Preshow, Phillip Lim was using a chiffon-handled lint roll to make each look in his lineup just so, but he had a moment to yodel an idea in our direction. "It's a metaphor, from mountain climbing," he said. "Slow and steady will get you to the top." That metaphor was expressed pretty literally. A para-strap vest jacket looked mountain-rescue-ready, albeit less so in a knitted denim jacquard; rendered thus it was more urban-technical, with a hint of straitjacket. The nylon cords and metal carabiners of climbers scaled every Lim clothes face, from the chest of an adapted MA-1 to the belt loops of look 7's olive jumpsuit. The laces of the hiking boots were twists piled on twists. There were probably one or two too many climbing-rope big-fishnet sweatshirts and vests, but they segued nicely into a rust-on-black rope-print bomber—Gucci meets Mallory—that Lim could have made more of. And, um, five polystyrene boulders were suspended from the roof. Sprinkled among the more giddily stylized pieces were some "buy them off the runway" no-brainers: softened loden-esque overcoats, that rope-print bomber, oversize faded blanket-check separates. Even the jumpsuits had allure—or perhaps that was the altitude kicking in.
Lim is a modest man who said of his theme: "I don't want to say, 'I climb,' because I don't want to embarrass the sport—but I try." And there was, he conceded, a quiet, personal parable hidden at the summit of this Fall '15 ascension. "It's about being an outsider looking in, and not giving in to the frenzied-ness of the industry," he said. "And in menswear, coming to Paris too—it's hard core here, but it's the best. You've got to come and pay homage, be respectful, and slowly, steadily build your own language."
