From seductive parades to the late-running jocks, these are Man About Town’s highlights from the French leg of the Spring/Summer 2027 shows.
Paris Fashion Week is a beast. It’s the final pit stop for the travelling fashion set who have spent the best part of a month attending shows and presentations. And despite the September runways being jam-packed with womenswear, there was a sprinkling of seriously good menswear thrown in the mix that caught our eye, too. That spanned Pierpaolo Piccioli’s vibrant third outing for Balenciaga to Courrèges’ remix of this season’s it-jacket: the M65.
With an action-packed fashion month finally wrapped and London’s fashion fleet having stumbled into everyone's favourite fashion week shuttle, the Eurostar, on Tuesday evening, these were the standout moments from Paris Fashion Week’s Spring/Summer 2027 shows.
Miu Miu
Miu Miu is, officially speaking, for the girls. It’s been that way on paper since the Prada sister brand’s official menswear arm closed around 2007. But over the last few seasons, the label has thrown in a steady mix of men’s looks into its collections, sometimes shown on rising stars like American rapper Nettspend or certified legends like Willem Dafoe (whose ties to Prada go back to 1996, when he appeared in one of its first menswear campaigns). This Spring/Summer 2027 season, though, it was British actors Jamie Bell and Noah Jupe who were on the runway.
Today, the exclusive MiuMan club was a rather sporty affair, almost as if the boys had just finished P.E. class and were rushing to get to their next lesson on time. Blazers were worn over tracksuit sets, drawstrings from swim trunks poked out of suit trousers and V-neck sweaters forgoing a button-up underneath. Bright, panelled sneakers remained heavy in rotation, adorned with the Italian House’s signature double-lacing motif whilst raglan sleeve tops in contrasting colours kept the sporty uniform theme going.
The MiuMen this season doubled down on gym class, losing track of time and having to rush to whatever subject they had next. But it is in those moments of urgency and pressure where intention goes out the window and you go purely off intuition, throwing things on to half comply with uniform policies with the little time you have. And for Mrs Prada, the outcome of that panic can be pretty chic.
Celine
“Gesture and ease. Elegance. Being fabulous. Fabulousness. And letting clothes just do their job.”
For his Spring Summer 2027 Celine collection, presented today in Paris, Michael Rider’s show notes are about as close as we’ll get to the designer’s stream of consciousness on the Notes app. But as he rides the high wave at Celine, there isn’t much left to be said. Elegance, fabulousness — the sentiment is all-encompassing.
On the men’s side, despite having presented the Maison’s first-ever standalone collection dedicated to menswear last June, a few numbers also crossed today’s runway. The most striking? A head-to-toe pink offering that feels like an extension of his work with the colour in his debut, the flashy, ultra-saturated tone then tinting a scarf and, perhaps, the season’s defining trend: the cummerbund.
Rider is, undeniably, a master of colour. But while menswear heads often stick to reds and blues when venturing into more daring territory, he’s making a strong case for looking at your wardrobe through rose-tinted glasses. Will you be thinking pink this autumn?
LOEWE
Just ahead of lunchtime in Paris on Friday, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez presented their latest vision for LOEWE with a sharp offering for Spring/Summer 2027. The men at the Spanish House can’t help but add a bit of spice to formalwear. Ties are tucked into shirt plackets, tailoring is worn with cargo trousers and bright yellow sneakers, and blazers are replaced with cropped, bulbous leather jackets. It’s sporty, through reflective wrap-around sunglasses and windbreaker-esque outerwear, yet still contrasted with sharp silhouettes and beautifully cut trousers, with oversized, fold-over waistbands adding an extra element of whimsy.
Balenciaga
Marking his third ready-to-wear show at Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Spring/Summer 2027 went big on the outerwear and bottoms and even bigger on the colours. Harrington jackets and pea coats were supersized whilst ripped jeans and cargos dragged and pooled over footwear. The Italian designer’s signature Pink ‘PP’ made it onto button-up shirts, with vibrant hues of mandarin orange, electric blue and mustard lime making up the rest of the collection’s palette.
Tom Ford
Tom Ford’s Spring/Summer 2027 show was a cordial invitation to submit to seduction.
Tonight in Paris, creative director Haider Ackermann delivered his trademark post-midnight allure straight out of the gate. Opening looks saw black suits worn with a shirt unbuttoned. Then, navy, pinstripe tailoring was paired with mesh vests, subtly revealing smatterings of flesh, sharply unravelling any notion of formality in a way saying yes to the night only knows how.
