Tim Blanks, editor-at-large, Style.com
What was your favorite thing that you saw in Milan?
My favorite thing in Milan would be something from the Piombo collection. There was that little series of very, very graphic jackets that was inspired by David Hockney. It would have to be one of those. Also Alessandro Sartori is really one to watch, I love what he does.
Favorite thing from Paris?
I would say the gothic Hawaiian motifs in the Valentino collection. I actually loved that collection. It was really, really good. Oh and Givenchy, I loved Givenchy. Doing something that was so explosive and joyous after really his shtick has been Catholic guilt–gothic, dark, quite self-absorbed, or maybe not self-absorbed but quite pretentious in a way–and this was just boom. I know the retailers are all freaking but I thought it was so great and powerful and happy and masculine in its own kind of way. That surprised me.
What’s your take on the current state of menswear looking back on the two weeks that have been?
I have to say that I would have been a lot more optimistic about the state of menswear after last season. I thought this season was surprisingly low key. You’d think that men resisted print if you look at what designers offer and then there’s this over compensatory swing in the other direction. There was so much print and so much Hawaiian stuff. I thought there was enough risk taking that it was reassuring but as I said maybe it was just a time to be a happy sort of season. It wasn’t really a time to make people think, but Prada was such fun and Prada would be the house that would set the intellectual agenda of the season and I think the agenda there was very much about fun and a strong fantasy element – the rhinestone golfer notion. And even a show like Bottega where normally you’d see a little hybrid thing that played with your head a little bit, it was more low key than other seasons.
What’s your personal wardrobe strategy for the week and does it change from Milan to Paris?
No. I started wearing Prada bananas and Prada parrots and went back to my Junya Hawaiian shirt which now looks like a work of prophecy, even though it is about ten years old. I wear summer shirts; loud, colorful and chinos. I love a statement shirt. I never met a loud shirt that didn’t speak to me. And desert boots which are trainers for old people.
What’s your favorite drink here in Paris?
A very, very pale Provençal rosé.