paris men's fashion week 2011

New From Paris Men’s Fashion Week: Jean Paul Gaultier and Dries Van Noten

Some menswear looks are so over-the-top preposterous, fashionheads can just kick back and enjoy the absurdity, knowing full well no one but Lady Gaga’s backup dancers or a Lucky Cheng’s server will ever walk out of the house forgetting to tuck their corset in or wearing bronze body paint and a Lucha Libre Spanx suit. But then what are they supposed to make of the only moderately preposterous menswear collections — the ones you could actually, maybe, sort of, almost see someone on the L train wearing on a Friday night?

Enter Jean Paul Gaultier, maker of weird but amazing open-toe, splatter-paint sneakers and sexy priest gowns, accessorized with caveman beards and 3-D glasses, naturally. The showmanship is obscene, the peacockery a welcome diversion. And if some man out there is daring enough to actually pull it off, he deserves a standing subway ovation.

For a shot of relative normalcy, browse a load of murses and maggage in our accessories galleries from Burberry, Gucci, and Bottega Veneta; or try to figure out who Jackson Pollocked all over Dries Van Noten’s fancy shirts and vitiligo-dappled denim.

New From Paris Men’s Fashion Week: Jean Paul Gaultier and Dries Van Noten