The meaning of romanticism, today, is different. It is in particular for men who have evolved out of enduring templates on how they should feel and how they should look like.
New contexts create new meanings. New meanings define new attitudes. In this flow, the sartorial appears to be again of pivotal value. The spirit has changed. For too long, a tailored suit has been considered a uniform, something in which to hide, something to adopt blindly and probably impersonally.
For Pierpaolo Piccioli it is the thoughtful precision of the construction, the attention to detail and ultimately the sense of intimacy of tailoring that matter. Intimacy as a serene dialogue between the individual, with what he wears, and what he wants to express with it.
Tailored jackets, coats, suits, but also sartorially inclined sportswear, are mixed in ways that do not obey to a standard rulebook. An idea of tailoring that is sensitive and romantic emerges, as a structured, lean and fluid silhouette materializes, grounded in commando-soled shoes.
The urge to express feelings is palpable in the ever personal sums of white, ivory, burgundy, lead, blue, black; visible in the romanticism of the Inez and Vinoodh’s flower images that are patched onto pieces; readable in the Melanie Matranga sentimental words magnified all over the surfaces until they become signs and abstractions.
Tailoring, ultimately, offers a vocabulary, not a way of conforming. It is about having the proper words to express oneself, following sensitivity and spontaneity.
#ValentinoMenFW20
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, VALENTINO, VALENTINO FW 2020
Thu, January 30 2020 » Fashion Blog
MASCULINE, PLURAL
In a patriarchal society, masculine gender identity is often moulded by violently toxic stereotypes. A dominant, winning, oppressive masculinity model is imposed on babies at birth. Attitudes, languages and actions end up progressively conforming to a macho virility ideal that removes vulnerability and dependence. Any possible reference to femininity is aggressively banned, as it is considered a threat against the complete affirmation of a masculine prototype that allows no divergencies.
There is nothing natural in this drift. The model is socially and culturally built to reject anything that doesn’t comply with it. And this has very serious implications. Toxic masculinity, in fact, nourishes abuse, violence and sexism. And not only that. It condemns men themselves to conform to an imposed phallocratic virility in order to be socially accepted. In other words, toxic masculinity produces oppressors and victims at the same time.
Therefore, it seems necessary to suggest a desertion, away from patriarchal plans and uniforms. Deconstructing the idea of masculinity as it has been historically established. Opening a cage. Throwing a chant. It’s time to celebrate a man who is free to practice self-determination, without social constraints, without authoritarian sanctions, without suffocating stereotypes. A man who is able to reconnect with his core of fragility, with his trembling and his tenderness.
A man on his knees in front of surrender, who honors fear and its thorns. A man full of kindness and care. A man who leans on others, who burns up the myth of self-sufficiency. A man who is also sister, mother, bride. A man swollen with disorder, who names blood’s ignition and nostalgia’s dismay. A man who complicates the weaving of his own affectivities, opening himself to non hierarchical relations. A baby man, able to do bold and playful somersaults, who wonders in amazement when the world becomes new. A man pregnant with broken chains.
It’s not about suggesting a new normative model, rather to release what was constrained. Breaking a symbolic order, which is nowadays useless. Nourishing a space of possibility where masculine can shake its toxicity off, to freely regain what was taken away. And, in doing this, turning back time, learning to unlearn.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, GUCCI, GUCCI FW 2020
Thu, January 23 2020 » Fashion Blog
Fendi © Copyright 2020
As an exercise in FENDI-fied classicism, the FENDI Men’s Fall/Winter 2020-2021 Collection designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi re-imagines a new normal, where ‘traditional’ garments are not always what they seem. With retro-futurist undertones, the Collection dances to its own beat of polished utility: distilling the essence of FENDI craftsmanship into a surprising wardrobe for the modern gentleman.
Alternating a sartorial canon of melton wool, heavy twill and flannel with the plush hand of shearling, flocked denim and corduroy suede, the Collection evolves through the application of trompe l’oeil fabrics and transforming proportions. Considering the garment as a body wallet – and vice versa – is a key conceit, as multi-pocket insertions in reversible outerwear, knits and tailored card holders, earphones, and even a cigar.
Inside-out constructions and quilting are traced across blazers and coats cut in compact matte satin, and outerwear shapes in waterproof gabardine are bonded with felt tabs and FENDI Roma taped seams. Double entendres abound, as sleeves or jacket hems zip off in alternating fabrications and colourways, and straight trousers or shorts are spliced with a skirt.
