Consider Ami the epitome of straightforward, masculine dressing. Essentially, designer Alexandre Mattiussi has built a name and a healthy business — his third boutique just opened in Paris’ Saint-Honoré district — by providing clothes for his friends; regular guys who hang out in the coffee shops and offbeat clubs. Spring was once again an exercise in unpretentious, easy dressing.
With a mock-up Parisian street market set up in the Tuileries Gardens, the designer imagined a guy going down to the local food market to get some groceries for the weekend. What he chose to put on were loosely tailored pants with a single pleat and a high waist, teamed with sweaters or tucked-in synthetic track jackets, letting off a cool air of retro. Elsewhere, straight-legged red track pants and white sneakers seemed a natural match for a black T-shirt and sleek, black overcoat.
As usual, suits — in chocolate, blue beige or checkered — were hardly serious, their sleeves nonchalantly rolled up to the elbows, while heavily washed-out denim numbers, including a big-pocket workwear jacket, underlined a mid-Eighties vibe.
“Louis Garrel, [Jean-Paul] Belmondo, Vincent Cassel,” Mattiussi offered backstage after the show, rattling off the archetypical Parisian dude he wishes to supply. “Uncomplicated clothes for real guys,” he stated. And so it was.
