NY Times
MILAN — To say that the menswear season has opened here with a mixed bag is to suggest the best and the worst of the offerings. On one side is an intelligent meld of fabrics and styles, as collections blend formal and casual with purposeful modernity.
On the other hand, the summer 2011 season seems as up-and-down as Italy’s soaking summer weather: heavy leather, more outerwear than beach clothes and an uncertain direction.
A tactile treat of textures and a zigzag puzzle of tailoring made Bottega Veneta’s show on Sunday a beacon of excellence. The fashion fusion served up by the designer Tomas Maier was appetizing because this was a show that mixed things up — beautifully.
That meld included a color palette that embraced, but never forced, spring green, naval blue and rust red. But the shades also played off the range of fabrics, the rough/smooth of perforated suede with wispy silk or just the subtle tonalities of a white silk jacket with ultra-fine cord jeans.
Everything was about mix that matched: Saddle bags piped in two shades of blue, two-tone boots or sandals worn with soft, boxy suits. And these were all unforced, wearable clothes.
Instead of including formal evening styles, Mr. Maier showed swimwear, a category in which he excels. Briefs alternated with shorts as fresh beach silhouettes. The designer called this a show about “performance and possibility.” His own performance was stellar.
With the suicide of Alexander Lee McQueen still an open wound among his admirers and collaborators in the fashion world, was it a wise move for the Gucci group to hold a mini presentation of the Alexander McQueen label to prove that the show should and must go on?
“I didn’t sleep well last night — I understood how Lee must have felt,” said Sarah Burton, the designer’s long-time right hand, who presented well-cut, wearable clothes steeped in the English heritage that Mr. McQueen twisted so perversely.
Trench coats, cut at an angle, jackets with pleated backs and apron fronts, military pants and a dash of decadence in a Chinese robe and exotic slippers all touched on the brand’s imagery. But the original designer’s meld of the raw and the refined was inevitably missing.
Thinking of last season’s extraordinary menswear — Art Nouveau printed suits disappearing into a matching backdrop — was to be reminded that Mr. McQueen was not only deeply creative but an exceptional showman. His skills cannot be replicated. But the essence of his collections can be kept alive.
At Burberry Prorsum, the designer Christopher Bailey is expert at reinterpreting the archives. This season he found some fresh territory: motorbike riders, with their use of spiked studs on black leather vests.
Motocross leather pants ran down narrow legs until they reached either black Birkenstock-style sandals or shoes that morphed at the toes into rubber boots.
The heritage biker idea seemed forced. But given the rain washing the streets of the city, perhaps Mr. Bailey was smart to put front and center what Burberry does best: trenchcoats. The coats looked so shrunken and boyish that they would hardly fit members of the young Brit bands who were invited to sit front row. But here the hardware, as belts and straps, worked well with the theme and seemed authentic to Burberry.
It was unfortunate for Donatella Versace that the new Versace menswear designer Martyn Ball, 34, offered a rockabilly style similar to Bottega Veneta’s show of last season.
The inspiration was Bruce Weber images from the 1980s of Gianni Versace’s work — especially eye-popping black-and-white geometric patterns.
“I wanted it graphic, with optical prints,” said the late designer’s sister, referring to Mr. Ball’s choice of patterns, which were accentuated by a 3-D architectural backdrop.
The new suit cut was deliberately youthful, with its snug, short jacket and skinny pants, while the sportier jackets had inserts of dangling fringe. Reintroducing color meant a pale green shirt, perhaps with inserts of open-work.
The Versace brand is in a delicate position, as it tries to tempt a new generation while still serving the faithful followers. This collection looked like a half-way house.
At Calvin Klein, the designer Italo Zucchelli said: “I’m always inspired by the urban element of street style.”
Really? Who are the downtown New Yorkers who will wear a cut-off, midriff-revealing cape jacket with none of the Superman panache of the Caped Crusader? Will peppermint green jackets and matching shorts be walking the city’s High Line? And who will take a shine to suits that glimmer like asphalt on a wet road?
With this collection, Mr. Zuchelli, who has been doing a fine job at Calvin Klein, had a misstep. His fabric research seemed to be taken to extremes. Or perhaps the stiff, shimmering materials were, as the repeated soundtrack told us, “A Walk on the Wild Side.”
Sometimes the show eased into simplicity, as with graphic patterns inserted vertically on one side of a sporty outfit. But it seems a pity that the designer would abandon the spirit of “Mr. Clean” — especially as the minimalism that defines the Calvin Klein look would be so right for now.
Gianfranco Ferré is yet another house trying to build a modern identity from its late founder’s heritage. But why would Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi ignore Mr. Ferré’s architectural precision and bring to the runway the cliché of the artist – all floppy hats, baggy smocks and a poetic attitude?
The clothes were often appealing in the softness of a wrapped-shirt, the subtlety of an ochre jacket with ginger pants and the chic of a briefcase tucked like a clutch under the arm. But fancy brocade pants and liquid silk jackets neither had the linear style of Mr. Ferré nor a push for youthful modernity.
Giorgio Armani seems to have had a youthquake experience in his collaboration with Lady Gaga on the sex-and-storm-troopers video shot by Steven Klein. For the Emporio Armani show Sunday, the designer focused on heavy metal, not least as chains hitting bared chests and an all-black introduction to what the designer backstage called his “hard man.”
