248: Introducing the “Girlfriend Jacket”
And 43 other takeaways from Paris Men’s Week.
Welcome to Magasin Menswear. In a dedicated monthly send, surfaces choice products worth your consideration, explores larger conversations shoppers are—or should be—having, and taps a smart dresser to share how he wears it.
As diligently as I’d planned for my first Paris Men’s Week—calling the designers and buyers I trust most for their advice, DM’ing the brands I most hoped would be showing—nothing could have prepared me for the infectious, affirming, adrenaline rush that was spending a week in the company of hundreds of people who care so deeply about what men wear.
I could write 17 columns about that feeling, but my mission was to get us recs, so I’ll just say that I visited countless showrooms, trying on everything I could, then asking the designers where else I should go, to learn as much as possible about clothes that might soon fit into your and my wardrobes. It’s hard to quantify how much I saw from Tuesday to Monday, but Apple tells me about 19,000 steps a day’s worth.
My notes filled a mini Moleskine, so this is a longer send than usual, but I’ve tried to keep the two-part structure simple. First, there’s a spotlight moment for the five new discoveries that left the biggest impression on me (and my future budget). Then, a grab-bag of 37 more recs, spotteds, and tips.
See you next month for a return to our usual format…
mfpen
Years ago, my friend Drew, then working the floor at Dover Street Market, stressed to me that no one was making more wearable (yet still beautifully tailored) shirts, trousers, and coats than Copenhagen’s mfpen. My Paris showroom visit—to an address multiple guys texted me trying to get—was my first time trying their pieces myself, and I can’t stress enough how relaxed and right the entire offering feels when you’re wearing it. Bright blue-eyed Sigurd Bank’s growing band of menswear brothers are punks with a sense of humor: a new knit sweater from the women’s line is entirely copied from something Monica wore on Friends, and he also filmed a fake runway show on a VHS camcorder this year so that Vogue Runway could have assets to use. But they also care about their customer, using deadstock fabrics to keep prices down so that Bank doesn’t have to, in his words, “only sell to rich kids.” (Those prices are even lower at SSENSE right now, where mercifully the entire mfpen SS24 line is on sale.) Additionally, when Bank arranged a watch party for the Denmark v. England Euro 2024 game at a nearby bar, almost every Danish brand in Paris showed up—a good sign that they’re appreciated by their closest neighbors, too.
Jewelry!
Given that both of this column’s interviews so far have featured guys wanting to wear more jewelry (and that I am one such guy also) it felt important to prioritize finding some entry points while I was in Paris. I saw a lot, but had three favorites. First, Gottlob, whose $76 Edition No. 1 bracelet was, as Laura mentioned Saturday, the sleeper hit of the week. Next, Kultur5 is actually the side project of one of mfpen’s creative directors, Jonatan Härngren. All of the designs come from Härngren’s past—rings based on waves from the beach where he had his first beer, a pendant of the horse toy he played with as a child, a bracelet inspired by garden berries that I’ll soon be ordering. “If you go back to your own history, it’s easy to be creative,” he told me. (Because he works with silver, his prices are also lower than they would be with finer materials.) Finally, I visited Toby Vernon, who started The Ouze—named after an English river—after quitting his job at Kenzo. He designs his pieces around the shape of the raw gems he receives, rather than cutting them to fit his molds. The risk seems to have paid off: Buyers from luxury department store Harrods were in there just before me, promising Vernon the world. (I tried this on and, even though I’d never worn a necklace in my life, felt comfortable in it immediately.) If your response to all these, however, is to want a bit more polish, plenty of guys were also hopping around in Bleue Burnham, and Skepta’s also wearing their jewelry in The Face this month.
