Marni Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

With a Tim Burton-esque soundtrack playing in the backround, Consuelo Castiglioni’s return to the Milan runway with Marni men’s wear captured the awkward juncture between boyhood and the adult world. Outsized collars splayed over leisure suits that could have been nabbed from an uncle’s Seventies vacation wardrobe. Pants, whether loose or slim, were often too short and showed chunky socks and sandals.

It all had a naïve charm that was true to Castiglioni’s retro-tinged aesthetic. She embraced workwear codes to explore that no-man’s land between leisure and the office: employing lots of Maytag-repairman blue, or shades evoking Soviet-era uniforms; adding utility pockets to shrunken blazers, and splicing suit sleeves onto boxy shirts. Somehow the queasy colors, funny shapes and occasional flash of noisy floral prints managed to work together.