Louis Vuitton Catwalk Fashion Show Paris Menswear SS2017

Imagine a young boy touring the savanna in Kenya and alighting upon the Massai people in their vivid red and blue clothing. It’s one of Kim Jones’ strongest and most treasured memories — and it inspired one of his first hit collections as men’s style director at Louis Vuitton five years ago.

For his brisk open-air spring show, the designer got savanna heat and blazing sun, which didn’t seem to phase front-row guests David Beckham or Victor Cruz, both dressed in long-sleeve sweaters, styles that appeared on the runway in shaggy mohair with springbok fur patterns.

The mohair styles looked cool over checkered pants licked with silver zips, among the punk accents that spiked the African theme. The collection had a youthful zing, interspersed with luxury marvels, including a “denim” jacket made of matte crocodile, a molded leather vest with a diagonal zip and a Perspex blanket trunk etched with a giraffe drawing by Dinos and Jake Chapman.

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.