Coordinate your vacation wardrobe with the spring/summer menswear shows in Milan. Because you can.
THE ONE FOR A VISIT TO MOUNT OLYMPUS: DOLCE & GABBANA
It’s been a drama-filled week for Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, so one can forgive them for turning to the gods. Sicilian mythology provided the inspiration for their spring/summer offering, with postcard-ready images of Greco-Roman ruins streaked (sorry) liberally across suiting and outerwear. The pair are turning out to be quite the connoisseurs of iconography – although as the streaker in its final act proved, nothing quite attracts the eye as much as the naked form.
THE ONE FOR A DARK TROPICAL PARADISE: PRADA
Palm trees and sunset motifs: in the hands of a less talented designer, we might have been in for a Tiki Tiki cocktail time. But Miuccia Prada is made of sterner stuff. Out to question “the cliché of the exotic – and the cliché of summer”, she produced a darkly romantic collection that earned the name ‘Menacing Paradise’ with slouchy, silk blousons and loose tailoring. Pour yourself a cocktail and watch the napalm rain.
THE ONE FOR A MEMBER’S CLUB ON FIRE ISLAND: VERSACE
Donatella Versace has gone over all disciplinarian for her spring/summer offering, with an uber-masculine aesthetic that doesn’t worship athleticism so much as lick its strappy Medusa-studded sandals. But this being Donatella, there was a sense of fun, too, with go-faster fluoro stripes across clothes and cheeky flashes of briefs. After all, half the fun of going to gym is checking out what everyone else is wearing, right?
THE ONE FOR AN ICEBREAKER CRUISE: DIESEL BLACK GOLD
Diesel Black Gold went ice cold with crisp, bright whites, muted indigo blues and greys and occasional splashes of flowered jacquards and acid wash. Leather shorts cropped up again (boys, make talcum powder your best friend this season), paired with tuxedo jackets with complementary leather panels and jazzy wide leather boots.
THE ONE FOR A VESPA TOUR OF MILAN: ICEBERG
Federico Curradi kicked off his new position as Creative Director of Iceberg with this zippy vision of “life in the big metropolis”. Mixing and matching daytime and evening options – an abstract graphic knit for the day here, a tailored nylon parka for night there – Curradi proposed a versatile wardrobe for the man with a 24/7 iCal schedule. Get on your bikes, everyone.
THE ONE FOR A VISIT TO A DANISH DESIGN MUSEUM: JIL SANDER
New Wave graphics collided with the Jil Sander precision aesthetic to produce a uniform for the “accidental tourist”. Loose, baggy culottes – extra wide and almost easily mistaken for kilt-like skirts rubbed up against A-line coats and boxy jackets – a breezy update on the short suit . It wasn’t all austere minimalism, though. Day-glo oranges and a particularly searing shade of salmon pink interrupted the chilly expanse of white, with textured jacquards amping up the sophistication quotient.
Words: Zing Tsjeng (Follow Zing on Twitter @misszing)