“The ultimate trick is to appear natural. But sublimely natural,” the early 20th-century designer Paul Poiret once said. While he was referring to his invention of the hobble skirt (the rest of the quote goes, “I freed the bust and I shackled the legs”), Poiret’s proposition poses a rather unique challenge to today’s fashion industry. Is there a way to construct an ensemble that engenders a vision of preternatural glamor while remaining effortless and true to a sense of reality?

This menswear season in Paris saw a variety of answers from each of its designers. For Rick Owens and Grace Wales Bonner, humanity looks like unity on the runway, whether it was dressing 20 Paris fashion students and professors in the same look, or combining traditional European tailoring with the richness of Afro-Atlantic culture within one colorfully printed look. Perhaps we can understand the human aspect of glamor through the quotidian, as Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe exemplified by curating everyday objects as art for the runway, or as Dries Van Noten presented in his final collection: a series of wearable garments made with the utmost care and consideration, quietly experimental in their fabrics and embroideries. Perhaps, in the face of global turmoil, a distant luminosity is the uniting factor between being human and being fashionable, to draw upon Rei Kawakubo’s The Hope of Light collection for Comme des Garçons Homme Plus.

The high-fashion idea of humanity is exemplified by the sheer difference of these collections: there is limitless possibility for people to reshape their outward identities through their self-presentations. For the fashion world, that presentation just so happens to shift every few months or so.

After a distinctly heartening week in Paris for Men’s Spring/Summer 2025 and Women’s Resort Fashion Week, Document rounded up the best and brightest collections that made a statement about our present moment on planet Earth.

Dries Van Noten
The fashion world seems to be in a perpetual game of musical chairs, what with designers replacing one another in creative director posts at large heritage houses season after season. Thus Dries Van Noten making his statement that he’d be retiring before his Spring/Summer 2025 menswear show was all the more iconic. As a brand, Dries Van Noten historically has been associated with many groups: the Antwerp Six, the fashion eccentrics, one of Barneys New York’s (RIP) best investments. However, the designer’s very last collection put some extra respect on his name in a series of quietly experimental looks that exemplified his very best ideas—classical yet innovative, relaxed yet elegant, and rooted in craft, as shared in a press release. Inspired by contemporary Belgian artist Edith Dekyndt’s transformative use of materials, Van Noten remixed his more classic silhouettes (waist-accentuating wide-leg wool trousers, perfectly fitting t-shirts and sweaters, pristinely tailored boxy outerwear, transparent layers) using unique fabric techniques and color combinations. Sheer organza trousers were styled over jersey briefs and paired with an English herringbone wool coat, and blouses of the same translucent silk were layered over a boat neck white tank and worn with wide-leg cotton shorts. The designer also employed fabrics like a wool bonded to scuba neoprene and semi-sheer polyamide with a glass-like finish on outerwear, seen in a heavy navy blue anorak cinched at the waist with a brown leather belt and a shiny pink see-through hoodie worn over a floral print shirt. Dries assumed his final form with this final collection, allowing just a bit of nostalgia: the silver foil on the runway was a call back to his Fall/Winter 2006 show, and Alain Gossuin, the model who opened this season’s show, also opened Dries’s very first show in 1991. Observing fashion’s revolving door, designers may come and go, but Dries Van Noten proved that his wearable-yet-experimental approach to clothing is forever.

Louis Vuitton
Multiculturalism became material for Louis Vuitton’s Men’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection. Titled Le monde est à vous, or “The World Is Yours” in English, this season Creative Director Pharrell Williams took on the many meanings of “global” by examining the uniform of the international traveler, the breadth of world cultures, and finally, the beauty of planet Earth itself. Using the “unifying spirit of the global mentality of Louis Vuitton,” as stated in a press release, the 81-look collection began its expedition by presenting black wool suiting whose dinner jackets were embroidered with matching black beads to represent business class jetsetters and monogram tracksuits with mock neck zip-ups stood for the average guy on the go. Every model carried the iconic LV-monogrammed briefcases or, its more modern variation, wheeled suitcases hoisted by their side handle. The middle of the collection melted into rich fondant, clay, and chocolate browns, which manifested throughout Williams’s exciting take on Louis Vuitton savoir-faire with crystal-trimmed furs, monogrammed leather jackets, and crewnecks styled with matching wool trousers. By the time Le monde est à vous presented its final 15 looks, we’d zoomed out to an Earth-from-space print patterning bomber jackets and shirts. Multicultural and multicolored, Williams presented a unified message that everyone has a place on Earth.

