Givenchy Lets Dogs Out With Latest Menswear Show

PARIS (AP) - The 2007 Marc Jacobs show that started two hours late is stuff of fashion legend. It looked likely that Givenchy's fall-winter 2011-2012 menswear show Friday would also pass into the annals of "la mode," after the fuses blew, plunging the crowd of fashion insiders into the dark and delaying the show by a whopping hour-and-a-half.

By the time the it got rolling, the show's theme - mad dogs - matched the audience's mood: Bermuda shorts and silk shirts printed with rabid Rottweilers have never looked so appropriate for an occasion.

Across town - and off to a late start, thanks to Givenchy - British madcap John Galliano was up to his usual theatrical high jinx with a Rudolf Nureyev-themed collection that included a mini blizzard and sweaty, bare-torsoed ballet dancers.

Utilitarian garb for the urban sophisticate was on offer at Dior Homme designer Kris Van Assche's signature line, while Brazil's Gustavo Lins showed off the skills he honed in architecture school.

Saturday's Paris menswear calendar includes shows by storied luxury labels Kenzo and Hermes and emerging talents Damir Doma and Bernhard Willhelm. Menswear week concludes on Sunday, and on Monday, the City of Light's three-day-long haute couture shows begin.

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GIVENCHY

It's tempting to say that never before has a show's theme so perfectly expressed the audience's mood.

The show's hour-and-a-half-long delay was partially due to a power outage - the lights went out just as the first model took to the catwalk, forcing him to backtrack in the dark - but that didn't help matters: After the show, many a frazzled fashion journalist, editor and stylist quipped, "I cannot believe I waited all that time for that."

The West Coast hip hop-inspired shirt and short ensembles - paired with tights, in a concession to winter weather - were printed with growling Rottweilers, bits of foam flying from their menacing canines.

Dog collars were the naturally the accessory of choice.

Fur was also de rigeur. Boxy beaver coats were worn with matching beaver backpacks and fur baseball caps, pimped up with dog ears. The label's Italian-born designer picked up on the layered outerwear vibe that's permeated Paris collections from Louis Vuitton to Issey Miyake, piling leather blazers on top of bulky fur coats.

Riccardo Tisci's bold exploration of street style has won him a devoted fan base, and it was easy to imagine that this hip hop-infused collection would strike chord with a certain demographic in Hollywood and beyond.

Just don't ask the snarling fashion editors to like it.

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JOHN GALLIANO

You know it's a Galliano show when clomping Russian emigres, tin cups tied to their waists and pots and pans strapped to their backs, share the catwalk with sixties swingers in painted-on pants and sweaty ballet dancers swathed in knit leggings.

Indeed, for Friday's theatrical blockbuster of a show, the British designer looked to dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who defected from the Soviet Union in 1961, for a collection steeped in Russian sensibility.

Models in oversized fur hats and pasted-on beards, various utensils tied to their body with string, opened the show, braving a blizzard of fake snow that stuck to their oversized woolen coats as they stomped down the runway. A pianist in full costume played strains of show tunes from "Fiddler on the Roof" on a mid-catwalk piano.

Then came Nureyev lookalikes in swinging sixties garb, complete with printed pants and velvet vests. After that, models in clingy knit dance garb - sweat pouring from their hairlines and glistening on their toned torsos - pranced their way along the catwalk, which was lined with ballet bars. The show closed with a band of turbaned aristocrats in harem pants made from flower printed silk - a reference, the collection notes said, to the "sumptuous decadence" of Nureyev's later life.

The show was pure Galliano, fashion in four over-the-top acts.

And it wouldn't be complete without an encore appearance by the maitre himself. Dressed in fur hat shaped like the cap of some giant mushroom, Galliano took to the stage for a cocky strut, his chest puffed out like a proud rooster as the audience hooted its approval.

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GUSTAVO LINS

The Brazilian-born, Paris-based designer trained as an architect, and you can see it in his artfully constructed coats and kimono jackets that fold and unfold like origami.

Lins' quietly beautiful menswear collection was made up of chic trousers in sweatpant fabric, cashmere greatcoats and abbreviated jackets that, unfolded, transformed into silk and knit kimonos.

"I discovered kimonos while doing a project on Japanese architecture as a student and was amazed," Lins told The Associated Press in a preview of the collection. "They're incredibly complicated, design-wise, with the same level of complexity as a Japanese house."

Each piece in the collection looked as if it had been designed with as much care as goes into a house: The garments were riddled with a complex network of seams that created volumes or molded to the body just so.

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KRIS VAN ASSCHE

The young Belgian was all about utility chic for city boys.

Plain-front, Mao-collared blazers were fitted with extra-large pockets, and rugged ribbed sweaters were paired with carrot pants that tucked into outdoor boots. Ribbed turtleneck bibs topped off the sleek suits, and the models carried extra large peach colored leather totes slung over their shoulders.

The knitwear was oversized and, worn over the slim trousers, made the models look like little boys who'd raided an adult wardrobe.

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CERRUTI

The storied house churned out smart suits and sharp coats for office hacks. In charcoal and static-y gray, the three-button jackets were paired with slim trousers and button-down cardigans.

There were a few edgy pieces thrown in for good measure - think a sober blazer in gray flannel with quilted leather sleeves that looked as if they'd been shorn off a motorcycle jacket, metal stud-covered ties and fuzzy earmuff-headphone hybrids.

But on the whole the collection was a safe commercial bet in trying times for retail.

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