Lace lingerie for men? It must be Milan

From yeti-sized fur coats to snakeskin boots, coral crew necks to double-breasted suits, Milan Fashion Week had all the key trends. Shaun Phillips reports on what sharp dressers will be wearing this autumn

Burberry Prorsum
In the queue, I think I overheard Tinie Tempah replying to an offer of a pair
of Burberry shades with the words: “If they’ve got a neutral colour, like
black or something.” He may be disappointed. The eyewear created by
Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s creative chief, for next winter is even
wilder than the bright metallics he’s selling this spring. And that’s wild,
as in wildlife. Feline frames (and even lenses) with leopard spots were just
the start of it; markings also appeared on feet (wildcat winkle-pickers) and
in arctic colours on big coats.
Animal prints also top-and-tailed holdalls featuring the classic Burberry
check. A victim of its own success, that signature pattern has been lesser
spotted for a while but, given that Bailey titled his show “I (heart)
Classics”, it wasn’t a surprise to see it on cashmere scarves and other
heritage items, including trenches, vibrant Windsor red topcoats, olive
battledress-style jackets and translucent rain macs in white or caramel.

Emporio Armani
For autumn, Mr Armani opted for a bold new silhouette: the outerwear had a
stronger, sportier, fuller look, achieved by the extensive use of neoprene
membranes fused to softer, more pliable natural materials. The trousers
looked sharp and slim-cut. Once a sheepskin fur backpack and leather gloves
were thrown on, and a pair of Armani shades dangled from the neck, the
overall look was not so much urban explorer as city slicker heading straight
from a hot desk to the icy slopes of some alpine retreat.
Mustard yellow was the boldest hue of Emporio’s colour scheme, with the main
focus being on blues, greys and light earthy tones. This was in contrast to
his main line, Giorgio Armani, which used ruby red as an accent colour for
velvet blazers, bodywarmers and roomy trousers. While the Armani collection
was more formal than Emporio, both collections were united by their use of
neoprene.

Ermenegildo Zegna
The former YSL creative director Stefano Pilati has arrived at Ermenegildo
Zegna, and seems to have been confronted by a team determined to prove that
their designs can do commercial justice to the company’s celebrated fabrics.
There were some superficial similarities to Jil Sander’s show, such as the
use of grey stripes, and the colouring of a grainy leather, fur-lined,
thigh-length sports coat worn over a scoop-necked, pinstriped jumper. Yet,
silk cummerbunds aside, it was a pragmatic collection. Even the colours were
industrial — churned concrete, asphalt, steel and granite.
But then, eminently wearable classics were the default setting in Milan — a
by-product, Bottega Veneta creative director Tomas Maier said when
describing his collection, of “a serious moment, when work feels like a
priority”.

Dolce Gabbana
Tootling along on Greenwich Mean Time, I arrived precisely 60 minutes late for
the show. My penance? To attend what is called, in fashion parlance, a
“re-see” — an opportunity to inspect every garment in a showroom while being
frequently reminded about the quality of the tailoring. Of course it was
exquisite — Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s continuing quest to distil
the essence of a Sicilian idyll is usually a meticulous study of virtuous
peasantry and declining aristocracy. This particular collection, though,
married a slightly dishevelled, Sunday-best aesthetic (distressed shoes,
cropped vests, pleated trousers with a hand-me-down feel) with the church’s
cloth. The overarching theme — devotion to family, faith and fashion — could
be measured not only in hours devoted to needlepoint but also by a surfeit
of Catholic iconography, from embroidered scarves to cashmere-lined T-shirts
bearing print images of clerics on bicycles, Sicilian churches and the
saints who cast their protecting veil over the island’s cities.

Gucci Gucci
emphasised traditional British fabrics over high-tech fusions of natural and
synthetic materials. There were trim but relaxed-looking cavalry jackets and
overcoats in deep eggshell blues, olives and ochres; a sharp oversized
Prince of Wales suit, big brass buttons and snakeskin boots. And then, as a
counterpoint to the section devoted to dark eveningwear, came a startling
big, chunky crew-neck knit, in a distinctive coral colour, paired with
printed monochrome neckerchief and sharp charcoal trousers.

Prada
This was a collection of bold colours: with her violets, reds and sky blues,
Miuccia Prada seemed more liberal than many this season. The dishevelled
look was intentional, and a recurring motif. More significant, though, was
the seeming simplicity of what were ostensibly casual clothes for everyday
living. Apart from socks, that is. Prada is still baring an ankle whatever
the weather. The look accentuated the most overtly “fashion” element of the
collection: some seriously stacked shoes, with chunky treads.

Versace
This was a demonstration of soft power dressing. But this being Donatella
Versace, it led naturally enough to a Teutonic bodybuilder in a yeti-sized
fur coat, parted to reveal an expanse of washboard muscle and thigh-length,
stretch-lace lingerie. The collection’s overall theme was “Pumped” — that
and “Rock the 1978”, which could explain the exposed white sock worn with a
crepe-soled loafer. The suits gave more of a shout out to the Eighties: wide
boys in wide ties, jacket sleeves pushed up to the elbows.

Jil Sander
What Sander described as a “juicy Kirghiz red” double-breasted suit looked
less impractical on the catwalk than it might sound in print. It was part of
a selection of striking colours that punctuated many shades of grey, from
the pine on a turtleneck jumper to a big splash of cobalt on a
single-breasted suit. If Sarah Burton’s stretched silhouette at the London
Collections made Alexander McQueen’s models seem slightly sinister, by
combining an elongated cut with a pious trim, Sander conveyed a quiet
dignity.

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