Milano Moda Uomo climaxed Monday with the second menswear show from Giorgio Armani since the designer’s passing, after notable shows from Ralph Lauren and Prada, and presentations by scores of other labels. Here’s what stood out.
Milan Fashion Week: What’s worth knowing
Ralph Lauren
Lauren’s latest collection – both Purple label and Polo were shown in one show, as they were in January’s first menswear show in Milan for many years – was bursting with energy and high spirts.
In his shownotes, Lauren claimed he was inspired by “the ease and traditions of collegiate style and the gentleman athlete.” But his college boys looked anything but retro, as they stalked the courtyard of Lauren’s Milan HQ, a Rationalist-era mansion, in fantastic patchwork-denim or mixed-print tuxedos, tail-coats and blousons. These were often paired with the new neckline: racing stocks, twisted foulards, dandy bows or ties. Or completed by the hit top of the Italian season, a rugby jersey with wing collars.
Prince of Wales linen three-piece suits and white silk tuxedos worn with cargo pants looked jaunty at an evening show where fans outside cheered in Tom Hiddleston, Colman Domingo and Lewis Hamilton.
Prada
It was fifty shades of jeans at Prada, a garment Miuccia Prada has shunned all her life, but appeared here as the theme of the latest collection with her design partner Raf Simons. Jeans in Prince of Wales check, blue denim, glove leather or transparent white nylons, in various forms from skinny to super, super skinny, to cargo or (occasionally) traditional five-pocket classics. The top halves were equally shrunken, the whole serving as a dramatic counterblast to everything else displayed during fashion week, where volume, particularly in trousers, was ever-present.
It was another bold fashion statement by the duo, staged in a stunning artistic set. Telegraphing the idea with a light wand invitation, one walked and sat on an entirely glass floor and bench seating within which were fluorescent lights illuminating the clothes faintly diabolically.
“The ambition was to do something new with ‘nothing’ – against exaggeration, against complex material. Against useless design. There is nothing that I hate more in this period than useless design — this collection expresses this concept,” said the design pair.
For fashion insiders, it felt like the latest round of the famous debate which, two decades ago, pitted Raf Simons – whose first shows were staged like youth street protests – against Hedi Slimane of Dior and later Saint Laurent. The row: who invented the skeletal silhouette that dominated the aughties? For Simons it’s been a remarkable journey: from agit-prop designer to joint creative director of Prada, whose continued double digit growth amid the current downturn will likely hit €5 billion in annual revenues soon.
Giorgio Armani
A double-header at Giorgio Armani, with the signature menswear shown with women’s cruise. Amid the Mediterranean heatwave, these lightweight fabrics — semi-sheer linen tunics; slim waffle cotton jackets and elongated cambric linen blazers — unbuttoned to the navel, looked perfectly suited for the conditions.
Presented in the courtyard of Armani’s private palazzo on via Borgonuovo, with basket-weave beanbags and wooden Armani Casa lamps, it was a moment of grace in a busy season. Working the house’s signature non-colors – straw, sand, cement or dust – Giorgio’s menswear successor Leo Dell’Orco sent out soft-shoulder, roomy jackets and loose multi-pleat pants – all increasingly plausible as temperatures in Western Europe climbed to 40 degrees Celsius.
The women’s cruise collection injected jewelled saphire silk tops, or shimmering zig-zag boleros worn with silvery bras and glistening harem pants, designed by Armani’s niece and house couturier, Silvana.
Dolce & Gabbana
Saturday’s big statement show was by Dolce & Gabbana, entitled Vacanze Siciliane. Holidays seemed far the mind of the front-row, though, where CEO Alfonso Dolce sat beside his new co-CEO Stefano Cantino. Alfonso – Domenico Dolce’s brother – succeeded Stefano Gabbana in January who stepped down as Chairman but remains co-creative director. The highly experienced Cantino – former CEO of Gucci and Comms tsar at both Louis Vuitton and Prada – joined the house in April, amid negotiations with lenders as the brand grapples with institutional debt.
But it was all sunny and light at the show. Its backdrop: marble columns in front of giant projections of Sicilian bays and grand hotels. Not an office look in sight, as the cast prowled about in silk tops, pajama pants embroidered with strass (what the Italians call crystal decoration); faded jeans finished with fake jewels.
