Gucci Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

Gucci’s new designer Alessandro Michele presented his first official menswear-collection. This collection  amplified his idiosyncratic, “genderless” approach as he lavished his thrift shop Seventies collection with florid embroideries of exotic birds, butterflies and flowers.
Choral music played as the the often bespectacled models walked a 300-foot runway. Except for the radical bell-bottomed pants and jeans that puddled over Corvette red loafers, almost every garment and accessory was embellished, from fur trim on jade green silk robes and silvery botanicals crawling over a red tracksuit to the punk studs lining the Achilles tendon of silvery sneakers. On Michele’s coed runway, the line between suits and pajamas blurred in a barrage of lavish silk brocades and wallpaper prints. Bow blouses, or ones with pointy collars or sailor airs, were worn by both sexes — and sometimes it was hard to tell him from her.
The press has been gentle on the unassuming Michele, embracing his daring neo-dandyism and recognizing his influence. Let’s see what his customers will say.

 

Dolce & Gabbana Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

Each new collection from Dolce & Gabbana now presents a revision of signatures old (like the strict tailoring), and new, like the oversize geisha silhouette. But there’s never a sense of the banality that you might expect to attach itself to the overly familiar. That’s because the clothes are infused with a visual intensity that transcends the kitschiness of the imagery to become something verging on celebration. The parade of peacocks and dragons and swallows darting through bamboo forests that passed down the catwalk was indeed a catalog of kitsch, but by the time those elements had been printed on a silk boot or embroidered on a lace shirt or knitted into a cardigan sweater, they’d become facets of a collection that also featured three-piece suits and patched jeans and summery striped pants and an army of polo shirts. A whole lot of separates, in other words—suggestions for integrating even the most extravagant piece into a wardrobe.

 

 

 

 

 

Prada Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

Tailoring was the anchor in the menswear-collection of Prada. Sport jackets, dusters and topcoats were trim, breezy and unlined, made distinctive with contrast stitching and the freewheeling way Prada paired them with short shorts. Zip-neck racer knits and filmy silk shirts, meanwhile, boasted naïve graphics representing that long-eared creature, or race cars.

The latter motif mushroomed into pants and zippered blousons resembling pilots’ uniforms, banded or piped in safety orange and patched with utility pockets. The shorts also came in leather, shown with plunging tanks or boxy, zippered jackets.

 

Calvin Klein Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show MIlan SS2016

 Italo Zucchelli’s collection for Calvin Klein was single-minded, reductive and repetitive — and it was all the better for it. For the designer distilled the essence of the brand — clean, minimal and as urbane as New York City — into his muscular tailoring and military-ish sportswear.

Sturdy fabrics like cotton-twill added stiffness to topcoats and short, strong-shouldered jackets. Zucchelli also employed cotton twills and jacquards to approximate a signature of the brand — denim — giving jeans and jean jackets a worn, yet sculptural aspect. The other main ingredients were military parkas, cropped nylon bombers, boxy T-shirts, and narrow chinos with a wavy loop of fabric tacked to the waistband, echoing the lacquered waves of color winking from sleeveless T-shirts layered under gauzy sweaters.

Some of the chinos and bombers were riddled with enough removable utility pockets to carry keys, smokes and cell phones.

 

 

Versace Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

Donatella Versace sent out a desert-inspired collection with laid-back silhouettes, lots of layers and bursts of warm color.
The designer layered long and fluttery printed shirts under plum, sand and olive suits — and even sent some out solo and belted like whisper thin robes. Pinstripes were made to look faded — as if bleached by the sun — as were muted tie-dye prints on suits and scarves, while tuxedo trousers with a drop crotch had a breezy Eastern feel.

Models in flowing, knotted silk headscarves — and wearing sandals and socks — made their way down the sandy catwalk dressed in languid, pajama-like suits and hooded bomber jackets printed with hand-drawn rosettes or patterns inspired by the Versace Home collection, such as cushions and chairs.

Bomber jackets came in plum leather or caramel with a subtle argyle pattern picked across them, while washed silk coats had oversized patch pockets, presumably for storing a compass, map and camel snacks. Knits — which rarely take a starring role on the Versace runway — were a treat, with one dip-dyed number glowing with colors as bright as a desert rose — purple, pink and blue. Other elongated knits came with slashes at the elbow or the shoulders, teasing with small windows onto the body, the only hint of flesh in the entire show.

Bottega Veneta Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

Tomas Maier has been steering the brand in an athletic meets leisure direction for some time now, and for ss16 he presented a luxe wardrobe for five-star trekking in the Black Forest. “A journey back to nature,” the designer said of his outdoor-like collection, an ode to earthy colors, mossy textures and slouchy or active silhouettes.
Much of this trail gear was literal — anoraks, windbreakers, climbing pants, Sherpa sweaters — albeit done with Maier’s sophisticated eye for colors and fabrics. He also blended in lounge-y items, including bedroom jackets and crumpled pants in ticking stripes. And of course the new normal detail: socks in sandals. It’s official now.

Neil Barrett Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

Neil Barrett stepped away from his sporty, street-vibe style and managed to change masculine classics from around the world to a modern universal wardrobe. The look was still urban and fresh, yet more ageless in design. He used batik prints, camouflage, nautical stripes and kimono patterns – reworked and fused together to conjure “an idea of a global masculinity.”  The mix of patterns did not overwhelm, because Barrett kept them together with one color story: all gradations of navy and indigo, with touches of black and white. The tight palette counterbalanced a wider spectrum of fabrics, with lots of denim. Low in the crotch but narrow on the hip, cuffed or with rolled-up hems, the  indigo bottoms let off an air of American workwear. Barrett performed the trick on non-denim, too, experimenting with slouchy and easy silhouettes as opposed to his usual sharp-cut look. As for tops, the designer went with spring’s hot new category: sleeveless V-neck tunics.

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.

Jil Sander Menswear Catwalk Fashion Show Milan SS2016

In a season marked by soft shapes and rivers of fluid fabric, Designer Rodolfo Paglialunga presented a Jil Sander-collection with full of geometric shapes and far from soft & fluid silhouettes. Trousers stretched only to mid-calf, while suits came with knee-skimming shorts, and were made from lightweight leather, shiny, coated canvas, or crinkly parachute nylon.

The muted palette featured dove-gray, pale olive and black, while adornment came as a utility strap running down the side of a sleeve, and rectangular, colored patches in leather or dark shades of blue or brown. Bright abstract Japanese-style flower patches on denim jackets and snappy short-sleeved shirts added much-needed perk to the collection.

« Previous Page