Acne Studios
Wearing clothing is one thing, embodying an ensemble is something entirely different: it’s empowering. “I can feel really strong just having the right clothing at the right moment,” said Acne Studios’ Creative Director Jonny Johansson in a press release for his Men’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection. “That’s a little bit of what I’m trying to do here, you know. That’s why the empowering thing is kind of like—it has superpowers!” Inspired by superheroes, Johansson’s latest presentation was an elevated embodiment of the youthful nostalgia that comes along with collecting comic books. For example, the trompe l’oeil “jeans” (really a pair of luxe cotton-canvas pants printed to have extreme verisimilitude to actual denim jeans) were given an adolescent overhaul with shreddy rips and schoolyard doodles. Johansson used a mindful arrangement of textiles to situate this fantasy world in fashion reality, working with fine wool tailoring and two varieties of leather—hand-burnished and grained—as seen in one coordinating tobacco-colored blazer piped with silicone and paired with skin-tight biker shorts and fold-over lug-sole boots. Extremely distressed knit crop tops, scuba-style vests, and clear plastic trenchcoats were among the standout items, as was the Bowlina bag decorated with stickers of DC Comics femme fatales Wonderwoman, Catwoman, and the Huntress (Bruce Wayne’s daughter), a graphic choice made in collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products. With this season’s Acne, it’s not only easy to put on a costume, but to become someone else, if just for a day.

Undercover
Creative Director Jun Takahashi did what he does best for Undercover’s Men’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection: draw direct inspiration from a deep-cut band and make a declaration about the present. This season, the musicians in question were Australian trio Glass Beams, and the pronouncement was one of peace and tranquility “in response to the current uncertain state of the world,” as Takahashi shared in a press release. The uniform for the designer’s thriving “fictional tribe,” as he called it, was a fantastical-yet-wearable rendition of the artist’s studio garb: loose-fitting linen separates intentionally stained with watercolor-like splotches in flax, dusty sky blue, and faded bubblegum pink; slouchy wool trouser and color coordinated crewneck knits; and crumply shrunken jackets with mismatched multicolor buttons. As the models strutted down the catwalk to the instrumental psychedelia of Glass Beams (Takahashi invited the band to play live), the details signature to any Undercover collection—pastel lace masks, spiky gold foil crowns, studded wide-brimmed hats, and even an exclusive desert boot done with Italian shoemaker Guidi—told the story of a pack of wild artists whose members are clearly identifiable by their accessories. Can Jun Takahashi unite planet Earth with yet another narratively driven and wonderfully specific collection? Probably not, but there’s something noble and romantic about how he fashions his version of utopia with Undercover.

Wales Bonner
Luxury needs culture. Designer Grace Wales Bonner’s latest runway show proved as much with a dynamic catwalk that blended her tailoring background with her
Afro-Atlantic heritage in an exciting new combination. Heavily influenced by the work of textile producer and pioneering member of the Caribbean Artist Movement Althea McNish, this season’s Wales Bonner collection saw three vibrant floral prints from the late artist’s archives translated into loose, beachy silhouettes like guayaberas and bermuda shorts as well as Savile Row staples like formal blazers and shirting. Navy blue and marigold yellow mouliné sweater vests were styled over short sleeved collared shirts and tucked into red swim shorts with white drawstrings, a recurring item throughout the collection that drove home the “nighttime vibrance in cities by the sea”—another key point of inspiration for the designer as stated in a press release. For the leisure and footwear, shiny maroon logo trackies featured a more tailored capri bottom rather than a swishy skirtlike hem, and the Adidas Originals by Wales Bonner collection welcomed the Country Low in khaki suede and black and white leather with a perforated three-stripe, as well as a suede rendition of the Superstar Hi-top. From the artist references down to the show soundtrack (the designer even curated a futuristic dub soundscape with composer James William Blades, Senegalese musicians Obree Daman and Ibou Calabasse, and UK producer Mad Professor), this season at Wales Bonner is perhaps best described by the show notes: “Essential and pure expressions.”

