MFW: rocking bold colours and long shorts on Italy’s streets
By FashionUnited
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The atmosphere was more sober but no less glamorous at the Triennale di Milano in celebration of the 100 years of Ermenegildo Zegna, a fashion empire boasting over 500 stores in 80 countries. Models for the Ermenegildo Zegna collection oozed sophistication in pale linen suits and blue blazers, with pleats and shorts a mainstay of the ZZegna line.
In a display of informally layered-up raincoats and cardigans, gilets, T-shirts and regular shirts, plaid fabrics, stripes, multicoloured deck shoes and long shorts featured heavily in the Missoni men’s collection, which was showcased in the streets of Milan city centre. Another public runway show came in the form of Dirk Bikkembergs’ collection, screened on the big screen in the Piazza Duomo from 15,000 kilometres away in South Africa. Moving his catwalk to Cape Town, the designer’s work reflects the colours and sounds of South Africa, host of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Colour also features in Giorgio Armani’s collection. Fashion editor Suzy Menkes writes on the New York Times website that “an asparagus-green handkerchief or a yellow belt brightened up neutral suits without forcing the color issue”. In his collection the Piacenza-born designer has indeed chosen to combine classic looks with nonconformist cues, adding a dab of sunlight to the traditional Armani tones of beige, dark grey, black and white with chartreuse green and yellow, marking a new departure that will no doubt be appreciated by city-slickers and sophisticated Italian men who like to have fun with fashion, in short, the sort of people who end up immortalised by Scott Schuman in his blog The Sartorialist.
At the Pitti Uomo show, Raf Simons, creative director at Jil Sander, brought bright orange trousers to the runway in combination with turquoise sweatshirts and shirts in shocking pink. A total of 19,200 buyers visited the fair, up 6% over June 2009, with foreign buyers numbering 6,900 (up 12% on the previous year). Germany was most heavily represented with 862 buyers, followed by Spain (633 buyers), Japan (617 buyers), the United Kingdom (461 buyers) and the Netherlands (445 buyers).
In sum, it appears that the financial crisis, which has by no means spared men’s fashion (sales in 2009 were down by 11.3% at EUR 8 billion, lower than the 2005-2006 figures), has forced the Italian fashion houses to dig deep into their creativity and their sense of playfulness to win back buyers and return to making business as usual.
From our correspondent in Milan
Photo 1: Jil Sander show at the 78th Pitti Uomo
Photo 2: Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2011 menswear