Picking up pieces of the FENDI puzzle old and new, the FENDI Code print interprets the FF logo as a chain link animalia pattern played in multiple abstractions of monochrome and multicolor prints or intarsias. Like a secret message, this graphic motif embodies the season’s slick 70s allure.
Accessories are a tribute to the iconic FENDI yellow. Framed in black, yellow leather shopper bags and charms inspired by vintage FENDI packaging join the Baguette and Peekaboo in handknit wool and different sizes, as well as hard and soft monogram luggage styles – together with a ‘travel Peekaboo’ inspired by 1800s trunks. High and low lug-soled boots, bucket hats and docker beanies subvert formality with an industrial elegance.
Silvia Venturini Fendi collaborates with the Japanese designer Anrealage on a selection of photochromic outerwear and accessories. As the first Ready-to-Wear designer to utilize UV colour-changing fabric technology in 2013, Anrealage creative director Kunihiko Morinaga is an industry pioneer.
The four FENDI Men’s silhouettes represent the first photochromic Menswear on a European runway and include three light-sensitive transformations across sports-inspired outerwear, mittens, inside-out tailoring, bags and accessories. When exposed to UV light a white tiger quilting shines a FENDI yellow and a white diamond quilting reveals a new FENDI Code in black.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, FENDI, FENDI FW 2020
Thu, January 23 2020 » Fashion Blog
CIAO!
Ciao is an Italian word that is understood worldwide. It is a greeting and a way to present yourself: we can say CIAO to everyone without fear of being misunderstood. Today, fashion rushes ahead at the same speed: it makes itself understood and needs no explanation, filters or intermediaries.
Not even a designer, who is eternally balancing his obsessions and desire for renewal, always knows where his ideas will take him, because they often arrive at the speed of a CIAO. Above all, like a CIAO, they won’t give any explanation yet are nevertheless understood.
The MEN’S FW20/21 collection is born out of my conviction that a focus on the product reflects the times and is a message to the future through the details that created it in the present.
If I cannot own a photo by Man Ray, but I do not settle for its reproduction on paper, then I’ll think up an embellishment of that image on a bag, making sure that, bead after bead, its craftsmanship preserves its authenticity over time.
The same operation is done on a loden coat, with pleating that creates new volume, or on a gray wool suit with a stunning “Vivaldi-style” bow on the back that attenuates its austere appearance, on tartan boucle that exaggerates a classic woman’s jacket or on a little striped cardigan with a fur stitch that exasperates the volume.
Everything was created to blend elements in a garment that carries them into the future through indications of their designer’s modern mindset and attitude.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, MARCO DE VINCENZO, MARCO DE VINCENZO FW 2020
Thu, January 23 2020 » Fashion Blog
The multi-logo patrol of ICEBERG breaks the rules and joins the party. The “overseers” with their reflective uniforms lose their austerity and join the ravers. The location chosen by ICEBERG’s Creative Director James Long for the Fall-Winter 2020 men’s collection show could not better represent this visionary party: “the Alcatraz”, a historic Milanese club that bears the name of the most famous prison in the world.
A dualism that becomes a fusion, like the ICEBERG collection where luxury sportswear merges unexpectedly with military and formal silhouettes. And when the guards begin to let themselves be tempted by the party, the music changes and coats with jacquard effects appear and the iconic down jacket by ICEBERG is discovered in new color block variants.
Tweety, Silvestro and Taz and other iconic characters from the Loonely Tunes world also turn unexpectedly into blue and black degradé on sweatshirts, jackets and coats. All the characters have been redesigned starting from the original drawings. White, black and forest green are the colors chosen by Long to reinterpret punk sport.
The iconic piece is the tyvek k-way, capable of merging functionality into style becoming a bag, with a zip closure at the bottom and the sleeves that become backs. James Long brings back the iconic oval in the ICEBERG logo in a neon yellow version that becomes a new brand signature. It is a reference to the brand’s glorious 90s.
The rave party really begins when the ICEBERG logo becomes trippy and the Art Collection makes its appearance. For the second chapter of this capsule within the main collection, James Long has chosen to reinterpret the works of the English artist Eddie Peake.
Inspired by Peake’s multi-layered painting technique, the ICEBERG sweaters become true pieces of art where Italian craftsmanship blends with the artist’s bright and vivid characters. The Rave shirt! Rave! Rave! it is one of the key pieces of this transformation, as well as the sweatshirt with the ICEBERG logo reinterpreted with the iconic “schotch” character of Peake.