Ssstein
Taylor from Lady White, who knows my taste a little, urged me to try and get into the Ssstein showroom. Debuting in Tokyo in 2016, designer and fit-obsessive Kichiro Asakawa started the line when he realized the boutique he was running at the time didn’t sell any of the clothes he wanted. Turns out, he wanted one hell of a wardrobe. The collection runs from denim to suiting to leather coats, silk shirts, technical zip jackets, fine knitwear, and more, but felt united by two elements. First, a tight color palette that stayed largely within specific blacks, browns, blues and grays, and second, an attention to texture that meant you immediately wanted to feel everything you touched against your skin. (Check out this current-season “Off Grey” shirt at C’H’C’M’, for example, or this leather coat that our host was wearing throughout the day.) I was actually so moved by the Ssstein-verse during my visit that I piggybacked on Laura’s appointment later that day.
Cecile Tulkens
Cecile Tulkens—who also manages East London pub The Spurstowe Arms by night—won a competitive LVMH grant while training at Central St. Martin’s, then worked at Uniqlo in Japan, and now makes “sexy heritage” menswear (designed, she says, “for the man I wanted to be”) out of her three-person studio in North London. From sweaters with 240 holes spelling out her name sewn into them (coming in SS25) to socks produced by the oldest sock factory in Wales and a shortened-brim baseball cap inspired by a queer bouncer at the club she used to work at, Tulkens’ sole ambition is to do well enough to place the volume of orders required by Britain’s best and oldest knitwear factories. As for how she wants you to feel in her designs? Simply: The feeling of “wearing your ex-girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend’s hoodie that she pulled out for you to borrow on a cold day, and even though it’s never fit you exactly perfectly, it’s still your favorite thing to wear.”
Gabriela Coll Garments
This was Gabriela Coll’s 16th collection but my first time ever hearing about her. After a couple of people gave me the nod to visit, I DM’ed her showroom trying to find a time—and when we couldn’t, I just showed up. Thankfully, I was warmly welcomed by Coll and some of the “seven girls from Barcelona” she says make up her team. Initially designed for women, Coll told me she soon realized she could be the designer that “men want to steal from their girlfriend’s wardrobes,” a contrast to the tired old idea of girls stealing from their boyfriends’ stuff. Using the best fabrics mills for each material, from Solbiati linen to the coats made with Loro Piana’s rain system, I’m still fantasizing about her “less committed” men’s leather jacket (coming for SS25), which wore so lightly on the body, as well as this soft shirt made from a fabric she calls “angel skin.” Which, well, you can imagine.
Best of the rest
I didn’t make it to many shows, but being invited to Auralee’s was a real privilege. I may never tie my sweaters any other way, and their 34th was probably my favorite look of the week. The fact their sole retail location is there means I now have a 113th reason to visit Tokyo—though the SS24 collection is live at SSENSE.
Garbstore buying director Carin Nakanishi was running around in the Montbell pouch I wrote about last month. As was writer Emilia Petrarca, as was I.
The “perfect imperfections”—deliberately loose threads, etc.—of unisex line Camiel Fortgens’ were cool to see, if a little harder to picture wearing. Though that didn’t deter the many buyers who were flocking to Awaykin’s showroom to pick it up.
My favorite color of the week was Kaptain Sunshine’s new, barely-there ‘Whisper Green.’ Look out for it in their shirts and nylon coats next spring—but in the meantime, this classic Ralph oxford is a close, if slightly mintier match.
Acne Studios has some truly impressive trompe l’oeil jeans coming—including a pair with “I swear those are real” chains, keys, and butterflies printed onto them. (Highsnobiety fashion director Sebastian Jean was also checking them out, in his nice Plus Doll pendant Homer necklace.) A trip to meet Evan Kinori and his SS25 universe of taupe, brown and navy was the ultimate palette cleanser.
Shirtmaker Oliver Church was hanging out with Evan Kinori before Laura and I showed up—and had recently finished a custom piece for Blackbird Spyplane’s Jonah Weiner, who was wearing it both times I caught up with him.
The public benches outside of boutique The Broken Arm were stacked with fashion kids getting fits off. I bought the shop’s special edition Paris Olympics tee—sold in-store only—as a souvenir, but it’s very scratchy.
