the industry. It can trend forecast with greater precision, enhance the buyer experience, reduce waste and excess inventory, and optimize shipping routes and timelines. Time will tell what kind of lasting impact this technology will have on the industry.
Alexis Mabille
French fashion designer Alexis Mabille, who worked at Dior before creating his eponymous label, is now also known as a pioneer in the fashion-meets-AI space. Mabille’s haute couture show, held at the Lido theater on the Champs-Élysées, was projected onto a screen and featured AI-generated models and clothing.
Vogue writer Amy Verner reported that Mabille worked with multiple AI platforms over five months “to ensure a coral caftan behaved like crepe or that a model’s wavy hair swished just so.” As Verner notes, fashion purists might dismiss AI-rendered offerings during haute couture week. (One look at the comments on Mabille’s pre-show Instagram post confirms this.) But others – especially those who believe AI can positively support the fashion industry – may be downright giddy about Mabille’s groundbreaking show.
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Chanel
Meanwhile, over at Matthieu Blazy’s first Chanel haute couture show inside the Grand Palais, attendees watched real-life human models wearing real clothes. Model Stephanie Cavailli (49) opened the show, showcasing that fashion isn’t just for a certain demographic – fashion, particularly Chanel, is timeless and is for everyone.
Not only that, but this show emphasized how haute couture doesn’t just have to be reserved for exclusive events like film premieres, galas, and weddings – it can be worn in a more quotidian way. Coco Chanel once said that she created clothes for “women to go to work, to go to a play, the cinema, wherever.” And veering from a typical haute couture (“high fashion”) show, which showcases ornate, over-the-top dresses that are full-on spectacles, Chanel’s show included more wearable looks than one might expect from a standard haute couture runway.
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Excellent craftsmanship took centerstage at the show, featuring embroidered organza, tweed embellished with feathers and pearls, silk fringes, and more. As expected, Chanel’s front row was chock-full of star power, including singer Dua Lipa, Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, and singer Vanessa Paradis. Actress Tilda Swinton, rapper A$AP Rocky, and singer Gracie Abrams also attended the hot-ticket show.
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Dior
Much like Chanel, Dior is known for putting on an epic show that honors its classic French heritage while also pushing the boundaries toward more modern looks. At this season’s Jonathan Anderson-led haute couture show, models wore flowers in their hair, and featured a range of looks made of velvet, sheet organza, ruffles, ballooning silhouettes, and hard-to-spot, delicate but intentional details, right down to small handbags and manicures.
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British designer Anderson also held his second-ever Dior menswear show to great acclaim. At the winter menswear show, celebrities like actor Robert Pattinson came ready to be impressed. Anderson’s show did not disappoint; it featured unusual accessories like crystal epaulettes, bright yellow wigs, and scarves with bold prints.
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Delightfully, actress Anya Taylor-Joy wore one of the Dior menswear looks from the collection – a coat with fur embellishment and bright red hues – to the haute couture show, proving that Dior knows no intended gender, and that fashion is for all.
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Hermès
Fashion is sometimes wrongly thought to be the purview of women, but that belief can lead some to overlook some of the most practical and go-to looks fashion has to offer: menswear. At the autumn/winter Hermès menswear show in Paris, created by Véronique Nichanian, models wore a range of colors and classic looks. (Notably, this was Nichanian’s final show for the house after her 37-year tenure.) Bold salmon-colored jackets, mustard-yellow puffy winterwear, thick grey sweaters with mixed materials, and long grey coats made a cold winter seem like not such a bad time, after all.
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Comme des Garçons Homme Plus
Count on Comme des Garçons to deliver theatrical, exciting looks. Rei Kawakubo’s latest Comme des Garçons Homme Plus collection was titled “Black Hole,” with the added tagline of: “Let’s get out of the black hole.” The show’s intriguing leitmotif for the collection was a series of masks by Shin Murayama that evoked a hockey mask. (Perhaps inspired by the popularity of HBO’s gay hockey romance Heated Rivalry?) The show featured black jackets, dark black boots, flowing skirts and kilts, cropped tuxedo-style blazers, and a whole lot of black. This was one black hole that was worth diving into.
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Rick Owens
Rick Owens is like the older, cooler, edgier, more daring big brother to Comme des Garçons’s flamboyant and boundary-pushing looks. American designer Rick Owens can always be counted on to go there, and to get a bit weird – in the best possible way. The avant-garde designer presented his latest collection at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, in a steam-filled room where models wore military-inspired uniforms and emerged through plumes of smoke. The clothes looked ready to be worn in battle, and so did the police-style boots. Owens reportedly felt some trepidation around his military-inspired collection, given the current state of the world, but the designer, who has never shied away from controversy, pressed forward and went ahead with his collection – to the relief and delight of his loyal fans.
Lead photo credit : Paris fashion. Photo credit: John Cameron/ Unsplash
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