Menswear Fashion Week not only offered up an array of sartorial treats on the runway, but also some delightfully innovative invitations that have amused us at the Dazed office to no end. Our favourite was the unique ingenuity of Maison Martin Margiela, who sent out a seemingly innocuous, three-dimensional small plastic television that on closer inspection beheld a black and white pictorial slideshow on the inside. Reminiscent of many a childhood, the images could be viewed by holding up a tiny viewfinder to the eye and clicking a button on the side to scroll through the pictures.  

Runner-up favourite was Kenzo’s building block invitation, which, inscribed in Cyrillic, reflected the Russian mood of the collection and gave us something fun to fiddle with. Likewise, John Galliano’s old world style playing cards were indicative of the musketeer influence that would follow on the runway. Equally as entertaining was Moschino’s simple cardboard invitation that was adorned with an etching of dark shades and a protruding, furry moustache.

Alexander McQueen sent out a dark, imposing poster, reminiscent of a sensational movie poster or a thrilling graphic novel. The imagery of a dark, faceless man with his blood red fist enlarged in the foreground set the mood for his cult inspired, urban warrior, runway epic. Dunhill’s invitation, a cardboard cut out of a key with the exposed back of an analog clock on one side of the head and the front of the clock on the other side, was similarly suited to the businesslike edge of the collection.

Less coherent however was Number (N)ine’s cardboard ice cream sundae, which, unless conveying some subtle sense of irony, did not seem to act as a reliable precursor to the label’s runway show. Despite this, the invitation was nonetheless impressive, as it inspired some serious sugar cravings. In the midst of all this flamboyant invitation, some designers decided to keep it simple. For instance, Givenchy sent out a thin sheet of paper with a black and white illustrated image of a man’s face and their name discreetly embossed in neat gold lettering across the front.