Bling-Friendly Dolce & Gabbana Brings Subtle Luxury During Milan Fashion Week Menswear Shows

MILAN Menswear (AP) seeks a post-pandemic footing during Milan Fashion Weeklanding somewhere between resort, adventurer, and tailoring.

Dolce & Gabbana offers quiet luxury as only a designer duo can, reinventing masculine silhouettes with feminine details. MSGM, for its part, offers adventure with its African travel-inspired off-road collection.

On the tailoring side, Ralph Lauren showed the high-end Purple line at his manor villa in Milan, focusing on made-in-Italy details for everyday luxury, including sequined footwear, unconstructed cotton-linen blend jackets, and chunky Fair Isle knitwear.

Margherita Maccapani Missoni chose a menswear show to unveil her new brand, using her paternal Maccapani surname instead of mother Angela’s more familiar Missoni. The women-focused Maccapani brand features easy-to-wear, fit pieces meant to accompany women throughout the day with a twist on the knitwear that has made the Missoni family brand a household name.

Highlights from Saturday’s event on the second day were mostly menswear previews for Spring-Summer 2024.

FEMINIST DOLCE & GABBANA MEN’S APPEARANCE

Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana feminized this season’s menswear silhouettes, with long-used sewing tricks for women.

The expansive collection of nearly 80 looks is a departure from the designer duo’s any season, a play on quiet luxury. No prints, no colors and no bling. Instead, the focus is on form and material, with a palette of neutrals in black, white, camel, and ivory.

The taffeta is tied around the waist, creating a belt effect but reminiscent of the duo’s provocative ruched dresses. The cotton tunic features chest-baring deep-Vs and long trailing sleeves. Sheer organza top and pants are beautifully embellished with floral appliqués on the cuffs. Organza panels give trousers a contemporary touch. Wide satin trousers are paired with a form-fitting mock turtleneck, a look that is equally suitable for women.

A series of tailored oversized jackets encapsulate the tailoring, with an hourglass waistline on the long coats, ruched details on the oversized puffers, deconstructed coats with sheer panels and padded vests.

Booties and shoes that zip up the back give a futuristic look, especially worn with long johns or ribbed shorts.

Dolce & Gabbana filled the front row with celebrities including Machine Gun Kelly, Blanco from Italy, Doyoung from South Korea, and Luke Hemmings from Australia, each drawing screams of adoration from fans as they arrived.

MSGM, at 13 years old, growing up.

The creative director and founder of the fashion house Massimo Giorgetti said backstage that his collection was inspired by a recent trip to Tanzania, specifically the hours before sunrise, which he likens to the moment when you realize the desire to grow up, but stay young at heart. .

Models, including several older men, first emerge through the mist into the striated caves beneath Milan’s main railroad, as if from the caves into the dawn of Africa. They are accompanied by rhythmic electronic music.

Giorgetti’s own holiday iPhone images become prints and motifs: ombre sunsets on T-shirts and knitwear, frayed cotton recalls zebra prints but in monochrome tops or jackets, striated eco-leather that mimics geological formations on coats.

Growing up silhouette, no t-shirt. For the mature MSGM audience, there are oversized suits in earth tones jacquard, purple wisteria or celeste blouses with big pocket cargo pants. The protective canvas hat snaps around the neck, creating a collar, when not in use. Soft high hiking boots, moccasins, and loafers complete the look, adorned with polished stone or raw amethyst jewelry.

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