Paris menswear designers buck
crisis during fashion week

By JENNY BARCHFIELD

PARIS  (AP) -- The way in which the new year started in the mist of a global crisis was not to be believed.  The high energy of Fashion week starting with some of the great designers of Paris (and the rest of Europe) for that matter was filled with overwhelming enthusiasm for new talent and old legends.

Starting with american, former Grammy nominee,  Jim Moseley rocking the ELITE fashion ball at the Ritz Paris, to the creative sublime performance of the Parisian Gods, the audience was more than ready for the Paris designers that spurned the temptation to play it safe during the economic crisis.  Jean Paul Gaultier served up jazzed-up zoot suits for the entire family, while Japanese desinger Yohji Yamamoto dared bankers to go to work in thier PJ’s with a collection of sleepwear-inspired suits.  Even Thursday’s most marketable shows, Louis Vuitton and Dries Van Noten, had a edge.  That was an element that was largely absent from the recent winter 2009-2010 menswear shows in Milan, where the perfectly tailored sober suit reigned supreme.