And just like that, Paris Fashion Week is over. Or, well, Men’s FW24 Ready-to-Wear is over. It all starts again in less than a month with Women’s but let’s not think about that just yet. 

If you missed any of the major shows, don’t worry. We were there reporting from the sidelines. This is your essential Paris Fashion Week Men’s FW24 takeaway.

Dior paid tribute to Rudolf Nureyev and Kim Jones‘ photographer uncle

There was a book of photography on every seat at Dior’s FW24 Mens show: Rudolf Nureyev by Colin Jones. If the surname sounds familiar, it’s because he was Kim Jones’ uncle. The dancer-turned-photographer brought together Jones’ photographs of Nureyev that he captured for Time Magazine in 1966.

Using these figures and photos as inspiration, Kim Jones had his own stage to bring their story to the fore via the savoir-faire of Dior. “The collection, or rather collections, are about contrast,” Jones wrote in the show notes. “The contrasts in the house of Dior in terms of ready-to-wear and haute couture. it’s the difference between onstage and backstage; the life of Nureyev theatrically and in reality.”

Read the report here.

Louis Vuitton brought back the Yeehaw Agenda

For this third collection for Louis Vuitton, Pharrell transported the Paris fashion pack to the Wild West. Pharrell turned to his roots for a collection constructed on the foundations of workwear – transformed with the meticulous luxury of the French Maison, in a continuation of the designer’s “from Paris to VA” ethos.

Cowboy iconography was reimagined through damier denim suits iced with pearls or sequins, wraparound blanket coats, buffalo check prints and lots of heavy fringing. Taking the same principles into tailoring, Pharrell gave the quintessential dandy figure a prairie makeover with glittering beaded suits, studded tartan, heavily embroidered shirting bowed at the neck and oversized Stetsons.

Read the report here.

Givenchy paid tribute to their fabulous founder 

After the news last season that Matthew M. Williams had stepped down as the Creative Director of Givenchy, the house decided that their FW24 collection would be a more lowkey affair. Taking place inside Givenchy’s salon on Avenue George V in Paris, guests sat around tables that were piled high with finger foods and classic French pastries as models wove between the crowd. Designed by the internal design team, the FW23 collection was a tribute to the personal style of the house’s founder, Hubert de Givenchy.

Read the report here.

Rick Owens invited us into his house

There was a sense of confusion when the invites for Rick Owens’ FW24 Men’s show came through and they revealed the show’s location to be a simple street address on the Place du Palais-Bourbon. What was Rick up to? His shows are usually dramatic, outdoor spectacles, coloured smoke often enveloping the runway. The Place du Palais-Bourbon address turned out to actually be Rick Owens’ house, the top floors of which are his living quarters and the bottom floors are his atelier. It’s where he began selling his collection 25 years ago.

Read the report here.

Loewe teamed up with Richard Hawkins for a kitschy, avant-garde collection

The show space felt like a queer church. Along the walls were huge displays of video art that echoed the shape and aesthetic of stained glass church windows. Except, instead of depicting John the Baptist or St. George, it was Manu Rios in a white vest and Josh O’Connor in a louche shirt. And, as per usual, Loewe managed to wrangle one of the best front rows of the season — Taylor Russell, Andrew Garfield, James Blake, Jamie Dornan, and Jack O’Connell.

Read our full report here.

Dries Van Noten was a tension of contrasts and juxtapositions

Bringing guests to a dishevelled apartment block, Dries Van Noten’s minimalist backdrop mirrored the refined nature of his FW24 offering. A tension of contrasts and juxtapositions, the Belgian designer’s collection found its home in the liminality of space which exists between minimalist and maximalist, elevated and casual, past and present.

Read the report here.

Amiri was an ode to the stars of Hollywood Boulevard

The curtain parted, and an MA lightbox shone across the carpeted venue of Amiri’s FW24 show. As a designer from LA who grew up around Hollywood Boulevard, Mike Amiri has seen the changing eras of tinsel town royalty, the passing of the guard to the next generation’s idols and heartthrobs. Combining the formal, tuxedos of Old Hollywood with a rebellious 90s irreverence, the collection offered a red carpet wardrobe for the latest rising stars.

Read the report here.

Comme des Garçons Homme Plus painted the town white

The collection was typically Homme Plus in many ways. The silhouettes were the opposite of sleek, they were lumpy and bumpy (though not as much as Comme’s infamous SS97 show). If a jacket was tailored traditionally, there had to be a subversion elsewhere, be it having unfinished stitching or having the lining peeking out or the buttons purposefully tied in an awkward way. In fact, much of the collection felt like a two-finger salute to sartorial codes.

Read the report here.

Kenzo riffed on Star Wars’ samurai influences

Taking cues from George Lucas, who was inspired by the classic samurai films of Akira Kurasawa to create his Star Wars universe, the collection felt like a distinctly sci-fi take on traditional Japanese codes. A kimono coat was imbued with the lines of a warrior cape, a weave inspired by the wood print of a Japanese hakeshibaten fireman’s jacket evoked an ancient-future graphic and plissé dresses draped like the cloak of a space fiction heroine.

Read the report here.

Balmain brought loud luxury back to Paris 

Balmain is back, having returned to the Paris menswear calendar with a runway show bursting with colour, celebration and collaboration. The show was, according to Olivier Rousteing, “Inspired by that positive example of blending together the very best of many cultures… we’ve paired our atelier’s expertise in tailoring and craft with a host of influences from all across the world.” Naomi Campbell closed the show wearing a gold belt holding a gilded bouquet.

Read the report here.

Valentino was feeling blue

Azure, also known as sky blue, was everywhere. The house’s logo was printed in azure, the doors of the Paris Mint where the show took place were azure, even the title of the collection — Le Ciel — is the French for sky. As is often the case, Pierpaolo Piccioli really got into the philosophical significance of azure in the show notes. “Blue, an archetypal marker of masculinity, is re-assessed and reconsidered, its language reconfigured, as is the character of modern men. […] Here blue is freed, rethought, in turn echoing our transformed perception of man. Sky blue, itself emblematic of free-thinking, is both catalyst and vehicle for this examination of the meaning of men – an opening of perspectives, an expansion of horizons.”

Read the report here.