For a White Lotus cocktail hour, models wore striped gangster linen suits with polka dot shirts, or blazers finished with red coral. Next stop for Domenico and Stefano, appropriately enough, is Sicily – when they take their Alta Moda and Sartoriale collections to Taormina.
Tod’s
“We like to defend Made in Italy, said Diego Della Valle, the CEO of Tod’s, the most famous shoe brand on the peninsula. And it looks like Diego has a fresh Italian winner, the new Red Dot urban sneaker, featuring butter-soft suede uppers sewn onto his brand’s famous pebbled Gommino sole, and finished with a lace-free fastening system. It’s a design Della Valle has been instrumental in creating, and has been personally wearing a prototype for the last two years, he told Elite Traveler at dinner later.
Presented inside Villa Nechhi, this was a fine casual-chic display – from hooded leather sweatshirts to suede shirts in the season’s big color, petrol blue.
Tailoring
Elsewhere one had to admire how Dunhill designer Simon Holloway channelled classic British icons: Anthony Snowden, Roger Moore and, above all, Lucien Freud. The artist’s backward knotted short silk scarves accessorized many looks.
“It’s about taking style codes from important figures in menswear folklore,” Holloway explained to Elite Traveler in a private preview.
Holloway’s great skill is that he reinvents classic British tailoring with subtle changes in proportions – like his signature fresh yet formal eight-button blazer, which he wore in his presentation in Villa Mozart — all the while utilising elevated fabrics from specialist UK mills, such as Escorial, a wool so rare it was originally confined to the Spanish royal family.
Holloway’s deep dives into the archives also unearthed an old lighter finished with a playing-cards motif, leading to a clubs, hearts, spades and diamonds having a subtle presence on jacquard tuxedos and silk dressing gowns.
Brioni
The ultimate in Italian menswear luxury is often seen at Brioni, which displayed a new cashmere suede, a sturdy material with the creamiest hand, offered in a double-breasted blazer. Its travel jackets returned, with signature straps on patch pockets designed to hold a newspaper. Another standout was a new twist on Solaro – traditionally an iridescent herringbone fabric made to protect British troops from the sun a century or more ago – and refined by Brioni in new blends of cashmere to create elegant DB tailoring.
Staged inside the courtyard of 17th century Palazzo del Senato, the presentation included a selection of Brioni’s celebrated eveningwear, from smoking jackets with Japanese metallic bullion lapels to a silk tuxedo jacket so light it felt like a membrane.
Caruso
There was a sharp new suit silhouette at Caruso, where creative director Max Kibardin dreamed up a natty new six-button double-breasted jacket with high flared lapels.
“I happen to believe that guys look their sexiest in a suit,” he said. The set and invite to the presentation played on Irving Penn’s Portraits in a Corner with angled mirrors, and Penn’s botanical photos led to a color palate of Iceland-poppy hued linen suits and cyclamen stem silk tuxedos finished with linen interior. And another marvellous Solaro suit in an Oriental poppy hue worn by CEO and patron Marco Angeloni.
Paul Smith
There were Anglo lotharios on the prowl in Provence or Tuscany at Paul Smith, riffing on his own archive, but in new materials – tropical weave made in Scotland or a mouliné seersucker. Models walked around his Milan HQ their cuffs turned up, and ties lossened. Pretty much every jacket was unlined, and cut in a soft, easy silhouette.
Brett Johnson
The most interesting American designs this season were via Brett Johnson, a Washingtonian who divides his time between the US capital and Italian factories. For next spring Johnson focused on casual elegance with his signature collarless double-breasted jacket made in linen; loose-weave hopsack or silk.
Brett also dreamed up the perfect funnel-neck field jacket, with raised trim around the pockets. Detailing was on point, whether in the leather collar of a linen Harrington, or the intricate stitching on cuffs. Much of the fabrics he used are from Loro Piana, and the quality was evident to the hand, while his fresh summer palette of seafoam green, burnt sienna and opera mauve was as charming as the Amalfi Coast scene hand-painted on his via Manzoni showroom.
Umit Benan
One of the most pleasing takes on gentlemanly luxury came from Umit Benan. Benan’s boutique is the new must-see emporium of Milan. From his soft silk pyjama pants and roomy cashmere blazers to his vertical collar shirt jackets, there is a sense of softer easier elegance that has clearly struck a chord with his clientele, made up largely of VCs and unicorn launchers who take meetings via Zooms from Ibiza rather than Wall Street.
