PARIS — Some of the coolest names in street fashion went into the woods in their Paris menswear shows on Thursday, and their millennial customers are in for a big surprise.

Throw off your gritty urban rat race uniforms, they pleaded, and embrace nature and your inner country bumpkin.

Off-White designer Virgil Abloh -- Kanye West’s fashion guru no less -- urged his fans to "change our consciousness... and start seeing things" as he sent his models through a winter birch forest.

Issey Miyake summoned up the "essence of the forest" with delicate bark patterns and leaves woven into its urban "trekking" outfits.

And Andrea Crews called on lovers of its edgy, streetwise looks to "leave the chaos of the city behind and lose yourself off-piste" in its autumn-winter collection.

Designer Maroussia Rebecq said she was inspired by the idea of urban warriors taking to the hills and "falling in love with young shepherds and shepherdesses.

"City dwellers’ aggressive behaviour instantly mellows on contact with nature," she said. Which is why she transformed their camouflage clothes into "camouflower" ones covered in blossoms.

Dungarees and zipped farmers’ overalls were given the urban skater treatment with upcycled wool jumpers and oversized wool-lined denim cowboy jackets.

To hammer home the point, she stamped "Environmentalism" on her hoodies.

Shepherd boys

The Spanish label Loewe and its trend-setting Irish designer Jonathan Anderson also went super bucolic with sheepskin coats, boots and an almost folkoric shepherd boy look.

But the German creator Boris Bidjan Saberi went still further, climbing every mountain with a veritable Everest expedition on the summit of nature itself.

His models began in sheepskin coats and steampunk wool and leather climbing outfits complete with cramponed climbing boots, some dressed in rope-weave jumpers.

Having reached the summit, the final two appeared to have skinned a yeti to make a coat to stay warm.

There was less adventure but many more stars at Louis Vuitton, whose British-born designer Kim Jones drew his inspiration from New York’s two wild decades, the 1970s and 1980s.

Watched by former footballer David Beckham, RnB star Usher and model Kate Moss, he tried to summon up the spirit of the legendary Studio 54 nightclub and the artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and Keith Haring, with nods to legendary Harlem hip hop outfitter Daniel "Dapper Dan" Day.

He said Basquiat was a particular reference for him, even going so far as trying to replicate the paint splashes on his cashmere coats.

"It’s uptown and downtown, artist and musicians, friends and heroes," he added. — AFP