The artist’s works are mixed by James Long in a new way, in a real four-handed work to create something new and unexpected.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, ICEBERG, ICEBERG FW 2020
Thu, January 23 2020 » Fashion Blog
MSGM © Copyright 2020
MSGM proudly presents Haunted, a collection created in close collaboration with Dario Argento, the legendary film director and Master of Horror. It’s a tale of saturated colour, killer aesthetics, desire and the glee of a dark attitude.
“I am obsessed with Dario Argento. It was an honour to spend time with the Master, talking about his movies, his aesthetics, and his attitude to life. This collection is inspired by Argento’s masterpieces, and also his whole way of being,” says Massimo Giorgetti, creative director, MSGM.
Welcome to the darkness of Haunted, where you will find the light. It’s about going deep inside to reveal the contrasts of your personality, the sides of your character that make your true self.
Tailoring is cut with devastating allure, creating sharp suits that are worn for pure pleasure, some of the tailoring with buckle details. Tailored coats have a sexy fluidity, the blood red of a duffel in tribute to Argento’s classic 1975 film Deep Red. Throughout, the colour palette celebrates Argento’s uncompromising aesthetic: cyclamen, sienna brown, emerald green, lavender, all contrasted with the ever-present black.
Shirts are printed with posters from classic Argento movies, such as Cat O’Nine Tails, Phenomena and Suspiria, alongside images of famous scenes, like the killer’s eye from Deep Red. Meanwhile, graphics of carnivorous plants set the sweet nightmare mood of the fairytale. Knitwear has drama, like the cyclamen front panel of a sweater that’s buttoned and draped onto black.
For MSGM, tailoring and casual are like the two sides of our character that come together as a whole. It’s like Dario Argento once said, “We are two. My dark side and I”. Black denim has been washed and dyed red, as if saturated in fake blood. Jacquard knit sweaters clash images of monsters, cats and horror film characters, like a fantasy world. Argento’s films are drenched in humour, and here monsters give the middle finger on sweatshirts, while a hoodie is detailed with three conjoined teddies stitched together.
During the collection, MSGM reveals six women’s Pre-Fall 2020 looks, playing with print combined with tailored silhouettes. The presence of women on the catwalk heightens the tension and fleshes out the story.
Boots are in collaboration with Cult. Leather gloves are inspired by the accessories of Argento’s killers. Leather cross-body satchel bags are as if perfect to carry one of Argento’s scripts.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, MSGM, MSGM FW 2020
Tue, January 21 2020 » Fashion Blog
Salvatore Ferragamo © Copyright 2020
Metamodern
Marking Salvatore Ferragamo’s return to Milan’s menswear schedule our Creative Director Paul Andrew embarks upon a playful exploration of the increasingly diverse and fluid and free nature of contemporary masculine identities.
Paul Andrew explains: “In this first Ferragamo show of the new decade I want to use the language of fashion to ask: what does masculinity look like in 2020? To find answers we began with six ‘alpha’ male archetypes – Businessman, Biker, Racing Driver, Sailor, Soldier and Surfer. Then we fabricated their attire applying traditional Ferragamo artisanship guided by a determinedly non-conformist attitude. The agenda is to retain the aesthetic of uniform while subverting the once-rigid assumptions it enforced. To do this we use luxuriously tactile and fluid materials blend together our six masculine categories.
Clothes can define you: worn with thought and freedom they can also redefine you by serving as tools for experiment, evolution and transformation. This power held by clothing is something I see is much more relished in womenswear: today I wanted to create clothes and accessories for change in a very masculine context. A man today is not obliged to assume a single, set role: he can be a multitude, and he can change his worn identity any time he wishes. That’s a freedom we want to explore in the 2020s.”
Shoes
Following the Ferragamo ‘toe to head’ philosophy, this collection is based upon a foundation of footwear. These include bench made boots whose leather uppers are combined with the fabric of the garment worn above, featuring triple-stacked cuoio leather soles with square Gancini stud accessories. Large profile ‘biker’ and ‘army’ boots feature a high-flex V-lug (inspired by 1949 archival Ferragamo shoe) with a hybrid lace up/Chelsea boot upper.
Accessories
The ‘Tornabuoni’ group evolves into a holdall and camera bag. Duffle bags in lightweight upholstery, hand- woven wide weave totes with matching belts and the new square Gancini stud buckle. Leather trimmed sunglasses.
Clothes
This collection abounds with sensualised, elevated and rethought masculine ‘uniform’ classics from its six archetype genres: these are then mixed into outfits that defy categorisation – hero pieces for anti-heroes.
