In fashion, it’s all about ebb and flow. Witness the pants at Lemaire — cropped last season, this time round they pooled around the ankles in the spring collection that design duo Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran showed in a sweltering gallery space off Place des Vosges in Paris.
“The pants are inspired by Northern Soul fans, who wore these high-waisted wide trousers with sneakers, so there is something a little feminine but at the same time very dynamic, very sporty, [which] we thought would be interesting to rework in a chic way,” Lemaire said backstage.
The shoes, in this case, were zip-up high canvas sneakers he referred to as “ninja” shoes. They lent a fluid ease to the outfits, which paired ample lower halves with trim workwear-inspired jackets, many in military-flavored shades of green.
The duo used crisp fabrics such as cotton and light suit materials to lend the looks an air of formal elegance, which was offset by utilitarian details such as vents, dual zippers and elasticated waistbands. Pleats set into the cropped sleeves of a collarless beige coat nodded to the gender-toying trend sweeping men’s catwalks.
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More intriguing still were the trompe-l’oeil effects, such as a short-sleeved checked suit worn over an identically patterned shirt. Layering jackets and coats with different collars was a subtle but effective way of drawing attention to that much-neglected male erogenous zone, the neck and collarbone.