Marine Serre has been infusing her shows with menswear for some time and has shown her main line during the men’s weeks in Paris for the past three seasons. But what you see here, she said, is her first full, standalone menswear collection. “I’ve built up my masculine archetypes,” Serre said during a showroom appointment, “but it’s taken a while before I’m satisfied that I’ve developed a full vocabulary.” In a few weeks she will have a show about women’s clothing, so why wouldn’t anyone launch this? “I didn’t want to do a full menswear show the first time because that seemed a bit presumptuous,” she said.
It really wouldn’t have been that. Still in his early thirties, Serre has built an exciting company with clear codes and USPs that combine the sustainable, the feminocentric, the inclusive and the French. Released in three phases from June through August, this collection was remarkably compelling yet impressively broad. Phases included boxy tailoring in wool jacquards that countered the dadness (not “sadness,” as my spell check suggested) of the jackets with more youthful, leaning Bermuda shorts and a new hikecore version of her high-top sneaker (dreamy in berry). The pants were delivered in the late ’90s in the bootcut silhouette (definitely NOT from the ’70s with bell bottom) which is creeping up the index again.
Which matches the denim nicely. Serre pointed out that she could have offered a wide range of pieces creatively (she mentioned outerwear concepts from people in their sixties), but added that both her ethos and her business acumen required her to rigorously edit herself. The result was three denim shapes; straight, slightly wider and articulated by a triple seam behind the knee, and a pointed yoke, a slightly carrot-shaped cut, the outer seam of which ran diagonally from the crotch to the fold-up cuff. For this oldtimer, it was immediately reminiscent of the technical Levi’s Twisted: after the explosion of the carpenter jean, another subset seems ready for a revival. For me, however, it was the articulated knee cut that was particularly new in this selection. Serre was also wisely cautious about where and how to use (and not overuse) her bold crescent moon logo. On denim, it was very evident in the light blue washes, but barely in the black pieces, which were partly intended to mix and match with the tailoring for evening looks.
Accessories included graceful, cheerful bowling bags and more robust models inspired by mail bags. It was also striking how many ties – both leather and fabric – were in the collection, also in a completely denim look. Serre said: “I just think they bring something elegant, sophisticated and unusual today.”
Other stories included the upcycled split T-shirts that take so long to combine so ingeniously, outerwear made from spray-painted faded moon leather, fine, soft sportswear made from upcycled scarves, djellabas and shirts from upcycled cotton bed linen, and some moony argyle- knits. For a first ‘complete’ menswear collection, this was a varied yet defined offering that showed attention on all its many levels.
