Milan Fashion Week - Menswear Fall 2015 While Paris is currently kicking off its collections, I&

Milan Fashion Week - Menswear Fall 2015

While Paris is currently kicking off its collections, I’m reviewing this last collections shown in Milan from January 16th to 20th. I admit I’m not quite impressed with the overall style I’ve seen down the catwalks, but as usual there are some highs - very interesting highs. Let’s see together the best looks, day by day.

Day 1

Well I don’t actually know if Day 1 can be counted as first day of the fashion week, as the grand opening was exclusively given by DSquared2. You basically cannot help talking about it, as they were the only ones showing on January 16th, but in general I didn’t like the whole collection, celebrating the anniversary of the brand; it was obvious, predictable, boring.

Day 2

With day 2 the game was already at its full. Corneliani presented a collection with lovely furry coats and jackets with jersey lapels, while Ermenegildo Zegna (photo 1) left its usual classic style for something more innovative, at least in materials: from the waterproof wet-looking fabrics chosen for coats, windbreakers and even jackets and formal blazers, to the velvet going total look in some cases, everything had a glowing aura which made clothes look richer. The last part lost some of its charm, but overall it was a great great collection.

Edmund Ooi (photo 2) excited me with a collection I can just call avant-garde. Origami treatment to fabrics, gender crossing to its extremes - I would personally do without the little dresses for men, but they were anyway doing their job without appearing too strange -, optical prints, activewear style with formal suits: there was everything and yet nothing looked too much. Andrea Pompilio (photo 3) is one of those designers that I’m discovering more and more every new collection. This time the line gave me a feeling of sport in the 60s - which was, at least in clothes, much more elegant than activewear nowadays. I loved the colours - peach and sky blue above all - which were a sort of borderline pastel/neon - I know it sounds like a contradiction, but look at them! - going very bright in some instances - the red flashing down the runway in suits and jackets or the lemon yellow of the fluffy pullover at the end (now I know I need a fluffy pullover).

As usual with Jil Sander, the brand offered a collection for the minimal dandy of today, with basic coats, pullovers, and parkas, baggy trousers, everything brought to another level by the exquisite details. Les Hommes went for geometry with optical patterns on jerseys, shirts and even quilted on coats.

After womenswear collections in September, I was again blown away by how Versace (photo 4) is changing. Or better than changing, it’s still exactly the same, but in a new way: exaggeration, a key feature of the brand, is more subtle, more centered on proportions and quality of materials than in bling and ‘flamboyantness’. Loved the special closures for the jackets, replacing the classic buttons and I found very interesting the contrast in shape between oversize trousers and leggings.

Day 3

Calvin Klein Collection (photo 5) must have called this collection 'An Ode to Grey’: the most basic colour for one of the most basic brands, that’s it. I didn’t quite like the first part, but I really appreciated the second half with the plasticky loose trousers, high-waist military bomber - I think they were one of those pieces which you don’t really like at the beginning but they grow on you the more you look at them - and the maxi raincoats.

When I was looking for a suit for my graduation in February last year, I knew I wanted something classy but still with an edge, maybe in pattern, and I couldn’t really find it, so I had to buy the fabric and have it made to measure (but this is another story really). Anyway, now I know Vivienne Westwood (photo 6) understands me - not that I’ve ever had any doubts about that. It’s incredible how easy mixing patterns looks in these outfits - what about stripes and checks together? It goes from the very eccentric explosion of prints to the reassuring softness of the maxi pullovers. What I also liked was the range she showed: different types of crotch for the trousers, different length, different proportions.

I think my head is convinced of the fact Miuccia can do no wrong, but I know that even if the collection Prada showed in Milan these days could border boring for some people, I enjoyed it a great deal. I absolutely loved the fact she went for something we don’t usually expect by her ever-genius mind with its twists and coups de théâtre: the colour palette reduced to only black, different shades of grey, very dark navy blue, a little beige - and only one print, a tartan womenswear coat. Then I saw the shine in the black fabric of the first looks, and understood that all the twists and shocking details were more subtle this time. I saw the perfectly cut coats, and the girly shapes of the womenswear looks with a manly twist - are those bows in front of the dresses mimicking bow ties? Marvelous Miuccia.

To finish with the third day, it would be impossible not to talk about Moncler Gamme Bleu collection, designed by Thom Browne, who always manages to give the audience a great show. It was amusing and still a simple idea if you just think about it: coordinating the suits with the bomber they came out with. Genius.

Day 4

I’m not one of those who worship Giorgio Armani - or any other designer, with the exception of Thom Browne, maybe - for everything he does. But this Emporio Armani (photo 7) collection blew me away with its details. First of all, the delicate 'brushes of dirt’ giving light to some of the looks, from coats, to blazers and trousers; secondly, the fact that it was all about soft comfy knitwear - how comfortable must a pair of knitted trousers be?; last but not least, the maxi zippers designing diagonal lines on pullovers and trousers.

What Gucci (photo 8) showed on Monday was truly incredible. Just appointed creative director Alessandro Michele made me forget about Frida - still, I love her <3 - with a real miracle. I cannot help but thinking about the most obvious and stupid word for this collection: FANTASTIC. The biggest achievement of the line was, in my opinion, the whole rethinking of the now-so-cool concept of gender crossing, which in Michele’s hands became gender switching: menswear really looked like womenswear and viceversa. Men were wearing chiffon shirts with bows, lace tops, long bright coloured coats, while women went for suits for the most part. In Italy we say 'Il buongiorno si vede dal mattino’ (that literally means 'you can tell it’s a good day from the morning’, if something starts well, it’s going to continue well). I really hope that’s true, because this was an amazing morning.

Canali is the last brand of this day I want to talk about, relaxing my eyes with a smart, wearable collection of horizontal stripes in cream-coloured tones or black-and-grey, but most of all I was obsessed by the perfectly squared bags with zippers. I want one.

Day 5

Not much to say about this last day, even if some big names showed their collections, no one really caught my attention. It was instead Stella Jean (photo 9) who achieved something the others didn’t manage to do. I must admit I was excited to see this collection, and I wasn’t wrong. I loved the fact her style is recognisable even in the male wardrobe but in a toned-down way, more manly indeed. This time she travelled to India to find her inspiration for this amazing collection, where the simplicity of cut of the Asian country traditional clothes was perfectly mixed with the flamboyant prints we’re used to seeing in her work - which, after all, really suits India with its bright popping colours. It was a fascinating trip, and at the end I promised myself I will save some money to have one piece from her collection before next year. This girl is gonna be big.

xxx