Barefoot cheek

At Paris fashion week, Alber Elbaz’s show for Lanvin started nearly one and half hours late, making the French minister for culture leave in protest. The reason for the delay? Not just the terrible traffic and location in the 13th, but when the designer saw the pained look on the models’ faces as they struggled into their stratospheric stillettos, he decided to put the models in flats. They walked the catwalk like they owned it. Now we’re all waiting to see his capsule collection for H&M, which hits the stores on November 23rd. We hear that it contains a tuxedo and flowered dresses.

Off the catwalk, some prevailing trends among young males attending the shows were obvious. One, for instance, is the way these ultra-cool metropolitans are wearing shoes without socks, including Scott Schuman, creator of the Sartorialist blog, in sockless brown loafers, who was busy as ever with his beady blue eyes and camera at the ready seeking out individual dressers.

Those without socks also tended to be the ones in shrunken jackets, white scarves and skintight trousers, all studiously tailored, of course.