The trends at Paris Fashion Week are statement coats, even bigger shoulders and sharp tailoring

PARIS (AP) — Paris men’s Fashion Week has been arguing for a new kind of authority this season — coat-first.

Across the runways, statement outerwear, bigger shoulders and sharp tailoring have been doing the work, turning familiar staples — trench coats, suits, denim and workwear — into clothes with a harder stance.

With the fashion week heading into its final stretch, the common thread is a push to make menswear more protective, performance-minded and built for real life, without losing the showmanship that defines Paris.

That argument landed most clearly at Dior Men, where Jonathan Anderson bent classic codes into new proportions, and Louis Vuitton, where Pharrell Williams framed luxury as practical convenience — heritage shapes upgraded with weatherproofing, reflectivity, reversibility and engineered comfort.

Other designers from Ami Paris to Rick Owens, Yohji Yamamoto and IM Men at Issey Miyake worked along the same lines: rebuild the shoulder, reshape the body, and lean into the idea of uniform — not as costume, but as modern equipment.

Paris menswear is also being driven by celebrity gravity, the kind that turns a runway into a global moment within minutes.

Dior’s room was packed with VIPs including Robert Pattinson, Lewis Hamilton and SZA.

Louis Vuitton delivered a front row mixing music, film and online fame — SZA, Usher, Future and Jackson Wang among them — plus a runway cameo from BamBam of GOT7.

The clothes are the product, but the frenzy is amplified by who is watching, who is posting, and who is seen.

Instead of chasing novelty for its own sake, many designers are taking familiar silhouettes and making them perform.

At Vuitton, Williams’ show was filled with recognizable pieces — double-breasted suits, blousons, polished outerwear; then the twist arrived in the materials and construction.

Tailoring carried reflective elements for night visibility.

Jackets turned into water-repellent hybrids.

Fabrics were lightened, waterproofed and sometimes embellished with crystal details that mimicked raindrops.

Accessories followed the same logic: caps designed to be crushed and returned to shape; shoes built to flex more like sneakers while still reading as traditional footwear.

The message was clear: luxury is not only a look. It is also capability.

Across brands, the silhouette focus moved upward. The shoulder became the season’s main design focus — where structure, protection and attitude all meet.

Anderson’s Dior treated tailoring history as a series of pivots.

Jackets nodded to the 1940s and early 1960s, then were cut abruptly short or shrunken to expose the hipbone.

Ordinary pieces were pushed into new scale — including a round-neck sweater extended to ankle length.

Throughout, he made the familiar feel new by changing proportion, fabric or what it was paired with.

IM Men also leaned into shoulder architecture, remixing outerwear by blending storm flaps into trench coats and amplifying volume.

Yohji Yamamoto used padding along arms and legs to give different bodies a similar shape, then controlled that bulk with buttons and adjustable details.

Even when designers disagreed on mood — sharp, romantic, severe, strange — they converged on shape: the body is being redesigned.

There has also been a clear emotional undercurrent: protection. Paris is dressing men for a world that feels harder, more uncertain, and more public.

Rick Owens described thinking about police uniforms and the impulse to mock a threat as a way of processing it.

His runway delivered skinny foundations, then added cropped jackets, tactical hybrids, leather and Kevlar-like materials, and ambiguous details that hinted at insignia without turning into costume.

His question — “sheriffs or outlaws?” — captured the season’s tension between authority and rebellion.

Yamamoto also drew from army and working clothes, but described a softer kind of protection: enveloping layers meant to endure long stretches outdoors.

IM Men’s draped, layered looks pushed a related idea, less militant than nomadic: clothing as shelter.

For all the experimentation, the week has not abandoned everyday dressing.

Ami Paris’ anniversary show was built on an idea of real Parisian style — camel coats, stripes, denim, clean tailoring — then refined through better proportion and styling.

The clothes were designed to mix easily, with small shifts that made them feel current: longer coats that sit better on the shoulder and cleaner lines.

The takeaway is that the daily wardrobe still matters, but it is being tightened and upgraded.

Dries Van Noten sharpened that idea with color and craft. Julian Klausner built the show around “coming of age" — men leaving home in hand-me-down coats, then made knitwear the engine, from structured-shoulder cardigans to patterned collar pieces on narrow coats and cloaks.

He also brought kilts and skirt-like belted layers back into the mix.

Saturated, pattern-heavy coats — including Polaroid florals and patchworked panels — showed how Paris can make a wardrobe feel new through layering, proportion and finish.

Many of the season’s strongest statements have come from styling as much as garments.

