SS27 STYLE RULES ACCORDING TO PARIS FASHION WEEK

There comes a point during Paris Fashion Week when you start to wonder whether you’ve lost your mind or everybody else has. Perhaps it’s the lack of sleep, the endless traffic, or the fact that you’ve spent the past seven days looking at people wearing clothes that won’t be available for another six months. Either way, by the time the final show rolls around, the distinction between good taste and bad taste begins to feel rather arbitrary. Which, as it turns out, might be exactly what fashion needs. 

For Spring/Summer 2027, Paris was in a particularly eccentric mood. Clothes were being twisted into unfamiliar shapes. Sportswear was getting dressed up for dinner. Denim was having an identity crisis. Even the most ordinary wardrobe staples were being subjected to some rather extraordinary treatment. And although this was officially the womenswear season, there was plenty for men to get excited about. 

 In fact, some of the most interesting conversations about menswear were happening on runways where the distinction between men's and women's clothing seemed increasingly beside the point. Designers were borrowing freely from both wardrobes, proposing clothes that could be worn in entirely different ways depending on who happened to put them on. The result? A rather fabulous argument for abandoning the rulebook. 

If there was one show that captured the peculiar charm of the season, it was Miu Miu. Miuccia Prada has always understood the appeal of looking a little awkward. Hers is a universe where the supposedly wrong combination is often the most desirable one, and where a slightly strange pair of trousers can become an object of collective obsession. This season, Mrs. Prada was interested in the relationship between sportswear and elegance. Everyday pieces were elevated through unexpected fabrics and styling, with athletic jerseys, tailoring, and vintage-inspired clothes brought together in combinations that looked deliberately unresolved. 

The looks on men were particularly intriguing. Actor Jamie Bell walked in a two-tone vest and low-slung Prince of Wales check trousers, looking rather like an eccentric young academic who had forgotten to change after the gym. Noah Jupe also joined the cast, alongside an eclectic line-up that included Olivia Colman, Emma Corrin, and Gigi Hadid. There was something appealingly democratic about it all. Rather than insisting on one idealised version of beauty, Mrs. P seemed interested in the different personalities that clothes might accommodate.  

And the styling offered plenty of ideas worth stealing. Sportswear doesn't need to be confined to the gym, and tailoring doesn't always have to look formal. A beautifully cut pair of trousers can make an otherwise ordinary athletic top feel sophisticated. Equally, a blazer becomes considerably more interesting when paired with something that doesn't quite belong. 

It's an approach that feels especially relevant now, when the most stylish men are often the ones who appear least concerned with looking conventionally masculine. Miu Miu's man isn't afraid of a little prettiness. He might even enjoy being called cute. 

At Maison Margiela, Glenn Martens was conducting a different sort of experiment. After establishing his vision for the house through some spectacularly theatrical collections, the designer turned his attention to the ordinary wardrobe. 

Jeans, trench coats and denim jackets formed the foundation of Spring/Summer 2027, although ordinary isn’t the word you'd use to describe the results. Familiar garments were manipulated through trompe-l'oeil effects, deceptive folds, and unusual treatments that made them appear subtly wrong. This was Margiela at its most mischievously practical. A pair of jeans might look perfectly normal from across the room, only to reveal some interesting construction detail on closer inspection. The appeal was in the discovery. Martens has spoken about wanting to make the house's experimental approach accessible to a broader audience. That doesn't mean watering down its ideas. Rather, it means finding ways to make the conceptual wearable. For men, there is something liberating about that proposition. You don't need to turn up to the office looking like an avant-garde sculpture to enjoy interesting fashion. Sometimes a familiar jacket with an unexpected detail is enough. 

The wider Margiela philosophy has always encouraged people to question what clothes are supposed to do. Why must a garment be worn exactly as intended? Why should a perfectly good pair of trousers look like everybody else's? Spring/Summer 2027 offered a reminder that the most interesting clothes don't always announce themselves immediately. Sometimes the fun is in knowing something everybody else doesn't. 

Acne Studios, meanwhile, celebrated its 30th anniversary by raiding the dressing-up box. Jonny Johansson's collection, titled Denim Hystoria, explored the relationship between the brand's denim heritage and historical costume, taking inspiration from the New Romantics of the ‘80s.Think Adam Ant, if he'd developed an expensive jeans habit. 

There were cropped jackets, elaborate brocade trousers, romantic floral details, and denim manipulated into shapes that appeared to belong to another century. Cameo-style brooches appeared on lapels, while elaborate boots and decorative fastenings gave the clothes a wonderfully theatrical quality. Some of the looks were incredibly excessive. A few seemed to contain enough historical references to warrant their own museum exhibition. But there was an appealing spirit of experimentation beneath all the decoration. 

Johansson was interested in what happens when the most democratic garment in fashion, the humble pair of jeans, collides with the elaborate conventions of historical dress. The result challenged the idea that denim must always be casual. For menswear, the implications are delicious. An embellished jacket with jeans suddenly seems entirely reasonable. A decorative brooch becomes an alternative to another expensive watch. And trousers with a little drama offer a welcome departure from the endless parade of sensible chinos. 

The New Romantic reference is particularly interesting because it recalls a period when men dressed with extraordinary confidence. Gender conventions were ignored, and looking fabulous was considered a perfectly respectable ambition. Perhaps it's time for a revival. 

Of course, not every interesting idea about menswear needs to arrive on a male model. At Chloé, Chemena Kamali continued to explore the romantic instincts that have made her collections so influential. Her Spring/Summer 2027 show drew on personal obsessions, with country-inspired details and Western references folded into the house's free-spirited vocabulary. It was an unapologetically feminine collection, but the wider appetite for softness and decorative dressing is relevant to menswear, too. The rigid divisions between masculine and feminine style have become increasingly unhelpful, particularly for a generation of men who see little reason to restrict themselves to one side of the wardrobe. A romantic blouse might not be everybody's idea of everyday menswear, but a softer shirt or an unexpected accessory can achieve something similar. The point is to be open to ideas rather than reproduce an entire runway look. 

At Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello offered another lesson in the power of getting dressed with conviction. The womenswear show, staged beneath the Eiffel Tower, unfolded in a dazzling procession of gold before moving into black. There was something uncompromising about the spectacle. Saint Laurent has long understood that a great outfit can be as much about attitude as the clothes themselves. 

For men, the lesson is less about recreating the collection than appreciating its commitment to glamour. A black suit, worn with the right amount of confidence, remains one of the most effective things in fashion. But perhaps the question now is how far you can push it.