Paris sun scorches Kate Moss and David Beckham at Vuitton

PARIS (AP) — Africa was the theme in more ways than one at Louis Vuitton’s menswear fashion show as the Paris sun scorched shades-wearing celebrity attendees Kate Moss and David Beckham.

Here are the highlights of the day’s spring-summer 2017 shows.

HEATED CELEBRITIES

Inside the storied courtyard venue — inside the Palais Royal — Moss wore a marbled Louis Vuitton silk shirt and pants and posed for cameras under the sun, followed by a rather wintery looking Beckham in a black knit sweater.

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, 34, appears naked on the cover of ESPN The Magazine’s latest “Body Issue.”

But in the Paris heat it was his clothes the three-time NBA Champion was rocking at Thursday’s Louis Vuitton front row — alongside the NFL’s Victor Cruz and soccer star Rio Ferdinand.

“Today I’ve relaxed and chilled with my Louis V.,” he told the Associated Press in Vuitton suit with chic colored markings.

Wade, who likes to make time to attend fashion shows when he’s not competing in basketball championships, said he’s excited about the current sports-infused trends in menswear styles.

“I love it as an athlete. It’s a great moment when sports are intertwined with fashion,” he added.

LOUIS VUITTON

Designer Kim Jones went back to the inspiration of his first Louis Vuitton show: Africa.

It made for a richly colored voyage through exotic African skins, textiles and its civilizations and a very vibrant spring show.

Mohair sweaters with “springbok” patterns speckled the runway in red and brown, as well as myriad other animals in prints.

While khaki sleeveless shirts rendered with dyed twill and a Monogram Makassar collar.

Signature bags came as a navy and white zebra printed calf leather briefcase.

Beyond the Africa reference, there was more than a hint of Kim Jones’ terra mater of London, as he acknowledges.

“There’s always something a little London hidden somewhere, though. This time it is the influence of Punk – albeit via Africa,” Jones said.

UNICEF FOR FASHION WEEK

Louis Vuitton paid homage to victims of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa that has devastated communities.

Noting that the country has the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the whole world, the house says it champions UNICEF — the United Nations Children’s Fund.

In the collection, the Silver Locket was testament to this, the house said, and with each piece sold $100 will be donated to support South African children.

RICK OWENS

In typically wacky fashion, American designer Rick Owens’ collection was titled “Walrus.”

Plays on proportion in black and dove gray with flashes of vivid yellow came on male, and the occasional female, models.

Torsos were lifted upward with cropped jackets with billowing sleeves, matches by the exaggerated portions of the pants. Fabrics swirled with the lightness of silk tafferas and washed silk gazar, or fell heavily with thick industrial cotton.

And T-shirts, what the Owens called “mega-draped as irrationally as possible,” created striated volumes like sinuous muscles and tendons.

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Thomas Adamson can be followed at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

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