D&G go elegant

Versace’s daring man

MILAN, Jan 13, (AP): By now, the two Milan Fashion Weeks dedicated to menswear have transformed themselves into platforms for co-ed shows and up-and-coming brands beyond the menswear stalwarts.

The little more than three days of previews for next fall and winter that launched Friday evening include 52 collections in 27 runway shows and 25 presentations. Eleven brands are showing mixed men’s and women’s collections during the less hectic week dedicated to male apparel.

While menswear tends to create less of a spectacle than the womenswear shows, the lines still carry bottom-line weight.

Gianni Versace

The Gianni Versace fashion house has changed ownership, but not style. Donatella Versace explored bondage in the fashion house’s latest collection, the first since being bought by the US fashion group Capri Holding Limited.

The opening look had a bondage image printed cheekily on the front of a shirt, worn over dark trousers and with a leather overcoat. Repeated as a motif, bondage became as banal as a bandana print on a blouson. Then, there was winter bondage for her, underneath puffer jackets, and office bondage for him and her, with the back of suit jackets held together with O-rings, showing off colorful satiny prints.

The looks also veered toward cozy, with warm scarves and fuzzy sweaters bearing a new Versace logo, a V encircled by a G. But the Versace man also is not afraid of feminine touches, like colorful boas peeking out of suit jackets, bejeweled broches, crystal encrusted jeans and least of all, colorful embroidered silken boxers with a prominent Versace label peeking out of trousers, or on their own with a sober black suit jacket and button-up dress shirt.

Ermenegildo Zegna

Menswear fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna showed Friday evening under the cavernous arched ceilings of Milan’s fascist-era train station, offering cups of mulled wine to warm spectators before the show.

The space in the entrance hall was replete with symbolism. Thousands of commuters and travelers rush through each day. But the hall’s mezzanine was also used as a way station for thousands of migrants who had arrived by sea in the south and were making their way to northern Europe from 2013-2015.

Designer Alessandro Sartori seemed to have both in mind, writing that he chose the venue as “a place of arrivals and departures, but also integration and acceptance of diversity.”

Dolce & Gabbana

If Dolce & Gabbana are still stinging over a backlash in China, they sought to salve it in Milan with quiet elegance.

The runway show Saturday was the brand’s first major outing after being forced to cancel a Shanghai show in November amid accusations of cultural insensitivity. The pace of the Milan show was slow and determined, as designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana subbed out Millennials for millionaires.

The collection contained an array of timeless looks for the global dandy, from an American Great Gatsby, a Sicilian noble or, yes, even a Chinese tycoon. The designers put the focus on workmanship, with tailors cutting and stitching in the background.

M1992

The fifth collection by the M1992 label founded by former DJ Dorian Tarantini featured sophisticated streetwear looks that appeared at home against the pastel shaded ballroom of one of Milan’s most elegant hotels, the Principe di Savoia.

The hotel was also where the late Gianfranco Ferre showed in the 1970s and 1980s.

Tarantini said the collection was inspired by the British subculture of past decades, with equal part glam, tartan and sport.