Paris awakens with AMI and its timeless chic fashion

AMI Paris rounded off the third day of men’s shows with a sober, elegant collection. The star-studded line-up, which included Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Adjani and Vincent Cassel, was as seductive as the highly successful booth, featuring actresses Diane Kruger, Lou Doillon and Laetitia Casta. For autumn-winter 2024/25, designer Alexandre Mattiussi returned to his fundamentals, asserting his tailoring side more than ever, delivering his ideal timeless men’s wardrobe.

The collection was revealed in the light of dawn, when the City of Light is still emerging from its torpor in the early hours of the morning. It’s a suspended moment, when party goers are on their way home, while the early workers make their way to work, walking at the fast pace so typical of Parisians. As a bell rings in the distance and the traffic begins to rustle, the models pound the pavement with a firm, flashy step, in their thick, notched-soled shoes for the men or in their heeled ankle boots with wide straps for the women.
 
They emerged into the darkness from the porch of a beautiful stone mansion, its windows still lit. It’s a far cry from the days when the brand celebrated romantic, bohemian Paris, with its zinc roofs and lampposts… Everything seemed a little more austere. Starting with the predominantly dark palette of black, brown and grey, radically different from the previous collection. Beautiful midnight blue ensembles also ran through the collection.

Alexandre Mattiussi returned to true tailoring with a plethora of jackets, suits and ensembles. The coats in gabardine and thick wools fell impeccably. The pegged trousers were sublime. The jackets abandoned the oversized look of recent seasons for more elegant proportions, in slim-fitting models or blazers. All the pieces were beautifully cut. The designer even took the liberty of introducing a new, shorter length for the trousers.

For women, it brought back the culotte skirt, available as a suit and also worn by men. For a more chic look, coats and jackets were adorned with gold buttons. But when the designer strayed a little from this classic universe, for example with lined sweaters, or by covering the sleeves of a trench coat in fake fur, the result was less convincing.
 
A subtly glamorous touch entered the collection with a few rhinestone tops and this gold lamé dress that sparkled under a top. But it was with a simple, classic coat tied at the waist with a wide belt, with rounded shoulders, slightly drooping and enveloping, that Alexandre Mattiussi chose to close his show. Laetitia Casta wore it, her hair loose, her hands in her pockets. One last lap of the runway, and she closed the house’s heavy wooden front door behind her.