Sébastien Meunier on His 2005 “Homme-Sandwich” Collection and How Menswear Is Changing

What makes a fashion show memorable—in any format? That’s sure to be a question on many designers’ minds as they ready for the fall 2021 collections, most of which will be virtual. (Hint: It takes more than great garments.) As the men’s season kicks off, we paused to look back at a show that delivered clothes and concept: Sébastien Meunier’s fall 2005 collection, “Homme-Sandwich,” the last he designed before shuttering his namesake label.

That season Meunier brought together a finely tuned sense of French irony and the garment-focused conceptual approach he had gleaned in his first five years working for Maison Margiela. The designer, who says his work is always autobiographical, decided to go out with his most personal statement yet. Not only did the models represent different characters that represented Meunier’s world—policeman, rocker, cowboy—but each wore a paper bag over his head printed with the face of the designer in different guises. The backs of the bags were printed with a word or expression that commented on the models’ roles. Meunier walked the show in a Superman get-up; the back of his bag read megalomaniac.

This was a selfie show before selfies, says Meunier today. The designer’s narcissism was largely about optics however; he put at least as much effort into the garments, which were reworked and reimagined so obsessively that he describes them as being akin to one-offs.

Meunier, who spent a decade at Margiela and another at Ann Demeulemeester, shares the story of his fall 2005 collection, and of his life in menswear here.