With eyelets perforating shirts and pants, biceps heaving under airy jackets and a print that looked like the earth cracking open, this was a startling new vision of the septuagenarian designer, who showed his humorous side, although some many not find black military uniforms so funny.
On the other hand, the summer 2011 season seems as up-and-down as Italy’s soaking summer weather: heavy leather, more outerwear than beach clothes and an uncertain direction.
A tactile treat of textures and a zigzag puzzle of tailoring made Bottega Veneta’s show on Sunday a beacon of excellence. The fashion fusion served up by the designer Tomas Maier was appetizing because this was a show that mixed things up — beautifully.
That meld included a color palette that embraced, but never forced, spring green, naval blue and rust red. But the shades also played off the range of fabrics, the rough/smooth of perforated suede with wispy silk or just the subtle tonalities of a white silk jacket with ultra-fine cord jeans.
Everything was about mix that matched: Saddle bags piped in two shades of blue, two-tone boots or sandals worn with soft, boxy suits. And these were all unforced, wearable clothes.
Instead of including formal evening styles, Mr. Maier showed swimwear, a category in which he excels. Briefs alternated with shorts as fresh beach silhouettes. The designer called this a show about “performance and possibility.” His own performance was stellar.
With the suicide of Alexander Lee McQueen still an open wound among his admirers and collaborators in the fashion world, was it a wise move for the Gucci group to hold a mini presentation of the Alexander McQueen label to prove that the show should and must go on?
“I didn’t sleep well last night — I understood how Lee must have felt,” said Sarah Burton, the designer’s long-time right hand, who presented well-cut, wearable clothes steeped in the English heritage that Mr. McQueen twisted so perversely.
Trench coats, cut at an angle, jackets with pleated backs and apron fronts, military pants and a dash of decadence in a Chinese robe and exotic slippers all touched on the brand’s imagery. But the original designer’s meld of the raw and the refined was inevitably missing.
Thinking of last season’s extraordinary menswear — Art Nouveau printed suits disappearing into a matching backdrop — was to be reminded that Mr. McQueen was not only deeply creative but an exceptional showman. His skills cannot be replicated. But the essence of his collections can be kept alive.
At Burberry Prorsum, the designer Christopher Bailey is expert at reinterpreting the archives. This season he found some fresh territory: motorbike riders, with their use of spiked studs on black leather vests.
Motocross leather pants ran down narrow legs until they reached either black Birkenstock-style sandals or shoes that morphed at the toes into rubber boots.
The heritage biker idea seemed forced. But given the rain washing the streets of the city, perhaps Mr. Bailey was smart to put front and center what Burberry does best: trenchcoats. The coats looked so shrunken and boyish that they would hardly fit members of the young Brit bands who were invited to sit front row. But here the hardware, as belts and straps, worked well with the theme and seemed authentic to Burberry.
It was unfortunate for Donatella Versace that the new Versace menswear designer Martyn Ball, 34, offered a rockabilly style similar to Bottega Veneta’s show of last season.
The inspiration was Bruce Weber images from the 1980s of Gianni Versace’s work — especially eye-popping black-and-white geometric patterns.
“I wanted it graphic, with optical prints,” said the late designer’s sister, referring to Mr. Ball’s choice of patterns, which were accentuated by a 3-D architectural backdrop.
The new suit cut was deliberately youthful, with its snug, short jacket and skinny pants, while the sportier jackets had inserts of dangling fringe. Reintroducing color meant a pale green shirt, perhaps with inserts of open-work.
The Versace brand is in a delicate position, as it tries to tempt a new generation while still serving the faithful followers. This collection looked like a half-way house.
At Calvin Klein, the designer Italo Zucchelli said: “I’m always inspired by the urban element of street style.”
Really? Who are the downtown New Yorkers who will wear a cut-off, midriff-revealing cape jacket with none of the Superman panache of the Caped Crusader? Will peppermint green jackets and matching shorts be walking the city’s High Line? And who will take a shine to suits that glimmer like asphalt on a wet road?
With this collection, Mr. Zuchelli, who has been doing a fine job at Calvin Klein, had a misstep. His fabric research seemed to be taken to extremes. Or perhaps the stiff, shimmering materials were, as the repeated soundtrack told us, “A Walk on the Wild Side.”
Sometimes the show eased into simplicity, as with graphic patterns inserted vertically on one side of a sporty outfit. But it seems a pity that the designer would abandon the spirit of “Mr. Clean” — especially as the minimalism that defines the Calvin Klein look would be so right for now.
Gianfranco Ferré is yet another house trying to build a modern identity from its late founder’s heritage. But why would Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi ignore Mr. Ferré’s architectural precision and bring to the runway the cliché of the artist – all floppy hats, baggy smocks and a poetic attitude?
The clothes were often appealing in the softness of a wrapped-shirt, the subtlety of an ochre jacket with ginger pants and the chic of a briefcase tucked like a clutch under the arm. But fancy brocade pants and liquid silk jackets neither had the linear style of Mr. Ferré nor a push for youthful modernity.
Giorgio Armani seems to have had a youthquake experience in his collaboration with Lady Gaga on the sex-and-storm-troopers video shot by Steven Klein. For the Emporio Armani show Sunday, the designer focused on heavy metal, not least as chains hitting bared chests and an all-black introduction to what the designer backstage called his “hard man.”
With eyelets perforating shirts and pants, biceps heaving under airy jackets and a print that looked like the earth cracking open, this was a startling new vision of the septuagenarian designer, who showed his humorous side, although some many not find black military uniforms so funny.
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