“We always talk about girls borrowing from their boyfriends, but my boyfriend is always borrowing my clothes,” said Isabel Marant moments before her show. The designer presented a menswear collection alongside her womenswear for the first time today, much to the delight of her nearest and dearest male fans, who have been clamoring for her clothes since the men’s designs she made as part of her wildly successful H&M collaboration. And though this project has long been anticipated, the whole thing came together in just 15 days, after Marant returned from her summer break and had a eureka moment. “I just looked at the pieces and thought, So many things would look great on guys,” she said.
There was an endless-summer vibe all over this collection, with Kaia Gerber opening the show in a crisp optic-white blouse with billowing leg-of-mutton sleeves and matching white track pants. Marant cited just two key references for the collection: British lace and sportswear. Though if you had to find an inspirational milieu for the clothes, it might be somewhere between the disco and the beach. There were ’70s-style crochet bikinis layered under denim jackets spliced with broderie anglaise, and anoraks; shiny metallic jumpsuits rolled down to reveal zippered maillots or asymmetric going-out tops, looks that would be ready for the party with a simple shoe change—Japanese-style flip-flops to strappy metallic heels in this instance. There were man-size versions of the thong sandals, jumpsuits, and track pants as well. This was his-and-hers glam-leisure done à la Française.
Marant is arguably the originator of French girl cool, and her distinctive brand of it—a little bit bohemian, a little bit streetwise, a little bit undone, and totally free-spirited—has been in the air this week. With her latest collection, she’s giving more reasons to crush on her all over again.
