Models wear creations as part of Dolce & Gabbana’s men’s 2019 Spring-Summer collection, unveiled during the Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, Saturday, June 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
MILAN —Milan designers continue to cast their eyes toward Millennials with a focus on street wear—but without giving up tailored luxury and technical innovations.
Menswear collections for next spring and summer were shown at the Milan Fashion Week.
The focus is increasingly on elements that can play up into office looks or down into casual street wear, using the same basic building blocks.
The approach allows the designers to reach across generations, geographies and income levels.
Here are some highlights:
VERSACE
Donatella Versace is looking to dress a man whose masculinity is challenged by neither lace, nor neon nor florals.
The Versace man is ready to work in a double-breasted pinstriped suit but leaves the shirt unbuttoned to show off a Versace T-shirt that reads like Tabloid newsprint. The headline: “Versace finally speaks out.”
A model wears a creation as part of Dolce & Gabbana’s men’s 2019 Spring-Summer collection, unveiled during the Fashion Week in Milan, Italy, Saturday, June 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
The flash soon followed, with shiny red snakeskin coats over mid-thigh shorts and Versace newsprint tops.
Boxy jackets with flat pockets were worn with matching shorts, dressed up with a woman’s cross-body bag.
Men wore sheer tops over legible T-shirts, lace detailing on military-style knitwear and floral print suits with buttons left open to show off necklaces and belly-button jewelry.
Flashes of neon green and orange closed the show, in knit sleeveless tops that show off a man’s hours at the gym.
The bright footwear included the Versace Chain Reaction sneaker.
“The Versace man is the center of all the attention,” Donatella Versace said in notes.
DOLCE&GABBANA
Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana created menswear looks that ran the brand’s gamut from suits for daytime that were still tightfitting and sexy to glammed-up versions in bright sequins.
There was loud beach and resort wear that featured colorful bursts of prints or black-and-white logo plays, and geek looks in sandals with socks and a beanie.
Elegant all-white suits and outfits had golden brocade touches, recalling Baroque churches in the duo’s beloved Sicily. And the northern Italy Milan DNA came through in a sleek muscle knit and black trousers or high-waist camouflaged trousers with bold printed shirts.
Accessories included bejeweled surgical masks, presumably for smoggy cities, and the new Dolce & Gabbana Super King sneaker featuring logos on the heel and a geometric sole.
To underscore the brand’s broad reach, the designers filled the runway with Millennial influencers, real-world royals and aristocrats, singers and performers but also ordinary people: elderly women out for a stroll in bold primary prints, homosexual couples and a family with children.
PRADA
Miuccia Prada says she was “trying to do elegant in a new young way” with her latest menswear collection.
At Prada, young does not translate to streetwear, even if there were sneakers.
The new plastic square logo on nearly every garment, including the folded turtle neck, was strictly an ironic answer to prevailing trends.
Against previous intentions, elegant at Prada translated into sexy—i.e. short shorts for men— and at times playful—big stuffed aviator hats made for summer despite the decidedly wintery earflaps, mostly in Prada’s trademark black vinyl.
“I never pronounced sexy in my life. I never wanted Prada to be sexy,” but willingly embraced the notion as the rest of the fashion world seemed to resist sexiness in favor of boxy street looks, the designer said.
“You know I am a bit of a contrarian,” she said.
The looks amounted to basic mix and match, layer or not: Straight trousers, turtle necks, shirts and jackets, and the short-shorts, which Prada called
“a miniskirt” for men. Materials included denim and suede.
The colors were mostly neutrals.
There was a slightly psychedelic feel to daisy print shirts and fantastic scenes that conjured the animated film version of the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.”
SUNNEI
Designers Simone Rizzo and Loris Messina showed their Sunnei label against the backdrop of the Milan skyline as seen from the 31st floor of Gio Ponti’s famed Pirelli Tower.
But the sophisticated, architectural designs were a natural fit for Gio Ponte’s arched ceilings and geometrically tiled floors, and showed the designers have definitely arrived
The collection included for the first time women’s looks alongside the menswear, and the designers said they found a natural interplay.
The looks were clean and sharp, with a focus on soft comfort. The color palate was soothing, from pale blue, sea green, cream and gray offset by orange and red.
Parachute pants worked for him and for her, paired with knit cropped tops for her or an oversized jersey hoodie for him.
Her transparent anorak with orange draw strings gave a sporty touch to an orange terry cloth dress with an asymmetrical hemline.
His anorak features a notched collar and doubles as a suit jacket with wide-legged cropped pants.
He wore a worn leather vest with utility pockets with loose jeans and a floppy brim hat, while she wore it with slim skirt with cargo pockets. He carried a large travel bag, hers was a rectangular purse, as the designers also presented a full range of accessories including wavy platform shoes and simple sneakers, sunglasses and headbands.