Milan Fashion: Prada infuses the masculine form with 1940s tailoring

MILAN –

The architecture in Prada’s showroom changes with each season, but never as fluidly as with the Spring-Summer 2024 menswear.

The collection was viewed through a wall of clear falling slime – a form of fluid architecture – that gathered on the metal grid track in piles of green foam. The moving architecture was a metaphor for a collection intended to express the fluidity of menswear.

Some highlights from the third day of Milan Fashion Week of mainly menswear fashion shows for next spring and summer:

PRADA EXPLORES FLUIDITY

Prada explores the fluidity of menswear, through a tailored 1940s silhouette for workwear that is liberating at the same time.

Co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons said they were experimenting with the idea of ​​fluid architecture that animates, never restricts, the male form.

The building blocks of the collection are the white shirt, the half-high shorts, the black socks and the shiny loafers with thick soles. Clothing for real men, the collection also includes jeans, blazers and raincoats. Look can be combined with a reporter’s vest. Leather bags are soft, with decorative pockets.

The fabric is super light, allowing button-up shirts or jackets to tuck neatly into shorts, which are gathered at the waist and emphasize an idealized masculine shape: broad shoulders, narrow waist.

“We were very interested in seeing how we could free that up, in the sense that you had a lot of freedom of movement,” said Simon.

Hawaiian-inspired prints of sci-fi dragons were wrapped in long fringe, creating movement. Pockets on a reporter’s vest were more decorative than useful, the designers said. The looks were completed with molded glasses and headbands, which radiated a kinetic energy.

SIMON CRACKER CHALLENGES THE FASHION WORLD WITH FULL UPCYCLING

The upcycled, handmade craft brand Simon Cracker presented an irreverent and even chaotic collection called “Theoretical”, for that so-called moment when everything goes right.

Simon Cracker embraces gender fluidity and is kind to all body types, which can be seen in the runway models who are all friends of the brand. But the core identity is the punk ethos, which embodies the spirit of Vivienne Westwood, and completely upcycled garments and accessories, all conceived and created by the brand’s founders, Simone Botte and Filippo Biraghi.

This season, “we used all the materials we didn’t like,” Botte said, plunging into a stash of chenille, Lycra, and “nasty prints” they’d previously rejected.

Dresses were made from men’s shirts. A quilted garment was transformed into a funky bolero. Men wear slip skirts with dyed button-down shirts decorated with fluorescent beads. Overcoats and T-shirts are treated with a solar printing process.

Accessories are completely reworked: footwear is painted or covered with crocheted doilies or green tinsel. Handbags are adorned with dolls this season, including the short-lived Blythe doll who was envisioned in the 1970s as a rival to Barbie until his big head scared kids. She found new life in Simon Cracker.

GERMAN LUXURY HOUSE MCM RELAUNCH

German luxury leather accessories manufacturer MCM, once associated with travel bags for the jet set, is relaunching its product line with a view to new consumers, from logo-shy to Gen-Z youth.

MCM had a heyday in the 1990s with fans like Princess Diana and Michael Jackson, followed in the 2000s with iconic moments such as Beyonce’s custom corset and panties worn, or the fanny pack worn by Billie Eilish.

The brand is moving into smaller leather goods, bags and accessories in treated canvas and maxi bags with the new understated laurel motif. The new Diamant bag, with a pointed bow, can be worn as a clutch or crossbody bag and is also available in an oversized version

The accessory line is also expanded to include slippers and sneakers, with the new laurel logo signifying a move towards quieter luxury. MCM also tests the clothing waters with travel-ready wrinkle-free pieces, such as a mini skirt and treated-canvas jacket for her and a college-style jacket for him

As inflation has pushed up accessory prices in the luxury sector, MCM keeps its prices below 2,000 euros (US$2,192). “It’s a good place left by big luxury manufacturers, who unfortunately had to raise prices,” said Sabine Brunner, MCM’s president and brand officer.