Travelling man gets looser look at Lanvin

PARIS, Jan 23, 2011 (AFP) - Lanvin gave the travelling man looser tailoring and big wide Stetson hats brimming with character on the final day of the Paris autumn-winter menswear shows on Sunday.

Lanvin AW 2011/2012 - Photo :Pixel Formula

While the music may have veered crazily between techno and "Grease," there was much that a contemporary Indiana Jones could find appealing in a collection that married 1930s Hollywood glamour with 21st century detail.

Wide-legged trousers were thus matched with big relaxed jackets and coats in earthy hues featuring linear seams running down the outside of the arms, and complemented with voluminous carry-all bags.

"Every season we try to visit new places," Lanvin's menswear designer Lucas Ossendrijver told AFP after the show deep inside the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art museum.

"That last few seasons were a little bit cooler, a little bit more edgy. This time we wanted to go back to the essence of luxury and the essence also of classic -- trying to do classic that isn't boring, but cool at the same time."

As for the unmissable Stetsons that topped off many of the outfits, Ossendrijver explained: "In fashion, you want to underline the personality and you want to bring out the face."

"That's the most important -- not the clothes themselves but the boy who wears them."

Lanvin's creative supremo Alber Elbaz said the house wanted to show "that modernity need not always be hard and cold, but also poetic... For men, it's less a matter of image, more a story of desire and emotions."

Edgy was still the watchword earlier Sunday at Bill Tornade Homme, where designing brothers Francis and Jose Ronez sent out scarlet below-the-knee kilts and double-breasted coats and jackets through a billowing screen of dry ice.