As models snaked and smouldered their way between the mirrored show space, leather bomber jackets paired with pooling trousers decimated the uniformity of the suit with something cropped, naughtier, and fetish-adjacent. The fact the models stopped and stared at themselves could be a wink to Narcissus, the Greek myth of extreme self-obsession. But it could also be a reality of wearing clothing this damn steamy.
Anyway, as the show progressed, this waltz between poise and passion moved deeper, garments were shed, sometimes with trousers disappearing altogether, other times jackets were half-tucked into ripped jeans, exposing plaid boxers as if hastily put back on. Further undone looks saw silk scarves held like whips and underthings on full show. Here, it felt like these clothes had accepted their fate, where despite their exquisite construction, they were bound for being ripped off and thrown on the floor.
We’ve seen Ackermann’s Tom Ford surpass red carpet sexy and go deep into the after party before. But tonight, it submitted itself to the unofficial afters and accepted where that can lead. And in today’s era of productivity-maxxing, sleep tracking, and being far too sensible, it served as a reminder that nighttime is where fashion gets looser, more carefree and a damn sight hotter – so allow yourself to be seduced.
Courrèges
The M-65 is, quite possibly, the jacket of the Spring/Summer 2027 season. From up-and-comers like Oscar Ouyang with his satin makeover of the style to established acts like Rick Owens with its blacked-out, slimmed-down version, it’s the outerwear piece of the moment for designers and brands to remix and put their spin on. At Courrèges, though, newly-appointed Creative Director Drew Henry, who presented his debut collection for the House today, reimagined it with one easy adjustment: a belt.
It’s one of the oldest styling tricks in the book; cinching in the waist to instantly accentuate the wearer’s silhouette and one that’s typically seen in womenswear. And that’s why it works so well with the M-65 jacket, taking something so inherently rugged and overtly functional and softening it with a body-contouring shape, almost creating a dress-like look. And considering a handful of the boys also walked the runway in vibrant dresses, it’s great to see the menswear embrace its feminine side.
Maison Margiela
For his third outing at the helm of Maison Margiela, Glenn Martens quietened things down with his Spring/Summer 2027 collection, embracing the subversion of uniform that is instilled within the French House’s off-kilter DNA.
That came in the form of lapels and jacket plackets uncomfortably, albeit cleanly, folded inwards, offering a peculiar point of visual interest. Trench coats were supersized with exaggerated collars, jeans had cut-off frayed hems and waistcoats were Frankensteined and layered with a lining-like base. Floral prints and netting softened the hard-hitting cuts and folds, with tonal combinations creating seamless colour-blocking.
All in all, this was a collection that mirrored and romanticised the idiosyncrasies of how we really dress – whether worn right or wrong.
Ann Demeulemeester
After a very collegiate-inspired collection last season, Stefano Gallici decided it was time put the text books away and go back to basics, injecting more of the Ann Demeulemeester DNA into this Spring/Summer 2027 collection. Starting off with a slew of white looks that incrementally got darker, with sprinklings of denim, as frills peeked out of overcoats, fringes almost grazed the floors and dainty choker strings hanging. There was a definite gloom that cast over the collection as we neared the end of the show, yet one that’s poetically beautiful and definitely true to the Belgian House.
Valentino
Valentino’s creative director Alessandro Michele is a maximalist guy. And his latest collection delivered menswear with all the trimmings. That meant graphic printed scarves, fur-trimmed outerwear and trousers that looked like pyjamas paired with “Villain Teen” slogan caps and boat loads of jewellery. It’s the stuff tearaway aristo kids might rip from their walnut Baroque wardrobes for a large one at their Milanese palazzo – and look very good doing it.
Casablanca
Looking towards Charaf Tajer's Brazilian background, he presented his latest vision for an ideal holiday out for Casablanca's Spring/Summer 2027 outing. A country that lives and breathes football, World Cup fever sneaks into the collection through retro kits given a knitted makeover – not to mention the flag's green and yellow colouring making up a good chunk of the show's palette. Snakeskin makes it onto leather jackets and even track pants, floral motifs bloom onto dress shirts and multi-coloured beaded necklaces add the cherry on top to this tropical vacation theme. So if you're planning a trip to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival, you know where to get your gear.
