Closer to the point, Milan Fashion Week will be dissected more than once, disassembled into trends, analyzing changes in the usual schedule of shows, drawing bright prospects for some and evaluating someone's creative or, conversely, commercial potential. While we can confidently speak about the trend that has become the leitmotif of the entire Milan week - an absolute triumph of athleisure style, which mixes sportswear, outdoor clothing made of high-tech materials and classics, which has received a completely new interpretation in this context. Someone completely abandoned the usual suits in favor of soft, more like cardigans, blazers without lining and shoulder pads. Those brands for which the classics are part of their DNA did their best to create a new soft and relaxed silhouette.
Behind a particular fashion trend is a more global travel idea that every designer reveals in his own way. For one it is a round-the-world cruise, for another it is a trip to musical styles, and for the third it is something like hiking. “We must learn to share with representatives of different cultures and people in general,” said Miuccia Prada behind the scenes of the show, and this phrase clarified everything in a moment.
In fashion, they hardly talk about disasters, human suffering and injustice. But the emotional intensity of a single European, who saw the terrorist attacks in Paris and the plight of Syrian refugees, is understandable. Each model that appeared on the Prada catwalk was equipped with all the essentials - with a loaded backpack on her back, she reminded that at any moment everyone could find themselves in the position of a refugee. “I carry everything with me,” Prada summed up.
Gucci
Alessandro Michele confidently continues to bend his line: "androgyny" and "vintage" are still the key terms to understand his collections. At his shows, styling (that is, the image as a whole: from makeup and hairstyle to a combination of things and accessories) plays almost the main role, from the first show, delighting or leaving less sophisticated viewers, including the stronger sex, in slight bewilderment.
The next summer's collection dedicated to the great traveler Marco Polo again found a place for what seemed to be the most incongruous: from alcoholic T-shirts, sports shorts and Chinese silk robes to souvenir bomber jackets and military uniforms two hundred years ago. These sometimes too eccentric images are an improvisation of a stylist who supposedly decided to devastate the wardrobe of a certain film studio.
Adhering to the concept of the show, one can imagine an inveterate traveler - one who is ready to spend money on a silk Chinese robe from the beginning of the 20th century or the uniform of the Royal Guard of the Victoria era. Image is an image, but, entering a boutique, everyone can appreciate the runway things without regard to context and independently decide what to wear with them.
Prada
The theme of the trip became the starting point for Miuccia Prada. Unlike exalted first-class passengers, Gucci 's travelers tend to move on foot, at best, on a bicycle. This time, experimenting aside, Prada approached the collection from a practical point of view. Nearly every model wore either a nylon trench coat or a zip-up windbreaker - a bold solid color, check or Google Maps print. Some appeared in cowboy hats, like the ones worn by tourists, hiding from the sun and rain, and all of them - with a backpack over their shoulders.
For everyday work - suits of a familiar narrowed silhouette with jackets-jackets or plaid blazers, for other cases - sports leggings, shorts, joggers or waterproof trousers. In the office, need to swap out your sports sandals for a pair of brogues? Everything you need fits easily into a backpack: Prada thought that too. A smart and pragmatic approach for a brand overtaken by the crisis - its profits last year fell by almost 30%.
Armani
Probably for the first time in the collection of Giorgio Armani, the designer who revolutionized men's business wear more than 30 years ago, there was not a single formal suit. Although the show was completed by three navy blue tuxedos, its concept was not affected. Armani presented his version of the casual style, which, although in essence never changes, has suddenly become relevant in the context of today's trends.
You can relate differently to the designer's obsession with himself once invented a form, but in creating aristocratic imposing, sensual and at the same time courageous clothes he has no equal. From fashion elements (they are also Giorgio Armani's trademarks), there are loose linen and cotton trousers with pinches at the waist (or straight silk, with a small print, reminiscent of the lower part of pajamas), as well as light trench coats, semi-sports windbreakers and even a bomber jacket. The cropped jackets made from linen, tapestry, cotton and knitwear, although completely devoid of construction (they have no shoulder pads or lining), still retain the silhouette invented by Armani.
Pal zileri
The idea of the new Pal Zileri collection, a brand that rises from the ashes before our eyes like a Phoenix, was inspired by the works of the Italian artist Manlio Rho, which combined cold Russian Suprematism with a luscious Italian palette. This turned out to be close to the creative method of Krieger himself (the designer called it Avant-Craft), linking the best tailoring traditions of Pal Zileri in making a classic suit with new colors, patterns and materials. From Ro, here are geometric prints - on suits and shirts - and a muted but luscious palette of olive, blue, ocher, eggplant and dark cherry.
The basis of the collection - a suit (exclusively single-breasted this season) - Krieger made straight and loose, combining it with silk shirts and Bermuda shorts, with T-shirts made of perforated suede, which can be mistaken for knitwear, leather trousers and shirts. The main discovery for the designer was the silk produced in Vicenza, where the Pal Zileri factory is located. By incorporating silk thread into fine wool and tweed suits, Krieger added a subtle sheen to them. The most spectacular were things with geometric prints, stuffed on silk with an unexpected 3D illusion, and silk waterproof parkas.
Versace
The Versace show was perhaps the biggest surprise of the week. Expectations once again to see a parade of males with overflowing testosterone, in silk shirts with baroque arabesques and jellyfish, leather trousers with gold zippers or just underpants, were not at all justified. Perhaps the reason for the change was the new sports line Versace Active, which set the direction of the men's collection, with which it was combined at the show.
The color scheme was reduced to khaki, beige, navy and purple. There was nothing in the clothing itself that deliberately emphasized the shape of the body or revealed it, with the exception of a few Lycra cycle shorts. Volume and flexibility - two pillars of the collection, so evident in long nylon parkas, inflated like parachutes, sweatshirts and oversized coats - have continued in more formal wardrobe items: soft pullovers and cardigans in silk jersey, flowing silk shirts and suede trench coats.
Dolce & Gabbana
The main theme of the collection of the Italian duo was music. By the sounds of a jazz band, the history of XX century music unfolded before the audience. There were sequined 1920s blues tuxedos, cropped pipes, 1950s teddy boy brogues, bomber jackets and wide banana pants from 1980s rappers. A bold combination of gold jacquard, colored leather, knitwear and silk and a huge variety of prints - from leopard and zebra to palm trees and musical instruments - in any other collection could turn into a monstrous cacophony, but not at Dolce & Gabbana, for whom this show became one of the best in recent seasons.
Moncler Gamme Bleu
Since 2008, the men's line of the French brand has been made by the American Tom Brown, around whose shows there is always excitement. His staged shows, striking more with wit than scope, invariably evoke the same reactions: laughter, admiration and bewilderment. The Moncler Gamme Bleu show was no exception. On the podium among the trees, a conditional Boy Scout camp was set up. A pair of equally simulated bears approached the models lined up along the catwalk - from each in turn she pulled off a huge raincoat, revealing a boy scout uniform underneath. It was her American designer who made the basis of the collection of a French label known for outdoor clothing.
A risky cliché, but not for Brown: he masterfully combines high-tech materials, nylon, waterproof silicone with classic cashmere, corduroy and linen, using quite traditional tailoring techniques that he learned while working at Ralph Lauren, and bringing the result to the point of absurdity. His 40-out Boy Scout outfit has evolved from the familiar patch-pocket shorts, shirt and short jacket of a military cut to a phantasmagoric set of things that defy any notion of proportions, with pockets multiplying and increasing exponentially. At Monclerclaim it will all go on sale. And if in some places the usual shapes of shirts, military-style jackets and trench coats were still guessed, then the rest would have to break your head.>
