After zooming around the globe for multiple store openings, Pierre Mahéo returned home and took note of his fellow Parisians’ street style — how they dressed for work, for the winter cold, and their approach to color and texture.
He did another reality check, whittling his fall collection down to the items he loves and wants to sell in the showroom, and the stores. Mahéo whipped most of the color out of the collection, too, and stuck to his favorite palette of navy, gray, brown and camel.
He told the staff: “This time we’re going straight to the point. From now on, the color accents will be stone, camel and light gray, because this is how people dress.” Not surprising coming from a man who wears navy every day, and whose last fall collection was done entirely in blue and gray.
The result was a cozy lineup packed with Mahéo’s signature soft tailoring in luscious Italian fabrics. And like so many Parisian outings this season, it fused sporty with more formal looks for a new generation of men and women splitting their time between home, office — and the outdoors.
Trenches (some with matching hats) were neat and sturdy, while soft double-breasted suits, sleek biker jackets, and belted coats were styled with voluminous fringed scarves. Other gray plaid or solid scarves were knotted jauntily at the neck in the style of 19th-century dandies.
There were shackets and pea coats galore, and a lineup of untucked cotton shirts layered under cashmere knits and jackets with patch pockets, reflecting the collection’s laid-back mood.
The long skirts for women were the only off-note — too voluminous, and bordering on dowdy. A snappy black pea coat paired with a turtleneck, knee socks and side-buckle loafers looked fresher and more suited to the stylish urbanites that Mahéo is looking to dress.
