Real Parisians don’t hang out in glossy, Netflix-famous cafés, let alone stand in line to get into one. Instead, they’ll take their espresso in a more authentic, outdated one that’s hiding in plain sight.
Which is why Pierre Mahéo chose to present his fall men’s collection inside the 1950s-era Café Le Rouquet, where the most photogenic feature is the old-fashioned telephone booth where Charlotte Rampling recently posed for Juergen Teller as part of a Saint Laurent campaign. It’s one of Mahéo’s favorite perches for watching “the gallery of life.” Not incidentally it’s also where this collection took shape.
Knowing that people tend to embrace constancy in times of flux, Mahéo kept sartorial tweaks subtle but strong enough to make a statement. “Friends kept telling me the trousers were too wide, at least for men. Since I’m a bit headstrong, I made them even wider, with a deep cuff, and shortened the coats to show them off,” the designer explained backstage before the show. In response to comments about his eternal Parisian palette of black, white, navy, gray, beige, khaki and chocolate, he said he nudged the color dial by a quarter of a shade and slipped in cotton candy accents. Then he piled on the tonal layers, filling out the storyline with soft knits and double, triple, even quadruple layers of shirts, jackets, bombers, and peacoats. Some day-to-night styling propositions for women included a slipdress-jacket-trouser ensemble and a funnel neck over a button-down; the macintoshes were made for sharing.
With just 25 looks, the lineup felt both reassuringly chic and right at home. True-to-life props aside—a bouquet of flowers, a book, a newspaper folded into a coat pocket—Officine Générale is quietly building out accessories with handbags, notably a chic bucket style. The leather floral brooches that cropped up here and there were another flourish inspired by people-watching from this terrace; those will be available only in the brand’s boutiques.
