Men's fashion takes the reins of its own 'revival' in Milan

Domenico Dolce affirms that the theme of the Dolce&Gabbana menswear collection for the summer of 2023 has been given by circumstances.

“We've been getting requests for clothes that we made in the '90s and early '00s for a while, ″ he explains.

His partner, Stefano Gabbana, points out: "I started researching the resale channels and realized that there was a real craze for certain designs."

Since 1990, when they launched their men's line, more than three decades have passed.

So a good part of the designs that they presented last Saturday are exact reissues of discontinued, sold-out and, in some cases, missing products.

With references such as David Beckham —"thanks to him all men joined fashion," explains Gabbana—, the collection includes pieces and replicas of his milestones.

For example,

ripped, baggy jeans paired with a tailored jacket and sandals, logo T-shirts, beaded suits, or even crocheted jumpers made from the same rope they used to make their first models in the early 1990s.

"Making this collection has been like going to therapy," concedes Dolce.

Become the architect of your own

is an increasingly pertinent strategy in Italian fashion.

Unlike what happens in other nodes of the sector, many of the big firms that parade in Milan continue to be creatively led by their founders, who today face a peculiar challenge: reinventing their own milestones for new clients, those of generation Z, who they did not know them.

After the difficulties caused by the pandemic, it does not seem like the time to revolutionize anything, but rather to consolidate codes that have been under construction for years.

Thus, there may not be anything genuinely subversive in the collections that Giorgio Armani has presented, but his goal has long been not to shock, but to celebrate a solid aesthetic legacy like few others.

At Emporio Armani, a light, Mediterranean vacation wardrobe focuses on its own textures, materials and colours:

Giorgio Armani poses with his models at the end of the Emporio Armani fashion show held in Milan on June 18, 2022. DANIEL DAL ZENNARO (EFE)

At Giorgio Armani, his most elevated line, silks dominate with graphic and classic prints – for example, the house monogram – in bluish tones.

They offer luxury, containment and, above all, conceptual solidity.

They are unmistakably Armani, in the same way as the Versace collection, with historically-inspired prints —in this case, Greek theater masks—, bright colors and futuristic textures, they refer without margin of error to the imagery that Donatella Versace continues to project.

Even the models carried under their arms porcelain pieces decorated with baroque motifs and produced by Rosenthal, just like in the campaigns that Richard Avedon photographed for the house in the excessive nineties.

Also looking back at the nineties is Dean and Dan Caten, the founders of Dsquared2.

In last Friday's parade, the Canadians celebrate the eclectic spirit and the extreme overlapping of garments and prints that they already practiced in their previous collection.

Now, however, the inspiration is not mountaineers, but surfers.

Four designs presented in Milan by Dolce&Gabbana for spring/summer 2023Monica Feudi

Less logos, more clothes

Kean Etro, the creative director of Etro's men's line, began a reflection on the spiritual value of travel during the pandemic.

Now, faced with a more optimistic outlook, he unequivocally proposes a collection designed to enjoy the holidays.

His formula is anchored in such hedonistic and recognizable elements as caftans, robes and sarongs in colorful and light, almost vaporous fabrics, which claim that textile sensuality —in particular, silk— ceased to be an exclusive heritage a long time ago. of women's fashion.

Lace and crochet dominate, let alone paisley print.

It is another of the lessons of this fashion week: after the

saturation , the new and very young clients of

are more interested in fashion than in logos.

Stefano Gabbana explained it when presenting his collection and Fendi confirms it.

The double F of the Roman house, in the form of a diagonal print, invades sweaters, t-shirts and knitwear, but it is not the only point of support that Silvia Venturini Fendi provides to its faithful.

Tailoring garments with openings have also become part of the brand's language, as has the color range of a collection conceived as an investigation into the everyday wardrobe.

A model with a Fendi outfit during the parade of the Italian firm in Milan, on June 18, 2022. Mourad Balti Touati (EFE)

At Prada these are times of serenity and, above all, of consolidation.

veterans

Sonic Youth.

On the runway, a Velvet Underground

with jackets, roll necks and garments with unexpected twists: collarless jackets and gingham trench coats.

"The garments are classic, but the mixture contradicts it," Simons notes in the show notes.

"There is leather in contact with the skin, covered with cotton: there is a kind of anti-logic in the combination of garments, a certain rarity."

There is also a reflection on the identity of the house itself.

The Prada logo, synthesized in the inverted isosceles triangle that has always adorned the house's bags, is omnipresent: even the impeccable black suits that opened the show incorporate it on the upper part of the back.

Some of the designs presented by the Prada firm at the Milan men's fashion week.

peripheral voices

Milan has a reputation for being a difficult place for new firms.

However, in a calendar dominated by veteran companies, brands like Magliano manage to show their heads, which combines luxury Italian tailoring with class speech.

Their parades are usually held in enclaves with working-class roots, such as an old abandoned power plant.

There paraded parsimony, almost in slow motion, atypical models with designs that evoke the retro without sweeteners.

His garments seem lived, forgotten, punished by time.

As the text that he gave to the attendees says: "Someone has slept with these clothes."

For JW Anderson, the firm of Jonathan Anderson, a collection is always an occasion to stretch the limits of fashion.

For example, embedding bicycle or skateboard handlebars in sweaters and t-shirts, or through voluminous shoes with rounded soles covered in reflective crystals that refer to jewelry.

Anderson presented his unified collection for men and women in Milan, just like Matthew M. Williams, who combines Givenchy's artistic direction with his own signature, 1017 ALYX 9SM.

In an abandoned swimming pool on the outskirts of Milan, Williams presented a collection inspired by technology and electronics that harks back to the early years of the 21st century.

His shoes, made from a single piece of sculptural lines, are dynamite for the networks.

In turn, another illustrious eccentric, the American Jeremy Scott,

presented a high-flying pop collection for Moschino in homage to the illustrator Tony Viramontes, a fundamental figure in the most hedonistic and fanciful fashion of the seventies and eighties.

With his talent for defining shapes and colors with the forcefulness of a comic book artist, Scott provided his own answer to the debate: if fashion houses want to capture the attention of new generations of customers, they must find a way to tell them their own story. .

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