The opening look, for instance, features a peacoat (Sailor) in Scottish herringbone tweed (Businessman) with a double pleat at the front drawn from 1980’s Japanese beachwear and worn over double faced silk wool leggings (Surfer). Elsewhere a leather fire suit (Racing driver) is worn under a rib knit sweater (Sailor) and a surfer’s kangaroo pocketed vest. “Camouflage” print pieces (Military) in oxblood and olive are in fact palm prints (Surfer) which are worn against leather flight jacket (Soldier). Front-fold velcro-belt pants (Surfer), grain calfskin leathers (Biker) are also part of our mix-but-not-match multitude.
The collection abounds with these swirling cocktails of reference and expression.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, Salvatore Ferragamo, SALVATORE FERRAGAMO FW 2020
Tue, January 21 2020 » Fashion Blog
Tue, January 21 2020 » Fashion Blog
Neil Barrett © Copyright 2020
UNTITLED
The act of dressing can be a creative exercise, an artistic pursuit. Art and the artisanal: the dress of the artist as archetype inspired the Neil Barrett Autumn/Winter 2020 collection. This collection proposes tools, materials – a palette – for any man, and everyman, to create.
It is universal, for all ages and nationalities, an idea that has been constant within the Neil Barrett wardrobe. Underscoring Neil Barrett’s continuing fascination with the evolution of masculine dress, we can recognise even this creative freedom as a form of uniform, a way of dressing to express the man inside. Individual, and yet collective.
There is a tension, a conversation between the hand-made and the industrial, highlighting the beauty in both. Like different facets of art – Minimal versus Expressionist, Abstract against Figurative – different approaches to forms, fabrications and aesthetic can co-exist, in a man’s wardrobe as on a gallery wall.
Coats and jackets feature Neil Barrett’s signature hybrid details across the forearm, contrasts of function emphasising the importance of hands as creative tools; macro-scale details – rivets, stitching and fastening systems – play on proportion and perspective in visual games akin to paintings. They encourage us to look harder, to examine.
There are references to a back-catalogue of work: a retrospective. A Hybrid Biker-Coat is a direct reference to Autumn/Winter 2003; a down-padded jacket after an original example from Autumn/Winter 2000. The latter inspires an entire series of puffer archetypes – aviator jackets, sweatshirts, duffle coats – reinterpretations of garments with a new sculptural volume.
Accessories explore classics: bags are recognisable, cartridge bags, worker’s satchels, artist’s portfolios and messengers. Shoes are moccasins or desert boots, elevated through material and a new statement sole; a collaboration with Chinese athletics brand Li-Ning results in technical running shoes, an essential component of a new urban uniform.
Art here is inherently urban, tied with the industrial and modern: graffiti, the act of ‘tagging’, of making your mark and leaving a piece of yourself behind, inspires prints, embroideries and jacquards. This also connects with the gentleman traveller, the voyager and souvenir hunter – drawing inspiration from cultures visited, combining references and recollections into a unique hybrid. Hand-knit sweaters have a sense of Objet Trouve, sketched prints on wool are derived from Berber carpet patterns.
This season, Neil Barrett invited a Milan-based graffiti artist known as Red to work in residence and create new works to be integrated into the collection. Famous artworks are remixed and reimagined, alongside text-based works, including a new ‘NB’ graffiti tag jacquard. In a creative dialogue, these hand-worked art pieces become modern fabrications – elevating them to luxury, translating them from the world of art into fashion, and the language of Neil Barrett.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, NEIL BARRETT, NEIL BARRETT FW 2020
Tue, January 21 2020 » Fashion Blog
Marni © Copyright 2020
A repertoire of clothing archetypes: objects treated as persistence of memory, assembled together as leftovers creating unsettling hybrids.
Stop, cut, rewind, paste. Bisected coats. Antithetical marshes. Juxtaposed jackets. Fragmented outerwear. Neat shirts and shirts. Dilated trousers. Right and left don’t match. In front and behind less than ever, not to mention above and below.
Everything is too wide, or too narrow, or still too long. Time has left its mark, evident and palpable, on everything: abrasions, cuts, discolourations, shortcomings. Uniforms with hypnotic, or single-color graphics, go under everything. Distorted sneakers and boots complete.
Flashback and fastforward, of styles and movements, united in a choral flow of gestures from the choreography of Michele Rizzo.
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Tags: FALL WINTER MEN 2020, MARNI, MARNI FW 2020
Tue, January 21 2020 » Fashion Blog
