Yohji Yamamoto

Paris, Je t'aime

We're a little late on a review of Paris Men's Fashion Week (and not completely qualified to comment or critique), but imagine our delight when we saw that last week Jean Paul Gaultier and Yohji Yamamoto featured a runway full of facial hair!  From the shaggy to the superb, the retro to the modern - beards, 'staches, and light scruff were all the rage under the Parisian lights.

From New York Magazine

These were not the too-groomed goatees and soul patches of 22-year-old boys, or the befuddling upper-lip caterpillars of politicians and financiers. These were quite old-fashioned, quite serious, and not a product of adolescent self-discovery or a wanting more hair somewhere amid midlife balding. Beards were thick and unkempt at Gaultier....

Perhaps these designers are saying that if you want a beard or a 'stache, don't be wimpy and grow it in thin patches, carefully trimmed so that it projects the right amount of lazy to go with your rumpled plaid shirt. Go all out, and let people know that when you enter the room, you do so beard first.