Last year marked the return of the “going out top” in women’s wardrobe. Will it catch on to men’s in 2019? “Completely,” said designer Ludovic de Saint Sernin, speaking backstage at his fall 2019 show at contemporary art gallery Lafayette Anticipations.
It will certainly demand a good amount of swagger to pull off De Saint Sernin’s glitzy tops. While the first part of the collection was all nineties pared-back chic, featuring high-waisted dress pants worn with deep V-neck blouses as well as the designer’s signature leather trousers, a first pop of glitter came in the form of a dazzling silver tank top. It didn’t stop there: the tank was followed by a fuchsia boob tube, a see-through sleeveless top embellished with diamanté fringes, a backless diamanté top and finally a teeny tiny pair of glitter lace-up Y-fronts.
Needless to say there was a lot of skin. Coats were worn on bare torsos, shoulders and midriffs were bared in skimpy tops, and a white long-sleeved polo shirt had a huge hole cut out of its front. This was mirrored by clever ceramic moulds of body parts inspired by Yves Saint Laurent’s collaboration with artist Claude Lalanne in the 1970’s.
Ludovic de Saint Sernin Men's Fall 2019
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De Saint Sernin, who was a LVMH Prize finalist in 2018, debuted his first ever logo T-shirts, embellished with Swarovski crystals, as well as a footwear collaboration with John Lobb.
The collection was themed around nineties supermodels: audio footage of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell recounting when they were first scouted was played during the show. “I wanted to reference all the iconic moments in women’s wear, transcribe them onto men and make them more current,” explained the designer. The question is, will they dare to bare?