Sleeves Off in Paris

ANN DEMEULEMEESTER, RAF SIMONS
LANVIN, ROMAIN KREMER

Take a uniform jacket, stretch it below the knee, hack off the sleeves and you have one of the hottest men’s tailoring pieces for spring 2011.  The long, lean arms-out looks were at the heart of Raf Simons‘ tailored abstractions, styled as a tank top in crisp white with neon zips and oversized zipper pulls. Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver and tears the sleeves off for and leaves the hem ragged at Lanvin in ferocious black with a matching pendant. Going sleeveless for Ann Demeulemeester means slicing closer to the body as well for jackets fencer fitted jackets in clinical white, some of them strapped across the torso like a saddle. And Romain Kremer, Paris’s spaciest men’s designer, goes cap sleeve for his uniform jackets styled somewhere between hospital floor, garbage pick-up guy (at least the French version) and the life on planet Mars.