In Paris, designers seek out the Everyman

From hippy explorers with daisies in their hair to Charlie Chaplin, the first few days of Paris men's fashion week offered several intriguing ideas.

The eco-chic on display in Milan returned in young French designer Alexis Mabille's spring-summer show based around a romanticised desert hero, while the sea was central for Japan's Issey Miyake and his playful geometric suits.

French couturier Gaultier set a hotter, steamier but no less earthy mood as he raised the curtain on a stage full of muscle-bound bare-chested men in a massage parlour, who then flowed down the catwalk revealing a North African theme. Tunics, crumpled patterned scarves and open-toe ankle trainers combined with more city-savvy leathers, loose-back brogues and all-in-one zipper suits.

A playful 3D finale gave a futuristic twist and ensured it was not just muscles popping out but literally Gaultier's psychedelic patterns too, printed on denims, scarves, silk throws and tight shiny hot pants.

Mabille's models walked down the runway with a touch of rouge on their cheeks suggesting lazy sunburn, hands in pockets and flowers or grass ruffled through their hair. The trademark bow-tie of the young designer, whose star has been rising since he dressed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's wife and former model Carla Bruni, was upstaged by the more ubiquitous daisy. The little flowers were sprinkled everywhere as chunky broaches, around necks, or scattered from top to toe covering an elegant white satin outfit.

Japan's Dai Fujiwara, designer for Issey Miyake, took inspiration from nature but mixed mathematical designs into the collection, with cheerful geometric patterned suits worn by neat models weaving down a maze-like catwalk. Fujiwara's muse was the rainbow trout, that "master of disguise… cautious… patient", but when pouncing for its prey would reveal a flash of brilliant silver in the water.

At John Galliano, Charlie Chaplin emerged from inside a ticking gears of a massive watch to walk the runway at a silent film-inspired show. Models in twitching faux moustaches and bowler hats sported urban interpretations of The Tramp's black suits – microfibre jackets paired with drop-crotch pinstripe shorts. Rope belts, dangling pocket watches and dandified suspenders were the season's must-have accessories.

Standout looks included a Buster Keaton lookalike in a razor-cut gray suit and a little, flat straw hat and a jumpsuit worn with briefs in fish-printed silk. The man on the street became catwalk star for a host of Belgian designers, who showed off an urban cool inspired by mundane reality in their collections.

"I want to embellish everyday life, that's what I do best," Kris Van Assche said after an austere, strong, sombre show in a warehouse along the Seine.

Van Assche, a graduate from Antwerp who worked with Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint-Laurent and is artistic director for Dior Homme, represents the cutting edge of Belgium's new generation of couturiers. He said he did not care for the "fantasy of the podium" because his man "is from the street, he gets his hands dirty, his clothes".

"I like to mix genres," Van Assche said, referring to his coats with one longer half turned into an apron. I like it when clothes become hybrid," the designer in his mid-thirties said, "that's reality."

He had an elegant but practical urban Everyman in mind at his show. Belts were replaced by simple white stitching on black trousers while keys on jewelled chains hung on ankle-length floaty trousers, hovering above black leather boots. His army of tall, slender, immaculately groomed men were uniformly dressed in whites, greys and black, the only variation stonewashed jeans and mid-length canvas jackets.

It was a more mad-hat, fun-filled collection on offer from Walter Van Beirendonck, another Antwerp graduate. The Everyman was still present in Van Beirendonck's familiar chunky, hairy, fat models, though the clothes he displayed in a central Paris nightclub to modern disco music were more cartoon-like and playful.

He combined tailored tartan suits with imaginative bags including a near life-size crocodile rucksack, or patchwork T-shirts with ankle leather trainers that had been holed with the words "Hope" and "Unite".

Open shirts and vests revealed chests covered by pearl necklaces, while the models' eyes were shielded by spaceman sunglasses in bright orange, blue or green.

Dries Van Noten, who was part of "The Antwerp Six" alongside Van Beirendonck in the eighties, showed a line closer to Van Assche's urban chic. Cans of drink cooled in ice buckets in another Seine location, this time under a bridge surrounded by metal pillars and walls covered in graffiti. The setting was "raw, rough but very beautiful", Van Noten said, explaining that the space captured the kind of metropolitan man he had in mind. "I used a lot of street culture."

Sticking close to daily life even when working in high fashion was key for Van Noten and Van Assche, but both also played on the difference between appearance and reality. "The coats look tweed but in fact they are linen and nylon," Van Noten said of his collection. The winter feel was just an impression, "the boots look like very heavy boots, but are actually very light".

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