Carven – Menswear Cool

Posted: June 28th, 2012

 

Style notes from the Carven Show in Florence, June 21

 

If you ask me, I’m not one to fuss about menswear. I think a man should be decently dressed in a nicely cut pair of slim fit trousers or jeans, a nice shirt/jumper/t-shirt, easily beautiful-well made shoes or sneaks – let’s not forget a good suit is key. However, a Carven man is a completely different story. It wasn’t so much the clothes that got us, and I am sure I speak for fashions elite in attendace, it was the presentation of the collection in question. Let’s give credit to the perfect spring coats in egg yoke yellow, the moto jacket in summer green, or the rain proof trench in fashions popular cobalt blue. The collection was stunning in its modern re-interpretation of sportswear. Early morning joggers re-invented into slick tailored shorts, fine shirts in florals and mixed colored blocks. So it was good, there’s lots to choose from Carven come next Spring.

Elegantly seated with excitement at table 15, we’re at the Club Sportivo, a sports club in Firenze, we’ve been promptly warned not to wear stilettos, but do I Listen? We’ve just greeted Suzy Menkes, grinned in pose for the Vogue USA photographer, met Tommy Ton, and confirmed our attendance to  Imran’s BOFxPolimoda garden party. On our table,  there’s Quiche and fresh tomatoes, Parma ham and risotto – its all glorious really, until the Carven boys appear, heralded by a (commentator in Italian), some on bikes cycling through the stadium, other walking super fast, and french waiters running with them with trays lifted high.Their walk/run round the mini stadium is finished off with a band trumpeting away.  Guillaime Henry, designer for Carven comes out with applause.  It was pure genious. Easily the best presentation-fashion show I’ve ever attended.

It got me thinking, clothes are clothes, in simple cuts or graphically digital prints, but  sometimes what sets you apart is the method by which you display them. Surely you must be displaying exquisitve garments at all times. But how you define your garments, the worth you give them, is how people begin to see you (After watching the presentation, Carven is a different kind of brand to me). Whether or not I’d allow any guy friend of mine to wear those little shorts on a summers day out, is not the point, what I now know, what I’m fully aware of – is that Carven exists in my mind – I’ve tucked it away in the “cool” section, and i’m ready to take them in for those coats…come Spring.

*It might be interesting to explore fashion’s display of clothes, moving from runways to designed/curated spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loobook Images courtsey : www.style.com