Menswear next fall beats a
hasty retreat from urban landscapes to a comfort zone of solid
staples, with nature serving as inspiration to a number of
collections presented during Milan fashion week January 17-20.
The fall-winter 2015 men's wear shows that wrapped up on
Tuesday went straight back to the roots of mannish elegance -
literally - with leaves and earth paving runways fit to
romanticize the core essence of rural life.
Chunky knits worn over comfortably loose pants, trusty
shoes, and oversized coats and scarves took center stage amid
collections that strove for a balance between classic and casual
wear - a brand of elegance neither rugged nor overly contrived.
The four-day men's wear fashion week saw five runways -
Corneliani, Etro, Fendi, Ferragamo and Zegna - paved with soil
and leaves.
Dirt-floor runways inspired, among others, folk-art pieces
donned by soldiers at Ferragamo, preppy elegance at Fendi and
Zegna designer Stefano Pilati's "uniforms for eco-leaders".
Rural life was the backdrop for Etro's trademark mix of
Italian finery and ethnicity, seen in a collection rich in
corduroys and velvets, and in Corneliani's refined take on a
season staple - outerwear - with long double-breasted coats.
A quiet revolution of taste was in the air well before
this fashion week. Over the past couple of seasons a new style
named normcore and characterized by a self-aware blandness has
been expressing a newfound appreciation for the things that
last, as against the evanescence of fads.
This desire to eschew the transitory for the essential was
also seen in the celebration of family, with grandmothers and
grandchildren strutting down the Dolce&Gabbana catwalk.
Meanwhile Armani, Gucci and Prada sent both male and female
models down their runways in praise of gender harmony, while
never straying too far into the women's camp.
"A man needs courage, but he has limits," said Ermanno
Scervino, whose take on sartorial elegance for next fall
included checked outerwear and duffle coats.
Gucci also used the juxtaposition between men and women's
wear in a collection designed by Alessandro Michele in less than
a week after Frida Giannini, the label's creative director since
2006, was abruptly asked to leave.
Giannini was originally meant to step down along with life
partner and Gucci CEO Patrizio di Marco after the men's and
women's shows.
Michele - Giannini's former deputy and chief accessories
designer as well as a possible successor - debuted with a
collection that was a stark break from the past.
He mixed masculine and feminine elements to create a
younger, edgier take on the polished celebrations of icons from
the past that marked Giannini's style.
Giorgio Armani also toyed with the similarities between men
and women's wear in a collection that experimented with
silhouettes - like cropped pants and a hybrid of blazer and
blouson.
The extreme softness of the clothes was designed to suit
everyday life while striving for the essence of male beauty in a
reflection on the "new classic" that is Armani's trademark
style.
Indeed, the deacon of Italian fashion revealed a passion
for British hit television series Downton Abbey - he chose the
soundtrack of this saga about a British aristocratic family for
his show.
Yet he remained a master expounder of modernity, as seen
in his eveningwear, where traditional smoking jackets were
jazzed up, for example, with leather pants, without the
mandatory bow tie.
Armani's man had his feet firmly planted on the ground
within chunky shoes, and donned accessories such as backpacks
designed to take him from town to country and back.
It is no coincidence the designer mixed the colors of the
earth - lush dark greens and rich browns - with the grey of
concrete and stone, a reminder of his perpetual love affair with
the city of Milan.
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