Something very French about this FIRST runway show (after 23 years of having a well-known brand and boutique in Paris) by Lucien Pellat – Finet, old Don of the French fashion scene, and something très Pop – Culture.  Not only do promotional tie-ins and markings of John Matos (aka the Graffiti artist called ‘CRASH’), as well some latest designs and images of the new installment of the grand animated movie ‘Discpicable Me 3’ feature in the work and art, but we also notice that not without a twist or hint of irony the fashion avant garde – the frontrunners – is exploring some long-since washed-out pop-imagery like for instance skulls, hemp leaves, and aye, even the Popeye-esque ubiquitous image of the lighthouse (yes a lighthouse, that retro pop image par excellence when pop was still innocent).

Interestingly this eclectic strand of DNA made for a novelty patchwork of fashion which rendered good homage to its purported mission statement that the ‘bad taste of today is the good taste of tomorrow’, which perhaps should have more appropriately read that the ‘bad taste of yesterday is like the good taste of today’ but hey, it pretty much matched very well the precise and indicative words in French from the press release which we don’t want to withhold from you: That the style of the LPF collection represents a ‘nonchalance étudiée’ – a form of studied nonchalance (bingo), carried by what can only be described as an L.A. MAN (not an L.A. Woman although the reference bears a point in case) of yesteryear – who perchance likes to go on ‘noctambules en balade à l’orée du jour, sur les longues avenues d’un Los Angeles circa Nineties’ – get this as per the press release – on night-walks at the break of dawn along the long avenues of Los Angeles around the nineties.  Wow!  Hence the slippers and PJ pants. And who will undoubtedly be very lucky not to get shot or arrested while never returning home.

Let’s call the LPF style L.A.:  A study in the REDUX and FLUX of pop-culture; pulp fiction in fashion.

That’s not to say though that this collection does not breathe some serious style or class.  You MUST know therefore that for the LPF collections only the very best and precious materials are being used (alpaca, cashmir, fleece, etc.), that the sourcing is state of the art, and that items are made either in France, Scotland, Italy, or Japan, and that yes that you can even notice the effects thereof by simply looking at the pictures – it shows in the colors and in materials coming out much better and brighter. Add to that that the simplicity of the styles on display and it will make the LPF menswear very universal and timeless, and all of a sudden the pop-culture ‘méli-mèlo’ (mix) is all but forgotten and substituted for some serious French style. Probably precisely WHY Lucien Pellat – Finet (we’ll call him LPF to popularize his name) was honored by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture to be the Opening Act (first show on the fashion calendar in the new year) in a series of French fashion weeks to have kicked off and which has officially commenced today Wednesday January 18, 2017.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Words by Sandro and photos from Lucien Pellat–Finet.