For the Men’s AW22 collection, Paul Smith delves into the rich world of art house cinema, highlighting the unique aesthetic techniques of the greatest filmmakers. Featuring intricate textures, a cinematic color palette and otherworldly photographic prints, the collection culminates in a confident new look for the season.
The collection’s color palette ranges from sepia and monochromatic films of the 1930s to the 1960s, to the advent of Technicolor and the advent of striking new cinematographic techniques. Ranging from icy neutrals to vibrant greens, blues and reds, she creates an opulent and eclectic offering.
A longtime signature of Paul Smith, photographic prints are mesmerizingly vibrant with an otherworldly quality reminiscent of vintage movie posters and old cinema interiors. Inspired by the studio headshots of screen stars during Hollywood’s golden age, the exhilarating Starlet print is rendered in three distinct tones meant to reflect the evolution of cinematic styles.
Paying homage to the great surrealists and avant-garde directors like David Lynch and Wong Kar-wai, the psychedelic zig zag print adds a bold graphic element to the collection, while the otherworldly Shadow Floral print features in a repeating graphic on heavily ribbed knits as well appearing in larger in placements across jersey, shirt, tailoring and tracksuit.
Traditional checks in autumn and winter fabrics also play a central role this season. Designed to be mixed, coordinated and collided with outerwear, tailoring and casualwear, they embrace rustic tweeds, wools and drills, with loose fitting styles – like the plaid cargo pants – representing the synthesis of tailoring and sportswear.
They reflect the mood of newfound opulence and the return of dress fashion. Lush fabrics – like matte satin, rich shearling and mohair – are contrasted with jewel-toned leather and suiting, printed corduroy and technical nylon.
The silhouettes range from sporty and oversized to slim and tight-fitting. Nowhere is this more evident than in the extensive outerwear range, which consists of thickly padded down jackets, cocoon-like printed coats, boxy field jackets and checked duffle coats, giving way to cropped bombers, blouson and windbreaker jackets. The tailoring – in both plaid and green, red and blue – is decidedly sharp-cut so that it can be teamed with thick knits, and is defined by subtle flared trousers and sharp suit jackets.
The show’s styling reflects the portability of cinema, taking inspiration from David Bowie’s dashing look in The Man Who Fell To Earth and Harry Dean Stanton’s starring performance in Paris, Texas, and amplifying the hallucinatory prints.
Set in the spectacular Île-de-France Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry building on Avenue de Friedland, the show’s eclectic music was composed by Paul’s close friend and Emmy Award winner Richard Hartley and takes inspiration from the evocative soundtracks of Twin Peaks , You Were Never Really Here and Inherent Vice.
