The key points
- Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons understand the dress as a uniform linked to the role and work
- Tod’s focuses on updated and current good taste
- Etro hits the target: rejuvenate
The temperature of masculinity, on the Milanese catwalks, is cold only in appearance. Ice bubbles behind the unshakable aplomb and rethought classicism. Because the moral of the short kermesse of physical and virtual shows is clear: the days of sloppiness, juvenile or simply housewife, are over. Dressing is rediscovered as a ceremony, made up of thought, awareness and representation.
Men of Prada – finally adults, if not at the registry office certainly in the way of offering and being: a hard shoulder dangerously close to Demna’s fantasies for Balenciaga – they do not discover an inch of skin, locked in gloves and turtlenecks under shirts and jackets, yet they exude sensuality . The dialogue between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, creative co-directors, focuses on the dress as a uniform linked to the role and work: any type of work, as long as the clothes give importance to the person. They draw a utopian-dystopian male who arrives on the catwalk from a cathode ray tube, and have him interpreted by a cast of models and actors of all ages, including Kyle MacLachlan and Jeff Goldblum in nomenklatura overcoats, the step made heavy by the boxy boots. The mix of signs, with the work suit that ends under the tailored jacket, and the long-haired mohair details on the hems and sleeves, is a classic Prada, reinterpreted with the angular taste of Simons. On the theme of power, the Lady had expressed herself with a memorable fashion show in 2012. Today we return to the subject with concentration and some forcing, but not much surprise. Prada’s raison d’etre has always been to do the opposite of others. Today, well-known paths are followed.
Think of the classic as a safe haven to overturn in subtlety Walter Chiapponi, who gives Tod’s continues to give an interpretation of Italian Style that appears calm in expression and reassuring in aesthetics, without being renounced or boring. Chiapponi does not attempt extreme fashion, which at Tod’s would not make sense, but proposes an updated and current good taste, made up of rethought proportions and a lot of individuality, because it is easy to break free, while harmony requires dedication.
Kean Etro sends a platoon of schoolchildren onto the catwalk, complete with a book in their pocket, in the spaces of the Bocconi University, combining the metaphor of knowledge as a journey with the idea of traveling north as an educational adventure. From the botanical rose to the rose of the first Latin declension, passing through wolves and polar stars, the overlapping of inhomogeneous elements is the familiar cauldron Etro, but the recipe agglutinates in a new way: for the choice of monochromatic compositions; for the passionate geometry of the prints; for soft silhouettes and clean cuts. If the mission is to rejuvenate, the purpose is achieved.
Suddenly, in this climate, sweatshirts, tracksuits and streetwear in general seem to have lost relevance: not as an absolute proposal, but as a vision of the catwalk. Despite everything, the variations of the hanorak and the anorak by are powerful K-way. The energy of MSGM is a concentrate of texture and color, inspired by Gaetano Pesce, translated into immediate and playful forms. The reduction work is effective, but the show is missing – postponed due to Covid – because it is there that Massimo Giorgetti, creative director, really reaches the synthesis.