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Menswear is finding its feet somewhere between tailoring and technical for Spring/Summer 2024. In Milan, this translated into standout shows from established brands including Prada, Valentino and JW Anderson, while paving the way for a wave of fresh talent.
As streetwear growth slows, gorpcore matures into technical fashion for the city and tailoring softens to suit our hybrid, post-lockdown lives, designers are adapting Italian luxury for the modern consumer. Nowhere was this more evident during Milan Fashion Week Men’s — which ran from 16-20 June — than at Prada’s show, where shirts were adorned with clusters of utilitarian pockets and eyelets; anoraks were rendered in leather; and fishing vests were layered over tailored shirts and shorts. Titled ‘Fluid Form’, the collection reimagined traditional tailoring in lightweight modern equivalents with strong shoulders and cinched-in waists. Representing this fluidity, curtains of translucent slime oozed down around the models as they walked through Fondazione Prada.
“Prada was a standout collection for us with its sleeker, more technical take on the quiet luxury trend,” says Browns menswear buying manager Thom Scherdel. Bruce Pask, senior men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus, called out Prada’s “dramatically cinched, mid-century evoking, strong shoulder silhouette” and embellished shirts.
Other highlights, says Pask, were tailoring from Brunello Cucinelli, Brioni, Kiton and Zegna – which each presented different versions of “relaxed suiting” this season, including sporty or fun, patterned styles – as well as Valentino’s elevated, couture-like tailoring and floral embellishments. Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli brought gentleness to tailoring with flowing shorts and jersey. “We have been talking a lot about masculinity, gender. It’s too easy sometimes to fix people into boxes,” Piccioli told Vogue Business ahead of the show.
Some of the bigger Italian players were missing from the schedule. Fendi showed in Florence at its new production facility during Pitti Uomo. And, after its huge Seoul show last month, Gucci staged an exhibition to celebrate 70 years of its horsebit shoe, rather than a Milan show, while presenting some of its SS24 menswear looks. (Gucci will return in September with the first show from new creative director Sabato de Sarno.)
Marco Vianello, vice president of sales and business development at brand accelerator Tomorrow, says this gave more space to emerging labels and those looking to scale internationally. Italy’s luxury manufacturing capabilities are attractive to young designers, he points out. “Milan seems to be the place to be right now,” he says. “This season felt refreshingly different from the previous ones.”
Two out of the three LVMH/Karl Lagerfeld prize winners, Setchu and Magliano, showed at Milan Fashion Week Men’s this season. LVMH Prize winner Setchu, designed by Satoshi Kuwata, presented its modular, origami-inspired tailoring and separates in Fondazione Sozzani in the north of the city. “Setchu’s genderless wardrobe was beautifully precise, incorporating origami technique with his Savile Row training,” says Pask. “Purposefully creased and folded garments had an amazing precision and were given beautiful dimensions when worn.”
Bologna-based brand Magliano, which secured investment from Italian accelerator Underscore District in 2022, showed its biggest show ever this season, in ‘Pala Magliano’, a palazzo under construction in the east of the city. Alongside his signature knitwear, designer Luchino Magliano experimented with denim and layered tailoring for this season, as he continues to expand the brand.
A springboard to international success
Milan Fashion Week provides a “prestigious backdrop” that elevates the perception of brands on a global stage, says Vianello. Scottish designer Charles Jeffrey agrees: “I think doing a show [in Milan] brings you a certain level of respect and attention. If you show in Milan, people automatically see you as worth a look.”
Jeffrey decamped from London to Milan in January of this year, with the help of Tomorrow, which acquired an undisclosed stake in the brand in 2021. “I knew that Milan would bring more attention to the brand but I had no idea how much. It’s like fashion week on steroids!” Jeffrey said the day before the SS24 show. The business grew 47 per cent last season following his Milan debut. Within that, his business in Asia-Pacific surged 147 per cent.
He staged his second show in Milan on Sunday evening, inspired by a modern reimagining of the 17th century Caroleans (the name for any era under a King Charles). Guests had tall paper crowns on their seats and the show, filled with vivid colours, regal silhouettes and anarchy, featured a semi-theatrical performance from the cast. In line with the shift to technical high fashion, Jeffrey incorporated performance fabrics on vests and shorts into his collection for the first time, and used performance textiles in knitwear to make it more breathable.
Korean label Andersson Bell celebrated its 10th anniversary with a Milan runway debut on Sunday evening. International press and buyers were there in force as the brand presented an eclectic collection of intricate knitwear and distressed denim. Jeans were lined with tracksuit bottoms and like Prada, some garments were covered in pockets for functionality. Founder Dohun Kim spoke to Vogue Business about how the Milan show fits in with its ambitions to expand further internationally.
British designer Neil Barrett, who has been focusing on producing films in recent seasons, returned to the schedule for the first time since the pandemic with a more pared-back, minimalist and functional collection than his previous work. The show was held in the brands headquarters, in a dedicated show space he built but hadn’t yet used. “It feels so good to be back,” the designer said backstage post-show, after sharing a congratulatory embrace with peers, Dsquared2 founders Dean and Dan Caten. “We always did runway shows and then we moved to film. But I didn’t want to just stop shows. It felt like the right time to return.”
German luggage and accessories player MCM — which recently announced a strategic repositioning, appointing Tina Lutz and Katie Chung as new heads of design — held an immersive presentation to communicate its rebrand, with a pared-back logo and new accessories collection. The multi-room installation traced the label’s heritage, before showing off its extensive new range, with updated design language for the modern consumer.
This new approach fits the bill for Milan, where quiet luxury is still powerful, even as it’s slowly updated to be more functional and technical, Scherdel of Browns says. “It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the coming season with the interplay of performance wear fabrications and silhouettes merging with tailoring for a relaxed yet elevated aesthetic.”
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