Menswear in Milan is often quite unpredictable.
On one hand you will have seasons that are mostly quite commercial, and other times you’ll find local designers taking the time to experiment with new concepts and approaches towards menswear. This season, thankfully, the radar pointed more towards the latter. The major points of discussion for designers in Milan was an exploration of blurring the lines between classic menswear and streetwear and in doing so, revising the definition of menswear and masculinity as a whole.
Silvia Venturini Fendi was one of the hard hitters this season, presenting a collection for a modern man with elements that were both classic and street, both masculine and feminine. She built a collection on the
borderlines of principles, which of course creates an appeal to a wider variety of costumers. There were your leather jackets, bucket hats, stylized gumboots & logo-mania coats that were paired with precisely tailored pants and jackets. Fendi also dipped her toes in
the pool of gender blurring, with a few male models sporting cropped jackets and wrap pants which moved like skirts.
Alessandro Michele, however, who celebrated his fifth anniversary at
Gucci took this season’s opportunity to completely challenge the modern day definition of masculinity. He created a collection which deconstructed the traditional principles of male-oriented clothing and seamlessly assembled these with aspects of femininity, resulting in a collection that felt
gender neutral. It leaned towards neither side of the gender spectrum, but sat comfortably in the middle. Each look could have been as equally flattering on a man as it was on a woman, whether a mini dress, a crop top or a classic Gucci suit. In homage to the five year landmark, the designer also revisited some of his hit pieces. The iconic
Gucci Princetown mules made a comeback as well as a few other pieces.
Miuccia Prada also referenced the past by creating a collection which acted as
a bridge between opposites — the past and the future, the old and the new, the sporty and the formal. This season she imagined a world where this present sportswear/streetwear oriented day met somewhere in the middle with the classic tailoring of menswear’s origins. The collection saw a series of
male executives sporting classic three piece & two piece suits with subtle touches of modern day additions. It ranged from fitted to loose, from vibrant colors to black and white, and of course from sporty with a few looks being rendered in the brand’s classic street-like nylon fabric to cleaned tailored with
classic nylon suiting.
Marni on the other hand, was a deliberate attempt to renounce the principles of classic men’s tailoring.
Francesco Risso created a collection out of fabric scraps that were too big , too wide or too tall. Each look was made with
an avant-garde approach to sustainability. Every piece which fit so terribly wrong looked so terribly right. Coat hems differed in heights and textures, as sizes and fits ranged from small to XL and in a variety of vibrant colours.
British designer
Samuel Ross introduced his work to the Milanese audience for the first time this season. As a protegé of Virgil Abloh, his work documents the evolution of streetwear. The
A-COLD-WALL* designer is one who digs deep for his concepts, and this season he drew inspiration from the 300, 000 year history of Homo sapiens on earth. The collection itself was
a crossover between streetwear and workwear. Intricate details were made from vibrant patterns and colors. Although not a Big Bang show as his audience might be used to, the designer shifted his focus on creating a collection of clothes that were easily viable to sell out towards the streetwear market.
Italian brand
Sunnei delivered a collection that was equally marketable, by producing pieces that were co-ed, they offered a collection that included pieces that could be worn by Kylie Jenner as well as Billie Eilish. Some looks increased one’s sex appeal while others played on the notion of oversized silhouettes.
If there's one thing that this season predicts for the rest of the year, it’s that in 2020 definitive lines are no longer in trend. Contrasts are the new thing, masculinity and femininity are no longer separate, streetwear and classic menswear have met middle ground and every brand will be aiming to open their arms wider and wider to appeal to wider audiences.
