The French capital’s menswear displays started with a caffeine rush today, as Japanese label Issey Miyake sent out a coffee-soaked autumn-winter 2010-2011 collection.

Issei Miyake Fall-Winter 2010/2011

” Miyake creative director Dai Fujiwara looked to Japan’s coffee shops, drawing inspiration from their trademark gingham tablecloths, the baristas’ casual chic and even the fluid dynamics of cream mingling with a piping hot cup of joe.

“After the crisis, I thought people needed a rest, a coffee break,” Fujiwara told The Associated Press in a pre-show interview. Fujiwara, who begins his weekdays with a cup of English Breakfast tea, said he sees coffee as a languorous, weekend pleasure.

“You go down to the coffee shop in comfy clothes, with a newspaper,” he said. One of the models, wearing a slouchy, bath-robe-inspired sweater with a rolled-up newspaper peeking out of the pocket, looked like Fujiwara’s definition of a lazy Sunday morning.

Another channeled the barista’s just-rolled-out-of-bed chic, wearing a neat black apron over wide cut trousers and a chunky grandpa sweater.

Other looks were more elaborate: Microfiber prints alive with swirling clouds in shades of gray and brown were based on the Miyake design team’s experiments in fluid dynamics: Under the expert guidance of a Tokyo barista, the team filled molds shaped like dress shirts and trousers with liters- (gallons-) worth of steaming coffee, daubed it with foam and photographed its swirling surface.

“I like it when clothes tell a story,” Fujiwara said ahead of the display, held in the label’s central Paris showroom — which had been strewn with burlap bags of beans and a specially installed coffee bar. Shots of espresso, served up by harried baristas, got Paris’ four-day-long menswear shows off to a punchy, caffeinated start.