Ssense-Breathless Les Aquamen Help us Preview the Season’s Slickest New Menswear.

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Last January’s menswear shows in Paris, perhaps in conversation with the broader culture outside of fashion, experienced something of a divide—with a surreal, almost absurdist touch on one end of the spectrum and an austere minimalism on the other. On the wacky side: There were the feathered Rick Owens kiss boots, designed in collaboration with Victor Clavelly, a talented young designer who specializes in CGI. And Comme des Garçons partnered with KIDS LOVE GAITE to unveil freaky clompers that bent at the toes like an L. Meanwhile, LEMAIRE continued to use gender-neutral silhouettes to explore new forms of luxury, while IM MEN experimented with how fabric can articulate and expand on a moving body.

Weird is the new normal and normal is exciting again. So who better to model the season’s disparate runway looks than a guy with a fishbowl head?

The Aquamen, whom you may have come across in artsier corners of the internet, are part of a French theater group called Machtiern. Since 2022, they’ve been known to suddenly materialize in public wearing bowls on their heads that contain live goldfish. The troupe explained that the Aquamen project is a meditation on “the gaze of the other to difference,” playing on themes like isolation, obfuscation, and what clarity means today. In other words: perfect for an SSENSE photo shoot where the threat of asphyxia is very real. No fish were harmed in the making of this project.