Is Splatter Paint The Tie-Dye Of Menswear?

Despite the rage for beachy tie-dyes that Proenza Schouler and co. inspired in women worldwide, men have been a little more hesitant to pick up the trend. But watching the Dries Van Noten show in Paris yesterday, we wondered if the Belgian bellwether wasn’t offering his own alternative. Van Noten showed ink-spattered tops and bleach-stained jeans that picked up the look of the tie-dye but infused it with a rougher, slightly more masculine edge. (In look, at least: As Tim Blanks reports, the blotches were hand-painted by couturiers in Lake Como.) Is the trend catching? Gaultier, too, showed paint spatter, on pants and knits that called to mind one of the roughest and most masculine of modern painters: Jackson Pollock.