Courrèges
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer,” Albert Camus once wrote. The line served as a fitting epigraph for Nicolas Di Felice’s latest Men’s and Women’s Resort collection, an assemblage of clothing based on the seasonal evolution of one’s closet. Each look was a variation on a theme from Felice’s winter offerings: space-age silhouettes in black, white, and gray done with unexpected cutaways (and dramatically shorter hems), backless molded tube tops, and structured outerwear. With spring comes flowers in bloom, translated in cool blush pink bomber jackets and a rather fantastically cut tailored two-piece of a bralette and mini skirt à la Mary Quant. Summer sport with a ’70s edge was a clear inspiration as well, as demonstrated by the many scuba jersey Men’s separates fixed with surfer-chic zipper pulls, slip-on shoes like the ones worn by professional divers, and minimal pockets like those you’d find on a wetsuit donned for an undersea adventure. Most stunning were the geometric looks—smooth rectangles of denim or structured workwear canvas stretched over the models’ fronts and attached via Mod Squad-eque belts to trousers or, in the final look of the collection, a stunning floor-length black skirt. Driving the collection was an undercurrent of escape, of adventure, of running outside for the first time after braving the harsh temperatures of winter with the same core sartorial values, just pared back a bit for the warmth of spring.

Issey Miyake Homme Plissé
Inspired by the natural power of wind, Up, Up, and Away—Issey Miyake’s Homme Plissé Men’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection—highlighted a wonderfully arial quality to the brand’s signature pleating technology. As has always been true of Miyake’s collections, this year’s runway demonstrated the equal importance of design and technique, shown in a variety of garments engineered to negotiate airflow in different ways. Take, for example, the Windswept shirt, a lightweight and hand-pleated piece whose long, built-in necktie and curved pleats allow for a dramatic sway when faced with powerful winds, or the Kite, a poncho-like cape whose structure was based on that sky-scraping toy. Wavy burnt orange and black checked prints (a pattern aptly named “windswept plaid” in the show notes) swooshed down the runway as floaty shorts and loose cocoon coats, billowing around the models in shapes not so big as to get stuck in a rapidly closing subway door, but not so small as to cling. An ode to the power of the breeze, Homme Plissé clearly articulated the beauty of nature’s most invisible element, engineering motion through their classic pleats.

Rick Owens
Every couple years or so, Rick Owens will put at least 100 heads on the runway: some models, some artists, some regular people who he finds resonant with his brand’s humanist point of view (see: my favorite, ready-to-wear Spring/Summer 2014). For his latest menswear collection, Rick’s unique cast of models descended in hordes down the runway, even carrying one another on giant spired palanquins. Titled Hollywood, Owens sought to differentiate this season from the last season’s Porterville, saying in a press release, “Last season’s collection was named Porterville after the small judgmental town I had to escape from. This season’s collection is named Hollywood after the boulevard of vice I gleefully ran to…to find my people…weirdos and freaks.” The collection itself used 200 people to show 10 looks, all various shades of the classic Rick Owens off-white (somewhere between a ecru, sandy beige, and bodily gray). Each look had 20 models dressed identically to embody the sense of togetherness the designer felt when he went to Hollywood. These 20-person groups are professors and students from Paris fashion schools whom Owens personally invited to walk in what he called in the show notes a “white satin army of love.” A standout piece was a silk charmeuse robe styled with form-fitting knit tops and miniskirts developed in collaboration with recent Slovenian fashion school graduate Tanja Vidic. Owens paired the robe with matching knit gimp masks. “Expressing our individuality is great but sometimes expressing our unity and reliance on each other is a good thing to remember too,” said the designer in the press release, and if his work wasn’t striking enough on its own, it becomes all the more powerful when presented alongside itself 19 times.

Dior Homme
If Kim Jones’s latest Dior Homme collection had an onomatopoeia, it would be swish, snip, rip, and most importantly thump-thump: That’s the rhythm of his heart, which beat lively and thunderous during this Spring/Summer 2025 presentation, which was inspired by the dedication of those working in Dior’s atelier, as well as the life of South African ceramicist Hylton Nel. A “celebration of work and an expression of who somebody is and what they achieve through work,” Jones reminded audiences of the life-long commitment both Nel and Dior’s artisans have to the “functionality, longevity, and legacy” of their work, as shared in the show notes. Among giant renditions of Nel’s pastel-colored ceramic figurines dotting the slate-gray carpeted runway, models were dressed in an eclectic mix of traditional French savoir-faire and more humble garments like cozy oversized knits and canvas coat-shorts separates. Accessories-wise, colorful mini ceramic charms dangled from knit bucket hats, fine leather boots and brogues featured studded sigils inspired by Nel’s ceramic plates, and the classic Saddle bags highlighted the blend of high fashion and the craftspeople behind its production through mixing rich raffia with a more conventional canvas trim. Known for his continued foray into the relationship between luxury and utility, Jones’s laser-focused glimpse into the secret lives of artists and craftspeople was a stunning choice for this season’s Dior.

