Milan Fashion Week: Dolce & Gabbana, Emporio Armani and Neil Barrett

MILAN –

Menswear is looking for post-pandemic hold during Milan Fashion Week, landing somewhere between resort, adventurer and tailoring.

Dolce & Gabbana offered an interpretation of quiet luxury by reinventing masculine silhouettes with feminine sartorial tricks without the brand’s usual color and bling. Neil Barrett dug into the archives for fresh, unified looks that are timeless. MSGM offered adventure with an off-road collection inspired by African travel.

On the sartorial side, Ralph Lauren showed off his high-end Purple line at his patrician villa in Milan, with an emphasis on made-in-Italy details for everyday luxury, including polished footwear, unconstructed cotton-linen blend jackets and chunky knits. Fair Isle clothing.

Margherita Maccapani Missoni chose the menswear shows to unveil her new brand, using her paternal Maccapani family name instead of mother Angela’s more familiar Missoni. Her female-focused Maccapani brand features easy-to-wear, figure-hugging garments meant to accompany women throughout the day — a twist on the knitwear that has made the Missoni family brand a household name.

Some highlights from Saturday’s second-day shows of mostly menswear previews for Spring-Summer 2024.

DOLCE & GABBANA WOMEN MAKES MEN’S CLOTHING

Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have feminized menswear silhouettes this season, using sartorial tricks long used in their women’s line.

The wide collection of almost 80 looks was a starting point for the designer duo in every season, a play with quiet luxury, a reinvention of timelessness, where the designer’s imagination was reflected in the silhouettes. There were no prints, no color and no bling. Instead, the focus was on form and materials, with a neutral color palette of black, white and camel and ivory.

The tops had ruffles around the waist, creating a cummerbund effect but reminiscent of the duo’s provocative ruffled dresses. Tunics had deep Vs that exposed the chest and long, loose-fitting sleeves. A sheer organza top and pants were nicely decorated with floral appliqués on the cuffs. Sheer panels added an ephemeral touch to pants. Wide satiny trousers were paired with a form-fitting mock turtleneck, a look that would also suit women.

A series of oversized bespoke jackets summed up the tailoring, with hourglass waistlines on long coats, ruffles on oversized puffers, deconstructed blazers with sheer panels, and cushiony cardigans.

Back-zip boots and shoes added a futuristic edge to the looks, especially worn with ribbed long johns or briefs.

Dolce & Gabbana filled the front row with musical talents, including Machine Gun Kelly, Italian Blanco, South Korean Doyoung and Australian Luke Hemmings.

THE TIMELESS MEDITATION OF EMPORIO ARMANI

The new Emporio Armani collection was a meditation on timelessness, set against the backdrop of a large ginkgo leaf, itself a symbol of endurance.

The ginkgo, which according to the designer has existed for 250 million years, appears throughout the collection as a motif in jacquards, prints and as elegant gold jewelry.

The loose silhouette had hints of Asia and North Africa, in wide-leg trousers, sleeveless tunics and dressing gowns. The color palette consisted of black and cream, often with a sheen so that even black stood out against the night background. The silhouette was loose and elongated, with deep Vs in silk tops or long knit coats. Leaf cutouts created a lacy effect on coats.

Giorgio Armani bowed with Italian Olympic athletes at the end of the show, in the uniforms they will wear at next year’s Games in Paris.

MSGM RIPE

MSGM, at age 13, is growing up.

Backstage, creative director and founder of the fashion house, Massimo Giorgetti, said the collection was inspired by a recent trip to Tanzania, specifically the hours just before dawn, which he likened to the moment “when you realize a desire to grow up, but youth remains in the head.”

Models – including some older men, in a brand first – emerged through fog into a grooved cavern beneath Milan’s main railway line, as if emerging from a cave in the African dawn. They were accompanied by rhythmic electronic music.

Giorgetti’s own iPhone vacation photos became prints and motifs: a sunrise ombre on T-shirts and knitwear, frayed cotton reminiscent of zebra prints but in monochromatic tops or suits, striped eco-leather imitating the geological formations on overcoats.

Silhouettes were grown, with almost no sweatshirt. For the maturing MSGM crowd, there were oversized suits in jacquard earth tones or celeste blouses with large-pocket cargo pants. Protective canvas hats that snap around the neck, creating a collar when not in use. Soft high hiking boots, moccasins and loafers completed the looks, with jewelery in polished stone or raw amethyst.

NEIL BARRETT MY ARCHIVES FOR “CORE CODES”

Neil Barrett returns to Milan with fresh, clean looks for the man who needs no help to stand out.

“The great thing about today is that people are looking for real clothes again, and it’s not just about sweaters, T-shirts and sweatshirts,” the designer said backstage.

The minimalist codes were easy to read, without being simplistic. Barrett took cues from uniforms and dove back into his archives stretching back two decades: shirts with simple epaulettes, shorts with near-invisible handy pockets, and leather waders seen in his first runway show in 2000.

Pants are neatly creased. The white T-shirt is a layered element and gives a sense of order to the looks. The palette consisted mainly of monochromatic neutrals, interrupted by pinstripes, clean checks and a muted, leafy graphic print.

Barrett said young consumers who grew up with streetwear “grow up, so collections have to evolve. It’s lucky for anyone who believes in real fashion and design.”

FEDERICO CINA’S ODE TO ROMAGNA

Federico Cina paid tribute to his native Romagna with an artisan mixed collection, raw in materials and emotion, reminiscent of dry summers in the farmers’ fields.

For Cina, the catwalk was a stage and the model’s performers: a topless man carrying a stack of empty crates opened the show and created an idea of ​​work.

Dresses fit the shape perfectly and fall into complex, sweeping skirts. Dresses sometimes felt deliberately unfinished, knotted at the shoulders and down the hem. A macramé skirt for her and a tunic top for him, finished with long dramatic black and white fringes, fastened with wooden beads. Macrame bags and chunky knits had a home-made feel. Some clothes were treated with peach color, as if it were clay from the ground.

The performance element continued with topless women in white trousers carrying dry wheat thrushes and a naked man carrying a folded blanket in front of him.

Cina conceived the collection before deadly floods hit Romagna, a coastal area east of Bologna, this spring and made headlines worldwide.

“After what happened, it seemed like a sign to give more value to the population to honor the people of Romagna for what happened, to bring some of them here,” Cina said backstage.

JORDANLUCA’S ‘POST-FEAR’ POSTURE

The designers behind the fashion house JordanLuca told their models to lean for their catwalk walks, and many did so aggressively, appearing almost stooped.

“It’s an anti-friction silhouette,” says designer Luca Marchetto, who launched the brand with partner Jordan Bowen five years ago.

Most of the looks seem made for partying, although there is a slight semblance of office wear, with ties worn crookedly tucked away by a sleeve tab. Double-collared shirts were worn under wide blazers and short shorts were suitable for video conferencing. For men, kilts were worn attractively under double-breasted coats, with pleats peeking out. Trousers, which were wide-legged and baggy, and shorts had a curious horizontal zipper down the front.

The designers’ first womenswear collection featured midi skirts with a mermaid silhouette finished with pleated kilt details, reminiscent of men’s looks. Dresses were tried on, in silk, lace and even latex.

The collection is for what the designers called our current “post-anxiety” phase. The runway show was cast against a red-lit backdrop, a reference to lipstick as the once-proven indulgence in troubled times, as a show of dignity.