The Monocle Minute

If fashion weeks are a forecast, Paris is the bellwether. In recent years, collections from Parisian mainstays such as The Row, Lemaire and Hermès have been masterclasses in muted elegance. But this year’s Paris Fashion Week Menswear, which runs until Sunday, will be defined by brands seeking to challenge the status quo. I’ll be looking to other designers, such as Scottish nu-punk trailblazer Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Dior under Kim Jones and Pharrell Williams at Louis Vuitton, to inject some fresh glamour, sex appeal and audacity into the mix. Their shows promise to shake things up. While beautiful, understated cashmere accessories struggle to get the front row jostling for a picture, this year’s offerings are intended to elicit a reaction.

Expect American-Portuguese brand Ernest W Baker and Japanese label Auralee to turn heads with their textural menswear collections, which combine complex craft with ease of wear. Elsewhere, Jacquemus will debut on the official Paris schedule for the first time, with a refined take on its distinctive masculine silhouette.

But what’s the talk of the town? After all, there’s more to do during Paris Fashion Week Menswear than gorge on pillowy croque-monsieurs from Café de Flore or pop into Dries Van Noten’s flagship shop on Quai Malaquais (though I’ll be doing both while in town, naturellement). The loose lips of the fashion crowd are in chorus with one another this year. You’d have to have been living under a rock to have missed the whispers circling around Dior. Rumours abound that Jonathan Anderson is set to leave his role as creative director at Loewe and take over both menswear and womenswear at the French house in what would be a disruptive but welcome career switch. Until that is confirmed, I’ll be nibbling on that piping hot croque-monsieur and enjoying the more provocative looks on display. Paris should always be a steamy affair.

Teo van den Broeke is a style expert and award-winning journalist covering men’s fashion. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

It’s probably possible to navigate your way through an entire year bouncing from one diplomatic, security or economics conference to the next, attending learned panel discussions, gradually growing unable to stand for the weight of laminates draped around your neck (writes Andrew Mueller). However, these events that were once home turf for experts and industry insiders have become yet another platform for politicians. Would business be better served by leaving politicking at the door? This year’s meeting of The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos suggests so.

Now in its 55th year, the meeting has traditionally had the advantage of being one of the year’s first big conventions, thus commanding attention. However, though Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, have jetted in, many heads of state are absent. Staggeringly, Scholz and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will be the only G7 leaders present. Perhaps the WEF meeting has started to feel like just another gathering on a calendar full of barely distinguishable wing-dings attended by people who will see each other again anyway. It began in 1971 as the European Management Symposium, an admittedly unsexily titled gathering of senior business folks. It might be time for the WEF to remember its founding principles. As many experienced attendees would wearily agree, politicians have a habit of getting in the way.

The historic Marriage Equality Act comes into effect in Thailand today, 120 days after the legislation was published in the Royal Gazette. The country is the first in Southeast Asia to recognise same-sex marriage and only the third in the wider continent. Hundreds of wedding ceremonies are expected to take place in Bangkok tomorrow, while Thai embassies and consulates across the globe are preparing to receive a flurry of marriage registrations from expats.

Michaela Friberg-Storey, the UN’s resident co-ordinator in Thailand, has described the legislation as “one of the best examples of non-discrimination policy, reflecting [the nation’s] long-standing commitment to human rights and equality for LGBTIQ+ persons”. The country is leading the way in the region and is likely to see a boost in tourism. Will the Philippines or Singapore follow suit? Surely everyone loves an island wedding.

Until 23 February, Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto is taking over the art deco lobby of Paris’s Le Bon Marché department store with “Le La Serpent”, a monumental work that snakes across the building’s iconic escalators. Monocle caught up with Neto ahead of the exhibit’s launch.

How did you create ‘Le La Serpent’?
I had a vision of two forms – one of them masculine and the other feminine; one Adam and the other Eve. The serpent draws the symbol of infinity around them. The whole thing is made from cotton with a bamboo skeleton. The material is very thin and carefully crocheted together in long, striped patterns.

When did you start working with fabrics?
A long time ago. I was interested in playing with the idea of tension – quite literally – by stretching and pulling fabrics into forms. One day I went to my grandmother’s house and explained this thought and my great-aunt, who often sat knitting on my grandmother’s sofa, invited me to join her. Even nowadays the crocheting I do isn’t complex. I always use the simplest stitch that she taught me.

How do you approach works such as this?
I want my work to be understandable. It has to be laid out so that people can see how it was constructed. While you can hide many things from others, you cannot hide them from yourself. That’s what my work is trying to reflect by letting its viewers see every stitch.

We round up the Maison&Objet trade fair with interviews from across Paris, and hear from the designers behind an emerging studio working at the intersection of furniture and architecture, Amca Oval. Plus, we discuss rugs and landscapes with one of France’s top creatives.