Dries Van Noten and his host of covetable trends.

For the regular reader, romantic musings about Dries Van Noten collections, are no manner of odd entity, and his SS11 collection makes no changes to my eternal admiration for his craftmanship however:

Who EVER thought that bleached denim jeans, that look as if they were bought from River Island, circa 2001 - you know when a diamond earring and spiked highlights were considered the epitome of street chic? - could ever be made to look half reputable? I had most certainly never even entertained the idea, however: splatters are set to be a big trend for SS11 and I think it is fair to say that DVN - as always - conveyed the trend is the most inspiring ensembles.

His collection for SS11 was a subtle infusion of blush tones, thick creams, strong camels, denim blue, navy and stark white.

Contrast played a pivotal role in displaying the garments to their utmost best: high, long and flowing blush toned trousers - which almost enveloped the patent feet beneath - contrasted with a shrunken, bleach smattered denim jacket gives a good example of the new silhouette for SS11.

Contrasting sleeves were apparent on DVN's runway again, more subtle with tonal colour blocking this time round, rather than the domineering leather contrasting of AW10, double breasted was a big shape for the sartorial elements: suits came in unexpected colours and were broken into seperates by the stylist: showing the versatility of a suit - if you are but willing - to allow the individual garments to break free from the suit bag.

Overall, the collection was exuberantly fresh, decidedly wearable, understatedly chic and utterly on trend for SS11, my love affair with DVN menswear shall continue, intact, until next Summer at the very least.

Hyères 2010

With a history defined by 25 years of notable successes, the Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères continues its foray into the fashion and photography world, by exposing the public to young and highly promising designers and photographers.

If you are not familiar with Hyères, it’s a small town in the south of France, that holds a big fashion and photography festival every spring. The Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères is directed by Jerry-Pierre Blanc and it counted its 25th year of existence last weekend.

On the three days of the festival, the fashion designers presented their first collection to the public and to this years President of the Fashion Jury Dries Van Noten. Already having achieved huge accomplishments within the fashion industry, the festival’s continuing aim is to offer young talents,professional opportunities by providing mentoring, media exposure and financial support for the winners next collection.

7th Man Magazine is presenting you the menswear collections of this year.

All images and text are by Matthew Zorpas
Design by Juliana Cortes

Dries Van Noten AW10

Dries Van Noten seems to be incapable of nothing.

His most recent collection AW10 encapsulates three of the major trends for next winter, and styles them in a way which injects eccentricity into even the most office ready ensemble.

If I was a high earning man, I would hire Noten to be my personal tailor, but as it happens, I will just try to spread his sartorial message as far and wide as I am able to reach.

Camel is a dominate feature in this understadedly gorgeous collection, as are contrasting sleeves which have also been adopted by Cerruti, Les Hommes and Kenzo [which means they are a surefire find on the highstreet as well as the luxury boutiques], tracksuit trousers were used as a quirky subsitute for suit trousers in a couple of the looks bringing an entirely new quality to the slouchy staple garment of a day off and the palette was based around city colours: grey, navy, thick cream and the aforementioned camel. Pop colours such as red and royal blue were encorporated into Noten's famed and fabulous patterned fabrics, to inject a hint of vibrancy for next winter.

I don't think it could have been more divine than it was.

view the entire collection here http://nymag.com/fashion