Giorgio Armani Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2013

Every single one of the models’ hair was perfectly put in place, but apart from that Giorgio Armani’s models were less concerned about their looks. The f/w man is, according to Armani himself, “a more spirited and less decadent man, who is more involved in what happens around him”. A guy that combines pinstriped pants with an army green jacket if he feels like it. Who is men enough to wear ruby colored velvet and can pull off (too) short double breasted jackets. He can put on a houndstooth shirt with a quilted, checked jacket without looking like a clown. And when he goes out in his three piece suit women just throw themselves at his feet. He dresses sporty, trendy and functional; let’s schedule to meet this guy ‘cause he sure seems like a fine lad.

 

Emporio Armani Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2013

If it’s up to Giorgio Armani we pair our usual winter shades with a touch of camel. Whether bottoms or tops, as long as it’s a fifty (camel)/fifty (black or navy) look it’s Armani proof. Besides duo colored Armani was extremely modern and sporty too. Pants and jackets done in thick neopreen and other modern-looking fabrics gave us a glimpse of the future of fashion. Not all looks the 2013 men will be ready for, but the sporty theme is always a trend in menswear. The short rabbit fur vests looked unflattering and unnecessary, but other than that Armani showed tons of hit pieces for the modern men.

Giorgio Armani Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2013

Easy Comfort. Giorgio Armani sent out a legion of unstructured silhouettes ranging from gently rumpled jackets with unpadded shoulders to the laid-back white suits, with Bermuda shorts that closed the show. ‘This is a sexy man, but a classy one, a classy gigolo,’, the designer told reporters of WWD. Well, he was the man who set a new sartorial standard for the male archetype in 1980 when he dressed Richard Gere for his first major film role in American Gigolo.
Knits ranged from the loose fitting to the more body-conscious. Sports jackets — some the color of faded denim — had a breezy, lived-in look.
After the show, Armani told reporters that designers have a role to play in educating men and improving the way they look. “Fashion has reached grotesque levels, and [with this collection] I felt the need to stand my ground, to improve men aesthetically.”

Giorgio Armani Catwalk Fashion Show Milan Womenswear FW2012

Giorgio Armani called his fall-collection ‘Easy Chic’. The refined tailoring stood for chic, the flat shoes for ease. The clothes pointed to menswear, but were designed with a light hand. Every outfit was topped off by a fedora, and vibrant orange and fuchsia ran throughout. Armani opened with sleek gray combinations and suits with tops in solid colors or graphic prints. He then moved to light pieces over  man-tailored shorts. Skirts were cut for ease of movement. The mix of all kinds of  textures and weights kept it interesting.

Armani Prive Couture Catwalk Fashion Show FW2011

Bad news for the brown-, black- and red-haired models who wanted to walk in Armani’s couture show. The Italian designer chose to work only with blonde models this time. He gave them all a classic and feminine look, with a business touch.

The girls wore Armani classics; skirts at a decent knee-length and perfectly tailored jackets. One black croco leather jacket with a waist belt worn over it looked stunning.

The theme of the collection was ‘A play on amber’. This was visible in the large wooden and amber brooches Armani put on his jackets. They were the perfect classic accessory and really made the looks work.

For evening Armani brought on the floor sweeping dresses, mostly in brown and beige like the rest of this couture collection. They all flared out form the bust down. Armani used some gorgeous draping on the dresses. He played with materials like tweed and cashmere. And he ended the show with some mermaid dresses covered in thousands of shiny sequins.

Emporio Armani Catwalk Fashion Show Milan FW2010

The Emporio Armani collection was pretty and upbeat, just what an uptown girl needs. A short fur or leather jacket, loose pants which narrow at her feet, a draped top and of course a glitzy dress for the night.

Armani played with textures, colors and shape. Techno-materials were used next to more traditional textiles as organza, wool and velvet. Colors were typical Armani-style: taupe, dove-gray, beige, slate and cloudy gray. Although the brick-orange was quite surprising  and didn’t do it for us. But maybe his growing Asian market will love it.

Throughout the collection we noticed a refined exchange between masculine and feminine, which is typical Armani. Jackets, pleated at the back, were made of organza, a chalk stripe waistcoat took the place of a T-shirt and shirts evolved into featherweight ultra-feminine tops.

Armani Privé Haute Couture Catwalk Fashion Show ss2010

It was obvious that Giorgio Armani’s haute couturecollection was all about the moon. It was in the colors – from midnight blue to moon-white – in the buttons and closures, in the rounded silhouette, in the curvy cutting and in the embroideries made to look like craters of the moon. For evening there were sparkling silver beading at dresses, pale metallic pinks and greens and many shiny sequins.

Surely there are some designs we will see again during the Oscar Awards. Especially the long, figure-narrowing dresses in black with white or cream.

Milan Catwalk Fashion Show fw2010 : Emporio Armani

The Emporio Armani show for fall/winter 2010 opened with a few groups of models wearing different sets of sportswear. The clothes were often made out of sporty rubber and most models wore crazy bonnets to finish their looks.

After the sport-influenced clothes many suits came by. Those – pretty tight – suits mostly came in grey. Grey happened to be the main color of the collection, representing the landscape of the big city (asphalt grey, rainy day grey). Yet it was often mixed with neon-colors to add a techno edge to the outfits. The many zippers on those outfits added to that feeling.

Since the show was all about geometry, many suits had small checks or circles in black and white. Armani also presented some graphic knitwear.

The accessories for the show were hats (which the models carried on their backs), sunglasses and gloves. The models walked the catwalk on big shoes that matched the shades of grey of their outfits.

At the end Armani showed the results of his collaboration with Reebok. About thirty models came on to the runway at the same time, wearing nothing but some men’ s briefs and the new EA7/Reebok shoes. We have to admit, we had a hard time focusing on those shoes!

Trends ss2010: men in red

When we look at the menswear collections for spring/summer 2010 one thing immediately catches our attention:  together with black, white and beige we see lots of bright colors.

Blue, red and purple dominated the new collections, especially the ones by Bottega Veneta, CP Company, Dirk Bikkembergs, Armani and Ferragamo. At Ungaro the models wore lots of pink.

Since we saw mostly red in the spring/summer collection, let’s focus at that. It came by in dozens of different shades. At Armani, Ferragamo and Gaultier the red tended towards orange. At Lanvin and Emporio Armani a deep red prevailed. One of Paul Smith’s models was totally covered in red, including his shoes.

Many red coats passed by. A few in leather (Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Ferragamo, Iceberg), some trenchcoats (Paul Smith, Trussardi) and several jackets (Gucci, Bikkembergs, Bottega Veneta).

With so many shades of red there will surely be one that matches your skin tone. So no one has an excuse not to follow this red color trend next season.

Trends ss2010: bathing in luxury

Of course when the spring/summercollections are presented, bathingsuits are shown. Several designers came up with some splendid beachwear. The only comment we have on these gorgeous bathing suits… they often looked too delicate to swim in. So it might be better to use them to lounge about and stroll on the beach.
The collection of Emporio Armani had a lot of beachwear. Unfortunately this was mostly black and wasn’t all that exciting.

Pucci did have several elegant beach items in its collection; some bathing suits in shades of nude and an ocean-blue version with a matching jacket.

Gucci showed us a nice grey-colored version decorated with studs.

We saw a muscular Naomi Campbell in a black & white, animalistic, one-shouldered bathing suit at  Issa. It was one of the few shows for next spring where we could see the British topmodel.

Together with the bathing suits some designers (Etro, Pucci, Issa) created airy colorful tops. Those tops are great to wear at the beach especially over a fabulous bathing suit or bikini.

Tess van Daelen

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