Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2023: Fendi to Prada

The menswear edition of Milan Fashion Week returns with aplomb this season, after a muted January outing due to the arrival of the Omicron variant. Under a hot Milanese sun, the city’s brands have come to life with offerings for S/S 2023 that channel an escapist mood and propose a multiplicity of ways of dressing for the season ahead. Among them, a juxtaposition of archetypal menswear garments at Prada, Dolce & Gabbana’s noughties re-editions, and JW Anderson’s much-anticipated debut in Milan. Here, in an ongoing report, the best of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S2023, as it happens.  The best of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2023 DSquared2 Dean and Dan Caten looked towards the surfer for inspiration for their latest collection, mashing up the archetype with their own brand of glamour and flash. Eclectic layering – as if the various items of clothing were picked up on travels around the world – was the collection’s hallmark, whether a colourful sarong tied over a studded jean, a Honda-branded biker jacket with shorts and flip flops, or a colourful array of jumpers tied around the waist (prints were equally eclectic, from block-printed turtles to various New Age motifs). Elsewhere, the duo paid ode to musician Bob Marley, uniting with the late artist’s foundation, his face used as a motif across outerwear, shoulder bags and T-shirts – the latter worn by the duo to take their bare-footed bow.   1017 Alyx 9SM The derelict Franco Sciarino swimming pool provided the backdrop for Matthew Williams’ latest collection for 1017 Alyx 9SM. In the late afternoon heat, it was a location which felt fitting for a collection where skin-baring looks and abbreviated silhouettes suggested a high-summer mood. The hallmarks of Williams’ work at the label remained in this second Milan Fashion Week outing: sharply-cut blazers and gilets in optic white, sliced-away tops and dresses, and visor-like sunglasses encapsulated the designer’s clean-lined, industrial approach to cut and form. A series of more diaphanous looks – asymmetric-hem gowns, mini dresses which twisted around the body or could be adjusted by waves of toggle fastenings – lent a sensual contrast. Williams also chose the occasion to introduce his latest collaboration with Nike, the MMW Zoom 5, a perforated ergonomic slide with flashes of silver in the sole – no doubt coming to a poolside near you soon.  Emporio Armani  Giorgio Armani noted that this season he was thinking about the idea of lightness, not simply in the collection’s texture, but also in the conception of a wardrobe which encapsulated the freedom of dressing for the summer months – ‘the sheer joy of dressing for the season: choosing clothes and accessories to thrown on without too much thought’. Ease, therefore, defined the season’s offering, communicated through riffs on the shirt, the garment which Armani said was the nexus of the season (often both shirts and trousers were cut from the same fabrics). The desire was to create pieces which barely touched the skin – loose-fit tunics, unstructured tailoring, details which included ties, slits, openings and cuts – allowing the body to breathe. Around the showspace at Armani/Teatro was a woven motif reminiscent of a basket; Armani noted that he sees Emporio as ‘a container of possibilities’, here providing a gamut of carefree looks for the year’s warmest months. Or, ‘a basketful of summer,’ as the house described.  Dolce & Gabbana A journey into the Dolce & Gabbana archive provided the starting point of a collection which saw items of clothing from the brand’s history – reworked from the years 1990-2000 – return to the runway, alongside contemporary looks designed in the same spirit (the collection was titled ‘Re-Edition’). As such, the collection had the undone feel reminiscent of the eras referenced: cargo pants sliced away at the knee and worn with skimpy ribbed white vests, a T-shirt printed with the Virgin Mary and dotted with holes, denim washed, bleached and patchworked, or left raw around its edges. Tailoring provided a sleek contrast – whether a variety of riffs on the tuxedo jacket or blazers cut from lace or jacquard – while D&G waistband-branded underwear had a particularly 1990s flavour, completing a vision for the season where past and present intertwined. Fendi An exploration of freedom was also on the agenda at Fendi, ‘an ageless sense of freedom to play, as we rediscover the luxury of free time,’ as Silvia Venturini Fendi described. The house’s double-F logo spun above the showspace; its ‘upside down and inside out’ design used a metaphor here for the collection’s looks, which were defined by a feeling of contrast, juxtaposition and play (‘a boundless exploration of style at the fulcrum between nostalgia and innovation’). In particular, the ‘reality and fantasy’ of denim felt definitive of the season, whether cut into roomy, workwear-inspired silhouettes, a frayed-edge denim version of the Fendi Baguette, or appearing as a trompe l’oeil print throughout. Elsewhere, there was an exploration of the quotidian men’s wardrobe – the familiar, reimagined – interspersed with the moments of play which have become Venturini Fendi’s calling card, from cow-print shoppers to bucket hats, sliced away across their tops. Versace High-octane fashion has always been Donatella Versace’s MO; for her S/S 2023 collection, which marked her return to menswear week, she riffed on house hallmarks in a collection which promised ‘classicism energised’. As such, an archival print which depicted the death masks of Pompeii provided the collection’s starting point, while models – which included the sons of a pantheon of legendary Versace supers, from Helena Christensen to Angela Lindvall – grasped urns in their hands, as if wandering away with classical treasures (others had miniature Versace plates hanging from their belts). ‘Contrast is everything to me, it makes you think and feel,’ said the designer of the collection, communicated through juxtaposed silhouettes: easy, oversized tailoring and airy silk shirts versus skimpy, flush-to-the-body vests, cut away across the back.  Etro Etro’s S/S 2023 menswear collection marked the final outing for Kean Etro after the announcement that Italian designer Marco de Vincenzo would take over as creative director this September (for now, De Vincenzo watched on from the front row). Before the show, each attendee was read a poem over the phone in lieu of a physical invitation; here, the collection riffed on what the notes described as poetry’s power to evoke the ‘utopian’. In practice, this meant a collection both poetical and sensual: billowing feather-light kaftans in the house’s signature prints and languid tailoring met skimpy swimwear and abbreviated mini shorts. It was a convincing offering for the season – particularly desirable in the weekend’s high-30s heat – and a fitting send-off for a designer who has defined Etro menswear for over two decades. Prada A paper-white set, evocative of the walls of a house, replete with giant windows and crisply folded gingham curtains, provided the backdrop for Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ latest collection (in keeping with the theme, guests, including current campaign star Jeff Goldblum, sat on stools crafted from cardboard). The collection itself, titled ‘Prada Choices’, was centred on the act of curating one’s own style – ‘the juxtaposition of elements and garments, fashioning an impression, creating style’.  As such, the designers looked towards archetypal menswear garments – among them the suit and mackintosh jacket  – and fabrics, like denim and leather. They noted that the collection’s energy came from shifts and juxtapositions; the classic suit sat next to a mini leather short and matching vest, for example, and discrete four-button overcoats next to stone-washed double-denim. ‘The garments are classic, but their mix contradicts, making them exciting and new,’ said Simons in a pre-prepared quote. Miuccia Prada added: ‘So much that is the base is really a conceptual choice – a coat, jeans, a suit. They appear simple but are the result of a process… It is a combination of a long process of design and decision, and then of instinct. It is a matter of style.’ Stay tuned for more Wallpaper* coverage from Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2023 §
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