Rodolfo Paglialunga s menswear debut for Jil Sander was less jarring than his first women s show back in September, but he was still absorbed by tricky volumes below the waist. Here it was oversize trousers with a big inverted pleat. "Elegant masculinity" was Paglialunga s stated aim, and maybe those trousers only looked odd because we ve grown accustomed to more linear silhouettes. Once the designer matched them to the oversize coats he also showed, a pleasing ’40s synchronicity asserted itself. You could picture a contemporary Humphrey Bogart type.
At this stage in the Sander game, we scarcely need to refer back to the label s namesake as a benchmark. Paglialunga should stand or fall on his own merits, not be dogged by comparisons. You could see him working on a wardrobe here, attempting a meld of the fashionable and the functional. The trick for any designer is to sustain interest in such a challenge. In this collection, Paglialunga s color palette showed promise, but it was the coats that won the day for him.