Comme Des Garçons Homme Plus
Aptly hosted on the evening of the summer solstice, Rei Kawakubo’s latest menswear collection for Spring/Summer 2025 titled The Hope of Light, achieved a colorful levity alongside the designer’s usual dark edgy fare. Comme des Garçons Homme Plus staples like black cavalry coats, shrunken blazers, and wide leg merino wool blend shorts were brightened up with various shades of hot pink fabric, liberally fastened in unexpected places like the armpits of outerwear or crumpled and sewn onto crotches. Monochromatic garments revealed shocks of pink silks and cottons poking out from intentional split seams and rips. To accessorize, models sported hair pieces covered entirely by constellations of colorful plastic kawaii hair barrettes by Kids Love Gaite, who also collaborated on a ruffly shoe collaboration with Homme Plus this season. A new Comme des Garçons sneaker was unveiled as well, a white Nike Sense 96 SP with sporty-chic pink accents. Transparent tulle coats closed the collection, shaped into giant sheer trench-like silhouettes. Kawakubo stuffed bunches of ecru, faded kelly green, and muted bubblegum fabric between the coats’ see-through layers at the hips and hems to create a rounder silhouette. “I want to hope for some light, even if very small,” Kawakubo shared in the show’s press release. What better way to find joy than with the color pink?

Loewe
Loewe Creative Director Jonathan Anderson acted as both curator and designer this season, staging his Spring/Summer 2025 menswear runway among “a group of objects created by some of the most singular artistic voices of the 20th century,” as he shared in a press release. The runway provided a glimpse into Anderson’s historical inquiry, featuring sculptures from postwar artist Paul Thek’s Pied Piper series arranged on the white floor, a chair by furniture designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and a copy of writer and intellectual Susan Sontag’s book Against Interpretation. Anderson’s clothing sought to do to the everyday silhouette what the pioneering artists in his runway-gallery did to the commonplace object: dramatize it. The result was a somewhat reigned-in men’s wardrobe: Loewe-branded t-shirts scrunched up at the neck like elegant capes, some trousers were classically slim in the French tradition, others voluminous and draped with checked plaid sarongs held together with a gold-buckled belts. Coats were beige and army-fatigue green with slouchy sleeves or turned-up hems that immediately took them out of the everyday and into the realm of high fashion. Most stunning were the bubble-hemmed fisherman-knit maxi skirts styled with form-fitting fisherman sweaters on top, looks that, at a glance, challenge perception with an exciting trick of the eye. Loewe’s “fractured mise-en-scène,” as articulated in the show notes, contained the specter of the imaginary people who used the readymade objects on the runway, a cast of friendly ghosts who left impressions on the garments themselves.

Hermès
“A detail is revealed. A knot is adjusted. Docker hat is donned. Sandals accompany steps. Textiles awaken,” read the show notes for Hermès’s Men’s Spring/Summer 2025 runway show, a collection based on the sense of freedom offered by summertime. The Hermès man ditched his cravat for a pastel-colored mandarin-collar shirt fit with a built-in necktie resembling a relaxed bandana. He paired this multipurpose top with pajama-soft-looking drawstring trousers, providing maximum comfort. More formal trenchcoats had their sleeves removed and hems shortened just below the waist keeping the belt intact, a more playful interpretation on the men’s wardrobe stale. Swirl-patterned sweater vests, chino trousers, and light work jackets took on an oceanic color palette, featuring algae greens and aquatic blues that maintained a quiet balance with the many shades of accompanying charcoals and ecrus throughout the rest of the collection. Of course, what’s an Hermès collection without the leather? Some standouts were the Fourre-tout Trotting bags in delicate calfskin, braided cotton belts with colorful stripes accented by cowhide and latched by palladium-finished metal buckles, and ergonomic sandal silhouettes crafted with the finest French leathers. While remaining true to its house codes (fine leather craftsmanship and remarkable tailoring, to name two), Hermès took this season as an opportunity to play around a bit. The press release says it best: “Summer broadens horizons.”