Gucci’s new look, and other highlights from Milan Fashion Week

The bottom line is the focus of the fall/winter 2023 menswear show in Milan. I mean, both figuratively there’s an overarching trend to tug on the hem of coats that are too long to end around the lower shin or dragging inches behind you in the muck and quite literally, it’s evident in the focus on tailoring, sombre colors, staple garments, fabrics. quality and confirms the individual’s brand identity.

Those elements ticked off in the collection Gucci showed on Friday, the label returning to the menswear calendar after a three-year hiatus and the first design debuted by its in-house team after departure of creative director Alessandro Michele in November.

There is an unavoidable interregnum feel to this Gucci collection, a serenity: it was shaved off Michele’s wit and cheer, and instead offered serviceable and slick tailoring, alongside sportswear and lots of logos.

As is usually the case at times like these, the house dug into its archives, referencing both Micheles’ pieces, its best-selling Dionysus bag getting a rework and the leather and sexiness of its lauded 1990s predecessor, Tom Ford. There are also throwback ’80s leg warmers, swagger boots, and a bit-and-buckle silk scarf print that references the label’s time in outback fashion as well as tough, desirable leather sacks with piston hardware. All in all, it’s a worthwhile endeavor made under uncertain circumstances. No doubt there will be good customers for her collection of elegant louche suit jackets and bling-out jeans. But it remains to be seen which of the classic suit dual aesthetics and apparently dueling versus Gucci sweatsuit cool will be nailed to its stake as a new identity to revive its well-reportedly slowing cycle.

Some brands seem to be shedding old skins and moving on to new ones, or vice versa. Dean and Dan Caten at Dsquared2 are returning to the flashy, trashy, goofy-but-lovable kind of tracksuit (chopped tube socks and woven jockstrap, chew denim, trucker hats, and diamonds) they mastered about 15 years ago. It’s goofy but exhilarating, and marks a giddy return to form.

And after several failed seasons after Gen Z patrons Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana decided to cut suits and other suits, and swirly capes, and lots of floor-length coats that looked faintly ecclesiastical, in black compared to Sicilian volcanics. Ash. It was elegant, perhaps too elegant, their collection swaying toward the shelves of fragile hero costumes from the Visconti epic. A curvaceous hipped ivory evening suit with matching gloves is a tough sell in 2023.

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons directly titled their collection Let’s Talk About Clothing. That is, when the pneumatic ceiling rises and then drops about 30 feet to shift the scale of the brand’s expansive runway space at the Pradas Milanese art foundation, we are encouraged to ally with this movement not for a vacillating stock market or a catastrophic fall from the Bible, but not on the changing volume of the garment itself. Forget the apocalypse, look at the hem!

In fact, Miuccia Prada has always used her status as a fashion designer to comment on global situations, one of the few designers who do so. For him, it is an important part of the job. We always talk about reality, and we, as designers, are well aware of what is happening, the problems, the difficulties, he said backstage. This is a complicated moment in the world and we are reacting to it. The most honest thing we can do is create something useful for people right now. There’s a sense of purpose to this outfit, one that Simons calls the familiar archetypal dress. They pumped up the jacket to hefty proportions, filling it with wadded blankets to create a couture-influenced ball silhouette, almost entirely above the defined waist. Prada is also bringing out traditional menswear staples like backpack coats, parkas or season-defining ankle-length mule jackets, while all around they offer precise tailoring with nice button-down collars in mohair cuts and fragments of Prada prints of the past. then.

It’s a shining example of a brand marrying its heritage with long-term future aspirations: Prada is currently undergoing a generational shift, in preparation for Miuccia Prada and son Patrizio Bertelli Lorenzo to become group CEOs in the next few years. Prada’s confidence in financial prospects is truly reflected in the energy of the outfit.

Milan’s other two strong performances are Zegna and Armani. Gen Z is the other end of the alphabet from Armani, and he doesn’t care whether they want a beaded evening tuxedo (for him) or a muted knit, or a nubby tweed or not. Because he knew a lot of people would. In fine coat season, Armanis is a collection of the best balms swirling around with the perfect cut. Whether you’re 18 or 89 when Giorgio Armani transforms this year, you’ll be wearing it, and looking great in it.

The young pretender, perhaps, to the throne of Armani is Zegna’s Alessandro Sartori. She shares Armani’s subtle sensitivity to fabrics, as well as her early desire to deconstruct and soften tailoring to make it modern. The Sartoris suit at Zegna this time appears sharply designed, but is actually made through double, even triple-layered fabric, not canvas interfacing. Sartori says this helps the company in its desire to recycle as much material as possible. It is more difficult to separate clothes if they are sewn on canvas. And many of the garments here are made from recycled textiles, to provide rough textures and smooth finishes in a variety of muted colors.

But it’s the clothes themselves by design, not the material worth writing about: the ease of a cardigan translates to double-sided cashmere tailoring; large knits made without weights; sliced ​​suits with raw edges; colors roiling through buttermilk, gray, flashes of bright red. And the easy and wide silhouette of Sartori’s trousers looks great. It was the end result of some of the most exciting outfits from Milan’s quietly strong season.