Ami has got plenty of friends. The applause after this show was as loud and sustained as any heard in Paris this season. But why? Most fashion shows are an exercise in theater and atmosphere generated to propagate an archetype that either is, or is hyped as being, in some way extraordinary. Whether it's the vision of the designer, the particularity of the house, or the innovation of that season's idea, the show—at least in theory—is a petri dish in which exceptional creativity finds form. More often than not we swallow the idea, valid or not.
Ami uses the same vehicle, the fashion show, but through both its collections and the rhetoric of its widely liked designer, Alexandre Mattiussi, it aims to transmit almost the opposite message. After this outing, Mattiussi summed up Ami Spring '16 thus: "Paris, life, coolness, not complicated—just cool clothes for real guys." And the fabrications? "Classics: pinstripes, cotton, wool, denim—washed." OK. And the philosophy? "I just feel this is the way I want to dress for the next few months."
Sheesh. What's a reviewer to talk about—the clothes? These were, well, cool, though they were certainly not typically Paris thinks-he's-cool man on the street. There were no tight black jeans; thin-soled, chisel-toed shoes; elastane-spiked, slim-fit black shirts; or high-hemmed, scantily vented black jackets here. Pants were straight leg, with a break, and rose almost to the navel. They sat under contrast-belted gabardine trenches; dark topcoats; rolled-at-the-waist nylon half zips; dad-blousons; a long-hemmed dad-checked jacket; or flashed-at-the arm old-school sport sweat tops, synthetic and tucked in. It was insouciant, shirts twice-unbuttoned stuff—and tried hard to appear unconsciously so. The washed denim was as radical as it got.
So no wonder we clapped. There was exceptional creativity here; however it dwelt not in the pitch but in the delivery. Perhaps 80 percent of this stuff will be widely desired—especially at Ami's price points—beyond the cultish boundaries of the masculine market for runway fashion.
