Fendi’s men’s collection for next spring will hit stores in early 2025. It will, therefore, be one of the first deliveries of the centenary that the brand celebrates next year. For its creative director, Silvia Venturini Fendi, it is an excuse to delve into the less well-known aspects of its history. Her proposal, presented on Saturday, June 15 at Milan men’s fashion week, has several points of support. For example, a photograph of the Italian soccer team in the mid-nineties traveling with Fendi luggage. Or a new shield inspired by a painting that her grandparents commissioned. There is also the international exhibition of 1925, “a precedent for the globalized world in which we live,” according to the designer, who has included fabrics with madras paintings among her designs. Or, finally, a nod to saddlery, a specialty cultivated by this almost century-old Italian firm in its early years. In the parade, stitches with waxed thread have replaced embroidery and almost prints. None of this, however, overshadows the brand’s great achievement: the subtle, luxurious and modern men’s wardrobe that the designer has built without hesitation in recent decades.
There are many ways to work with the archive, and Milan men’s fashion week has provided several examples. One of the most anticipated was Moschino, which returns to the calendar with the first men’s collection signed by Adrian Appiolaza, its current creative director. The Argentine designer claims to have immersed himself in Franco Moschino’s archives to rescue the ideas and motifs that made him famous in the 1980s: humor, graphic sense, irony, color and different levels of meaning. But this research does not lead to nostalgia. There are few brands with as much legitimacy to claim that surrealism that social networks adore, and their sweaters with fried egg or soccer ball motifs are an intelligent reinterpretation of the past in a viral key.
Another creator of striking images is Jonathan Anderson, who in his eponymous brand, JW Anderson, sang an ode to sleep—as rest and as fantasy—full of striking images, such as his sweaters with fluffy three-dimensional motifs.
At Gucci, Sabato de Sarno continues his investigation into an essential, almost minimalist wardrobe. An example is their large overshirts and suits in solid colors – green, violet, their already emblematic dark red – and their shirts printed with geometric motifs in bright tones, which share the spotlight with vibrant textures – fringes, beads – that fill garments with movement. sports roots.
The continuous movement promoted at Zegna by Alessandro Sartori continues to address new challenges. If his sneakers have become a bestseller, this season there were only loafers on the catwalk. Of course, made exclusively in leather, with an ultra-flexible sole that reflects the philosophy with which the house approaches the use of materials. In his collection for next summer that he presented this Monday, June 17, there are some prints, but above all mixes of materials, such as luxurious varieties of linen and a Japanese denim jacket built on a tailoring interlining. As always, practicality permeates the designer’s decisions. In a meeting with the press prior to the show, Sartori explained that each silhouette is tested on men of all ages to verify its versatility, and that they have moved the position of the pockets—higher on the jackets, lower on the pants— to improve ergonomics.
Another classicism of its own is that cultivated by Dolce & Gabbana, which presented a very summery collection but with a chromatic range as radical as in previous seasons: black and white, with some embroidery in coral red and other tones in the tailoring proposals. And what underlies it is the brand’s commitment to craftsmanship, which has defined its latest movements. Sportsmanship is conspicuous by its absence. There are linen shirts, light suits, knitwear; raffia accessories in a deep black—which the designers call Sicilian—and that shines in an atypical way under the spotlight. Theirs is a severe, formalist, almost post-war summer, as if filmed in black and white with high contrast and Marcello Mastroianni as the protagonist.
At Prada, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons reflect on the perception of reality with very tangible examples: the collars of their shirts have wire structures that allow them to be modeled as if they were sculptures, the pants have an application on the hip that is reminiscent of a belt and the pleats on the jackets evoke wrinkles, as do the striped prints on the T-shirts. The archive they turn to is the brand’s own, with emblematic prints and colors – such as the mix of violet and red – and also that of Simons, always faithful to an adolescent and electronic energy.
Armani, on the other hand, does not have to look far: his own legacy as a designer, claimed in a very tangible way in recent years by new generations of creatives, permeates his new collections. At Emporio Armani, earthy colors, natural tones and unstructured and fluid garments. In Giorgio Armani, his most luxurious line, perfect suits, gray and blue, silk overshirts and jackets that invoke the Asian influence that has characterized the Milanese since his beginnings.
One of those designers who, confessedly or not, reflect the durability of the legacy of the eighties is the Magliano brand. Inspired by childhood memories, her spring 2025 collection amplifies certain details—knots, linings, seams—and juxtaposes everyday-looking garments that, together, become insurgent. There are suit jackets that end in swimsuits slip, luxurious garments with an unfinished look. Something similar happens in the proposal of the British Martine Rose, whose investigation into the archives of sports and urban clothing becomes anarchic and very suggestive. Everything at once everywhere. Brothers Dean and Dan Caten, founders of Dsquared2, combine styles and clothing that speak of excess and sexuality, with harnesses, straps and even masks. Fashion is more fashionable than ever when it becomes a party. And in Milan, after the sports fever and the neoclassical recession of recent seasons, brands are looking for new ways to celebrate their greatest asset: their history, their successes, their archive.
