YSL Skipping Paris Men’s Runway, Dries Returns

Yves Saint Laurent will not stage a men’s show in next month’s Paris men’s season, the first time YSL has skipped out of the masculine ready-to-wear schedule in over a decade.

The fall winter 2008 season, which runs from Thursday, Jan. 17 to Sunday, Jan. 20, also features the return of Belgium designer Dries Van Noten to Paris, after a hiatus of one season.

YSL, instead, plans to hold a private dinner presentation for a selection of editors and buyers, where people actually get to touch and check out the clothes.

“There is something about the men's way to communicate fashion that, at least for me is not correct. It doesn't speak to the kind of people I would like to speak. So, I am looking for a more personal interaction. So, probably we will do a sort of presentation that is like a preview,” explained Stefano Pilati, YSL’s creative director.

Saint Laurent will also stage a fete in the same period to celebrate the revamp of its historic Place St Sulpice boutique in St Germain, injecting a dose of color back into a store that the previous creative director Tom Ford had made largely black.

All told, there are 44 shows listed on the Paris calendar, meaning catwalk events will be staged at one-hour intervals throughout the City of Light from 10 A.M. to 9 P.M.

“Four days makes a pretty tight schedule but also a very strong one. It also means that, when you have a dozen shows in one day, there is no room for any others,” said Didier Grumbach, president of the Chambre Syndicale, French fashion’s governing body, which just issued the men's show schedule.

Grumbach said he was “very pleased that Dries has returned to Paris, after the designer decamped to Milan for one season.

“As you know we have changed the calendar now, so that the Paris men’s collections come right after the Milan’s men’s shows, which makes it easier for all buyers. Before we had the haute couture sandwiched in between Paris and Milan, which meant people had to hang around Europe an extra week, which was stupid,” remarked Grumbach.

The season also includes the men’s runway debut of Bruno Pieters, the Danish designer; and includes a slew of happening young design labels such as Korea’s Juun J, UK-based Wintle and emerging Jeroen Van Tuyl.

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