I finally got to play with some of Sunflower’s beloved denim. Started by Ulrik Pedersen, who previously founded NN.07, one 9-oz. pair was soft enough to drape but structured enough to flatter, and when I asked Pedersen how one would best wash them, he said “however you want.” I love the Danes.
Another Aspect is interestingly moving back to curved-hem button-down shirts after years of leaning into the flat hem, wear-over-a-tee look. It’s also got a lovely, tough waxed ripstop cotton tote coming, made in partnership with Scotland’s 150-year-old Halley Stevensons manufacturer.
Almost every day, buyers I spoke with told me that Lady White Co. is the safest bet they make all fashion week. Every fashion guy’s favorite basics provider can’t stop getting attention Stateside for its perfect white tee, and it was in Paris to acknowledge 10 years of producing exclusively with cotton and jersey, all within a 10-mile radius of its L.A. office. Next spring’s collection will be a fan-favorite return to the whites, creams, and grays of its debut, but will also feature a dedicated collection in partnership with P.A.I.N, Nan Goldin’s opioid crisis advocacy organization—I wish I didn’t have to write this, but Lady White founder Phil Proyce lost his brother the week before Paris started and was finding solace in being able to talk about the project.
When I visited Colin Meredith—who interned at JJJJound before moving to Arc’teryx—the team from gorp legends Klättermusen were also sniffing around. Meredith’s technical wear somehow looks so natural; there’s a cotton trucker jacket coming, but with the same warming fill as Arc’teryx’s legendary Atom LT hoody. He’s now working with folks from Speedo, Rapha, and ROA, and one fun detail: Even as his hype grows, he’s still the guy answering all webshop questions. Chat with him while you can.
Rototo, my favorite sock brand, has a line coming inspired by Vans prints—I’ll be sticking to the solids, but if you’re into that.
Speaking of comfortable shoes and socks, Andrew from 3Sixteen showed me their soothing, woven (or at least woven-looking) Crocs collaboration. Launches Thursday.
I nerded out on fabrics as soon as my visit to MAN-TLE started. Founded by a married couple who met at Comme des Garçons (and used to work closely with Rei Kawakubo), the details were intense—shirts dyed in mud and mangosteen, two kinds of yarn in the same shirt so that the texture clash grows over time—but those things never overpowered how easy and good the pieces felt on. Plus, their caps have the most clever adjustment mechanism.
A leader of the “less ‘Yee-hah’ Western” movement, I knew that Carter Young’s designs looked great on the outside. But seeing their inner workings was deeply satisfying. The lapels on his suits curl like a breaking wave, and there’s the faintest line of rubber inside the waist of his suit pants, to keep your shirt from moving around and bunching up. Similarly, the waist lining of his flattering, straight-leg jeans (which will be at SSENSE in the fall) are thoughtfully lined with a soft cotton so there’s no feeling of denim digging into your skin.
The Birkenstock showroom was handing out supportive insoles to exhausted fashion editors and buyers at the end of their visits, which felt like the exact reason everyone loves their Birks. I ran into Story mfg.’s Saeed Al-Rubeyi there, who has the sweetest, gentlest Asics collab coming next year.
After the Issey Miyake show, we spotted one of the slender teenage models bounding away with his Airpods case bouncing from his belt loop somehow. Here’s a pic (along with the Birk insoles in action) if anyone can help me out.
Even for someone who doesn’t like graphics, I love the ones Palmes Tennis Society have coming our way, including a shirt based on toile wallpaper (but it’s actually tennis players) and an Ed Ruscha word painting-inspired sweatshirt. But now that its name is out there, founder Nikolaj Hansson feels he’s also earned the right to make logo-less items now and was running around in a gorgeous navy Valstarino-style jacket, coming—again—next spring.
Fursac creative director/L’Etiquette editor/unofficial mayor of Paris menswear Gauthier Borsarello showed me how to fold a baseball cap up into your coat pocket…
And finally, Antwerp’s Unkruid—who Evan Kinori encouraged me to check out—asked me to please not write about them. 🤷♂️
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What an excellent round-up. mfpen really is in a league of its own.
motherf*cking pen!!!!