“I like to take a lot of time to achieve exactly what I want to create,” explained Umit, holding up a pair of perfect white jeans he had washed 38 times in order to achieve the requisite soft, almost chalky hand he wanted to capture.
Also in the same building as Benan at via Bigli 6 is Eredi Zucca, who might have the most chic barbershop in city, with a brand dating back to 1652. His private downstairs hideaway, decked out in dark wood, green marble, and emerald velvet, with a rich array of combs and colognes, is in stark contrast to anything on London’s Jermyn Street or in New York. After expert barber Roberto works his magic, one can select from an array of fantastic fragrances named for figures of Milanse history, from Leonardo da Vinci to Napoleon, crowned King of Italy here in 1805.
Oxblood
Born in Los Angeles as a kicky spidery jewelry line, Oxblood this weekend opened the most unexpected new boutique in the Italian fashion capital, with clogs decorated with metallic flowers; spider-embroidered lingerie and bodices; jeans finished with surrealist creatures and glassware etched in archnids. For those in search of some off-beat cool to enrich their wardrobe, Oxblood is a fresh destination.
Malo
Finally, with the renaissance of Malo, Italian luxury has a real rival to Loro Piana. The heart of the matter is Malo’s remarkable knitwear, from the must-have garment dyed cashmere crewnecks to the heritage Canessa cable sweaters or the super cashmere sweatshirts with raised line at the armpit. They’re known as the Silvio, as former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi used to buy them by the dozen.
High-neck blousons with patch pockets or striped lightweight canvas safari jackets showed the brand smartly stretching its DNA. Eighteen months after tech billionaire Brian Glickman acquired Malo, and more than a half century after it was founded in Florence, the house feted its newly revamped Milan boutique. An airy new ground-floor leads to a spruce Aladdin’s cave below where the latest collection is complimented by smart new mid-century modern jewelry dreamed up by CEO Michelle Kessler, a former accessories editor of American Vogue.
The ultimate in luxury is feeling good and looking great on a private jet, and Malo can supply the latest must-have wardrobe for that moment.
Brunello Cucinelli
Garment dye was the big news also at Brunello Cucinelli, seen in a rich array of cable stitch sweaters, amongst other things. The designer said he focused on textured surfaces, like washed cottons and linens, supple suedes, ultra-lightweight wools, and lived-in finishes to give his clothes more “authentic character.”
Cucinelli made a fleeting appearance in Florence, hosting his bi-annual gala supper, but skipped Milan this season to present the documentary film about his life, Brunello: the Gracious Visionary – directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker GiuseppeTornatore – at the Shanghai Film Festival.
Accessories
Gents on the move in need of a break, could do a lot worse than stop in Larusmiani, an impossibly swish store. Every month its windows feature a rare high-performance car,from Lotus Theory to one-off Porsches. Right now there’s a Bentley, liveried in a green mountain design heralding its participation in the famed Pikes Peak climb in Colordado.
Larusmiani is all about creating exceptional pieces, such as the humidors featuring the famed Belle Epoque Suvretta hotel in Sankt Moritz, where the brand has a store, or Che Guevara, reading Hasta La Victoria Siempre. Its store, designed by Benedetto Camerana – the architect behind the much-admired Pista 500 rooftop bio-divere park on Lingotto, the former Fiat factory in Turin – is an appropriate home for Larusmiani menswear, whose most recent campaign was helmed by Italian style guru Robert Rabensteiner.
Santoni
In a powerful display, Santoni riffed on the whole idea of woven leather Intreccio — seen in precise detailing on suede loafers, baseball caps and clutches — or Serpentino, where the weave gets so small it looks like snakeskin.
CEO Giuseppe Santoni is not afraid of taking risks, this season creating a great new take on the fisherman sandal, this time in suede, while elsewhere Santoni has developed a selection of interchangeable tassels that switched in and out on a pair of penny loafers, giving many shoes in one.
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Thom Browne
Thom Browne welcomed the first signs of spring in his show, where a trio of gardeners in four-piece seersucker suits – that includes a kilt – “watered” 400 seersucker flowerpots in Palazzo Serbeloni, Napoleon’s home when he wintered here.
In Browne’s first Italian show since 2008, he played with his American preppy codes in technical nylon seersuckers, open-weave cottons, graphic-check wool piqués, jacket-weight cashmeres, and colorful madras. Sleeveless coats and short-sleeved jackets made for an airier collection, embroidered bees, ants, and dragonfly added whimsy.