At Dior, Anderson’s “anti-normal” attitude appeared in wild wigs and ruff collars that turned what was formal and old into something sharp and slightly dangerous.

At Vuitton, the styling did the opposite — staying restrained — while letting materials and construction carry the message: classic shapes, but built for movement and weather.

While Dior and Vuitton set the tone, the rest of the schedule reinforced it in different registers — wearability with precision at Ami, confrontation and control at Owens, protection through layering at Yohji, and sculpted outerwear at IM Men.

With the week ending Sunday, the final shows will decide whether this season’s turn toward function and shape becomes a deeper shift — or remains a Paris moment where luxury briefly proved it can be practical, too.

A model wears a creation as part of the Issey Miyake Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Men's collection presented in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Dries Van Noten Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Men's collection presented in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A model wears a creation as part of the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Men's collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

A model wears a creation as part of the Dior Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Men's collection presented in Paris, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Models wear creations as part of the Louis Vuitton Fall/Winter 2026-2027 Men's collection presented in Paris, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

NEW YORK (AP) — The FBI said it found explosive residue in a Pennsylvania storage unit as part of an investigation into two men charged with bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of New York City’s mayor.

Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, told police after their arrests Saturday that they were inspired by the Islamic State group, according to law enforcement officials and a criminal complaint.

The men live in the Philadelphia suburbs and traveled together to New York City to carry out the attack near Gracie Mansion in Manhattan, officials said. In response to police questioning, Balat said he hoped to accomplishing something “even bigger” than the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people, the complaint said.

Overnight Monday, FBI bomb technicians conducted controlled detonations of the explosive residue found at a public storage facility in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, near where Balat’s family lives, the agency said.

The explosion resulted in “several loud bangs,” the Middletown Township Police Department said Tuesday, adding that there was no threat to residents. The FBI said Monday that it had conducted multiple searches in connection with the investigation.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday called the attack "absolutely despicable" and said government investigators and prosecutors won’t rest until the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Much remains unknown about the motives, planning and relationship between Balat and Kayumi.

Court documents show Emir Balat’s father, Selahattin Balat, is a native of Turkey who was granted asylum in the United States in 1998 and later became a U.S. citizen. In a 2009 bankruptcy filing, he listed his occupation as painter and said he had three children.

Emir Balat is a senior at Neshaminy High School in Langhorne. A school spokesperson said he enrolled in a virtual program in September and had not attended in-person classes since.

His lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said his client had “complicated stuff going on” in his personal life, without elaborating. Essmidi said he did not believe the two young men had known each other for long.

Kayumi is from Newtown, about 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) north of Langhorne. He graduated in 2024 from Council Rock High School North, according to a school spokesperson.

His attorney did not speak to reporters following a court hearing Monday and declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press.

Prosecutors, police and FBI officials say Balat and Kayumi drove to New York City on Saturday and joined a throng of counterprotesters at a small, anti-Muslim rally organized by the far-right Christian nationalist Jake Lang.

Journalists photographed Balat hurling a device, smoking with a lit fuse, that was later found to contain the explosive TATP. The object, which also contained nuts and bolts, extinguished itself without harming anyone.

Balat then dropped a second object near some police officers and tried to run, but was tackled and arrested, according to a court complaint.

Balat and Kayumi were being held without bail after their court appearance on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. They were not required to enter a plea.

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday there were no indications that the attack was connected to the ongoing war in Iran, but said the city remained on a heightened state of alert.

On Tuesday afternoon, a park near the mayor’s residence was evacuated and several surrounding streets were closed as police investigated reports of a “suspicious device.”

The object was later determined to be non-threatening.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani was not home at the time and Gracie Mansion was not evacuated, a City Hall spokesperson said.

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Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.

NYPD police officer and K-9 dog walks outside Carl Schurz Park as they investigate suspicious device, Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Jake Lang demonstrates outside Gracie Mansion after a news conference by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani , Monday, March 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani speaks during a news conference at Gracie Mansion, Monday, March 9, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Emir Balat, left, and Ibrahim Kayumi, far right, are escorted into Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, March, 9, 2026, for arraignment on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction after they were arrested for bringing and throwing explosives at a protest two days earlier. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

From left, defense attorney Mehdi Essmidi, defendant Emir Balat, defense attorney Michael Arthus and defendant Ibrahim Kayumi wait for the start of arraignment proceedings in Manhattan federal court in New York, Monday, March, 9, 2026, on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction in New York after Balat and Kayumi were arrested for bringing and throwing explosives at a protest two days earlier. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Police detain Emir Balat after he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device during a counterprotest against far right influencer Jake Lang staging an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Julius Constantine Motal)