The Item: Mens Accessories Spring 2012

Left to Right, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton, Jil Sander 

It is currently Men's fashion week over in Europe, which means a lot of new goodies in terms of accessories! We went through the shows and picked some of our favorite accessories collections, including Louis Vuitton, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, and Jil Sander.  After the jump we included a slide show of each collection and a background to enlighten you.




Louis Vuitton 

Louis Vuitton's menswear designer Kim Jones was inspired by Masai prints, and the resulting collection is a fresh take on the idea of an aristocratic vacation. The highlight of the accessories was a series of monogram mountaineer backpacks, which will looking incredibly cool in any urban terrain. 


Prada

"I hate golf" was the starting point for the new Prada menswear collection. It is a signature of Miuccia Prada to take something that she finds extremely distasteful, and use it as an exercise in design. The final collection was refreshing, but the accessories were the best part. Envelope clutches in shades of pastels for day, and embellished crystals for evening, were delightful and totally on trend. We know most men will probably not carry any of these, but we at A+P Daily absolutely loved them.  We felt the same away about the shoes - the golf brogues with neon tacks were fun and exciting. It reminisced of Spring 2011's color blocked platforms, which were widely coveted and sold out in many stores. It looks like Prada's future this season will be similar to its past - extremely successful. 

Bottega Veneta

Thomas Maier used the Arab world's Spring uprising as the inspiration for this collection. It was a very distilled effort, with no visible trace of the typical ethnic look. We loved the multi-color briefcases, which is a very chic way to wear something a little more structured without being too formal. The other thing to be noted is the small clutches, and we feel like this will be a big trend come next spring: small bags for men. 


Gucci





Tim Blanks said the collection was populated by "Narcissistic Pop Aristocrats", Frida Giannini was giving nod to the British Dandy.  In terms of accessories, the main story here was the structure tote, mainly rectangular in shape, and comes in various types of luxe skins. The collection was easy to understand, and equally straight forward in wearability. The shoes that were shown nearing the end of the show - the patent loafer - is versatile enough to be quite desirable among Gucci's prime target market.


Jil Sander





Raf Simons vision for the Jil Sander man was a cool club kid in retro Berlin. Equally minimal and nostalgic, the clothes were more an exercise in fabric development. The real star of the show, was the body chain bags. Although it was quite avant-garde, it was in a way extremely wearable. We could see the bag completing a simple outfit consisting of a solid colored v-neck paired with neutral toned shorts. However, the shoes felt gimmicky, as snakeskin versions of Doc Martins never bode very well for everyday wear.