Milan Men’s Fashion Week: What The Rave Is All About

Milan is celebrating Men’s Fashion Week and we celebrate all the top designers

Marni

The show, titled “Let’s dance,” had guests lining the edges of the dancefloor/catwalk, while enjoying a performance inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” choreographed by Michele Rizzo.

When talking to WWD, designer Francesco Risso had these words for the innovative presentation of the label’s Fall 2020 collection: “This is just a dance that takes us to the end of love. They are a collective in this never-ending party moving with a multiform uniform, expressing the persistence of time and the beauty of remaining and leftovers. It’s just the reaching of eternal love through the body language.”

The clothes themselves, while reportedly, quite difficult to decipher in the dim-lit ambiance, ranged from 70s-inspired suits to mixed patterns of stripes and, maxi polka dots and hearts, baggy pants paired with body-hugging knits.

Alexander McQueen

The collection was supported by music performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, focusing on the favorite tuned of artist Henry Moore, on whom designer Sarah Burton seems to have leaned for the largest chunk of inspiration for the Fall collection. The dramatic and lavish collection featured the expected sharp tailoring, coupled with bold embellishments and hand-drawn prints. A lava-dipped topcoat, with splashes of a mellow yellow and a vibrant red in pieces, including some appearances of leather, made for a strong, sophisticated yet palpably poetic showing.

 

Prada

For this collection, Miuccia Prada, reports WWD, wanted to explore extremes, which, she seems to have accomplished with both the runway show, that paired equal amounts of the past and the future, formal and sporty and old and new. In a surreal-seeming town square with a central statue of a man on horseback, models seemed in a perpetual but controlled rush, wearing skinny sweater vests over bare arms, loose-fitting subdued suits with color-pop ties and collars, pixel-inspired prints and mid-calf boots that are almost a welly, but not quite.

 

Emporio Armani

The start of the show featured sporty silhouettes in conservative tailored fabrics, inspired by old newspaper clippings, coupled with patterns and proportions that resulted in a charming concoction of a sort of sporty-grandfatherly-chic feel. It works.

Then came the re-imagined play on a puffer jacket, with a spray-painted-like rainbow print, paired with chunky hiking boots over cuffed trousers. The show ended with an outright celebration of Recycling, where Armani showcased the slogan “I’m Saying Yes to Recycling,” debuting the capsule recycled collection titled R-EA, created from organic cotton, nylon, recycled wadding, regenerated wool, and denim.

 

Gucci

Closing MFW was Gucci, with another kind of rave. Titled, “Rave Like You are Five,” the show presented a darkish, gothic take on childhood, which designer Alessandro Michele explained to the Guardian,  as following: “Childhood is a free time, there are fewer labels [and] you can be yourself. When you grow up you are told ‘you can’t do that [because] you’re a boy and you’re going to primary school’.” He pulled inspiration for the show by observing children’s clothes in markets.

A celebrity-filled audience, including Mark Ronson, Jared Leto, and Aderson Paak, enjoyed seeing Gucci’s classic staples, such as loafers and berets, with Mary Janes, pelerine socks grazing calves and – lunch boxes, as models gave their best to match the energy of Marilyn Manson’s version of Sweet Dreams.

“I think menswear is even more experimental and stranger [than women’s] because men are allowed less,” Michele told WWD. “The stereotype of the man is really very narrow, claustrophobic.”

“It’s time to celebrate … a baby man able to do bold and playful somersaults … who wonders in amazement when the world becomes new,” read the press notes for the show.

A fitting closure to an exciting week of fashion.