Balenciaga Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Menswear SS2017

It was Demna Gvasalia’s debut men’s collection for Balenciaga — and the brand’s first men’s show in its 99-year history. Not since Hedi Slimane’s rockers stormed down the runway some 15 years ago has anyone at a major house paraded a silhouette this severe: coats and suits with shoulders as wide as a fridge, immediately followed by the opposite: suffocating, shrunken styles on models with ironing-board physiques, most of them cast on Instagram.

Time will tell if the David Byrne look makes any sense to young generations weaned on droopy jeans and sloppy hoodies. While challenging, these Balenciaga clothes had such conviction behind them — and a peerless execution — that they commanded attention, and are bound to be influential.