To present his menswear collection for Spring/Summer 2013 during the official calendar of Paris Men’s Fashion Week, Brazilian designer Gustavo Lins eschewed traditional settings in favour of the informal surroundings of the courtyard of the Hotel de Sauroy in the Marais neighbourhood. In addition, instead of opting for a traditional runway show, Lins had his models parading to the audience for a few seconds each, sporting a range of garments that reinterpreted sportswear by working innovative fabrics and cuts.
Inspired by the impending 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Lins’s Spring/Summer 2013 menswear collection is the result of a collaboration with Brazilian sportswear brand ‘Penalty’ owned by São Paulo-based Grupo Cambuci. Although the range of men’s clothes presented was a far cry from the sophisticated couture designs for women that have made Lins a renowned designer in the Paris fashion world, his menswear offering did reveal some elegant highlights.
Cotton was the predominant fabric for the collection, with wool, satin, silk and leather also used occasionally. The colour palette focussed on black, blues, green, greys and beige and when it came to shapes, loose knitwear and tapered trousers with twisted seams suggested the dynamic movement of sportswear. However, it was when Lins explored how fabrics and cuts of sportswear could be applied to more traditional tailoring that the collection became interesting: trench coats, shirts and suits were very seductive in the ways they evoked the casual world of sports allied to formal wear, a result that was achieved by mixing sleeveless tops and drawstring waisted trousers with structured jackets with padded shoulders and stylish prints, and adding leather applications and beading.
Gustavo Lins studied to be an architect in his native Brazil, but decided that his passion resided on working fabrics rather than bricks, glass and steel. During his training to become a fashion designer, he undertook apprenticeships under John Galliano, Lecoanet Hemant and Jean-Paul Gaultier. This training provided Lins with the necessary skills to understand the rigors of cut and the importance of fit, and instilled in him an appreciation for fine fabrics. He has shown his collections in Paris and his garments can be found in retailers in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, UAE, UK, and USA.
