Paris Men’s Fashion Week: Kenzo’s funky fusion

A model presents a creation by Kenzo during the men's 2015 spring-summer collection fashion show on June 28, 2014 in Paris. AFP

On a catwalk by the Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background, Kenzo chose this season to celebrate all things French.

In a Los Angeles kind of way.

Orange County natives Carole Lim and Humberto Leon, who to-and-fro between France and the US on a regular basis, thus took the classic Breton stripe — and created a funky cultural fusion.

They slashed it, broke it up and even blew it up on oversize coats, singlets and enviable tight segmented sweaters. This, all to pulsating house music that had guests tapping their feet.

The palette the designers amusingly describe as “akin to the contents of a box of macaroons” — pastels in pink, mint, tobacco and sky blue, all perfectly balanced by the master colourists.

And, to make sure every foreign French cliché in the book was covered, they knitted an image of Cosette from Les Miserables on a sweater, created stylish modernist-style bags based on the architect Le Corbusier, and plastered the Eiffel Tower on prints alongside oversized blue polka dots on a loose silk shirt or a wild double-breasted jacket.

Some exaggerated parkas that featured in the show could have come in useful for dripping guests, who were victims of an unexpected summer rainstorm.