Italian Fashion Watch

Lots of glitter and excitement too far to the west as Milan fashion week continues. Tuesday, fashion house Marni showed its Summer 2008 Menswear collection. Unlike many other collections shown this week, Marni steered away from bright colors, opting instead for minimal, simple designs that played with the usual silhouettes. Luxury fashion label, Gucci also showed its Menswear Summer 2008 collection. Let’s take a closer look.

The show paid homage to 1950’s Italy. It featured suits with bold checks, striped polo shirts and soft post-war trousers.

There were hints of “Rebel Without a Cause,” too. Gucci’s slim versions of biker jackets and other retro styles gave prominence to the Gucci name right up front. It’s normally something you’d see on preppy university gear.

Valentino and Giorgio Armani are accustomed to seeing the world’s highest profile men step out in their beautifully tailored suits. But the pair were showcasing a rather different approach to the wardrobe staple during their collections for spring/summer 2008 Milan Fashion Week.

Valentino added a colonial flavour to his show which, with its sports jackets in luxurious fabrics, emphasised the classic elegance the 45-year-old label is renowned for. Armani, on the other hand, deconstructed the jacket to have it serve like a shirt, worn over a bare torso and waistcoat. Adding another take on the suit for next spring/summer was British designer John Richmond, whose collection married English dandy with Sicilian bandit.

Sportswear was a big focus for many of the designers, including Alexander McQueen. The Londoner had taken inspiration from surfer dudes, presenting fluorescent lycra leggings, hippie style T-shirts, Sixties slogan prints, and Bermuda shorts. The surfer look was echoed at Burberry where dropped-crotch trousers imitated the silhouette of surfers easing themselves out of a wet suit.

Motor racing, however, was the theme at Dsquared2 where buff models donned pit-style overalls and Formula One patches adorned denim jeans and leather jackets.

Less was clearly more when it came to beachwear at Dolce & Gabbana, with the Dutch design duo showing uber-minimalist swimming trunks. The glamorous label also gave a young urban take on contemporary menswear though linen shirts and scrunched up combats.

While many of the catwalks kept to a typical summer palette of creams, light greys and pastels, the Moschino runway was a riot of colour, reflecting the designer’s homage to the Eighties. Brightly hued trench coats in sizzling orange mingled with white trousers and pink sock combos topped with fluorescent hats.

After several seasons when it seemed that Italian style was always on vacation, designers have put their men back into city “civvies” for the Summer 2008.

Shorts and bathing trunks are relegated to a few pool side moments, with trousers and jackets the favorite warm weather garb. Suits complete with white shirt and silk tie also contribute to the return of office wear.

The five-day round of menswear preview showings for next year’s summer season which ended here Wednesday, did away with the jeans mania which has flooded the market in recent years, and replaced denim with shiny techno fabrics, and soft cotton jersey. Neoprene is the favorite new material.

Despite being elegant, styles are rarely uptight, with jackets so soft they look like sweaters and a loose cut for trousers. Low-waisted, baggy pants are definitely out, bringing belts back in fashion. This round also cuts short the life of the Bermuda suit introduced several seasons ago.

In the sweater department, the new look includes zipped hooded versions in cashmere or nylon, as well as pullovers in see-through gauze. A generous cowl neck replaces the recently revived turtleneck.

 Gone are sweat pants and track suits, to be replaced by overalls, the most popular sports item of the season. For the more adventurous, some designers offered evening overalls in shiny silk.

To underline the return to dressing up, the designers adorn their evening wear with rich embroidery and luxurious crystal beading. In more than one collection, the satin seams of tuxedo pants are fashioned in shiny metal.

Silk pajamas are offered as an alternative to black tie dressing.

Checkered fabrics are back next summer, giving a 1970s feel to this round of “moda Milanese.” Other favorites are houndstooth and Madras plaid. Leather as usual plays a big role in Italian menswear.

The color palette sticks to staple black, white and gray, with hints of faded pink and blue, and a few wild moments of bright yellow, purple and green.

The winner in the footwear department is the sandal, or as some dub it, the “mandal,” showing up in a myriad of versions from the thong to the trekking sandal to the Greek sandal strapped around the calf. At times the new sandal was worn with socks — up to now most unfashionable — and was also shown under a daytime suit or an evening pajama.

Sneakers take a step back this round, with pointy-toed shoes often in luxurious reptile skins the runner-up to the sandal.

Hairstyles next summer are short and boyish, either tufted or wind blown, but never unkempt.

All said it was a good round of fashion, with Milan miraculously spared the heat wave that gripped most of Italy, and buyers happy to be given the opportunity to dress up their clients again.

The week began in sadness with the unexpected death of designer Gianfranco Ferre, exactly a week before the presentation of his new collection set for this past Sunday. The show went on as scheduled, and ended with a three minute standing ovation as a bevy of barefooted little boys came down the catwalk wearing pristine white Ferre shirts.

Italian luxury group Fendi will hold a fashion show on the Great Wall in China in October as parent company, LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton, seeks to double its sales by 2008.

“It’s true,” said a spokeswoman for LVMH, confirming a report in France’s Les Echos newspaper.

LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault has said repeatedly he sees potential for Fendi to become a “star brand” alongside LVMH stablemates such as leather-goods maker Louis Vuitton and TAG Heuer watches.

“We can’t be a global luxury group without a strong Italian brand,” Fendi Chief Executive Michael Burke told Les Echos.

Missoni recently entered the fragrance market. With an experience of over 50 years in the fashion and luxury industry, moving into the perfume market makes perfect sense and will most likely be a terrific success.

For now, they only have a perfume collection for women. From the articles I read so far, I understand they have a whole image of what the “Missoni woman” should be. They seem to know their target audience very well, so I expect great things in the future.

“The fragrance draws upon Missoni’s 50 year heritage of luxe sensuality and embraces a ‘passione’ for life,” said Veronique Gabai-Pinsky, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Missoni Profumi.

“The Missoni woman loves the emotion of color and loves to express herself with it, be it in clothes, décor or even fragrance,” said Angela Missoni, Creative Director of the Missoni Women’s Collection. “She lives with a passion – for style, for love, for family, for life.”

Gianfranco Ferre, the Italian designer known as the «architect of fashion» for his structured, sculpted shapes and for his groundbreaking tenure at Christian Dior, died Sunday, a hospital said. He was 62.

Ferre was taken to the San Raffaele hospital in Milan on Friday after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. The hospital, in a statement authorized by Ferre’s family, said he died at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) Sunday.

Ferre started his career as an accessories and jewelry designer, and then moved on to clothes. His unofficial title as Italy’s architect of fashion came thanks to the degree in architecture he obtained in 1969 from Milan’s Polytechnic Institute that inspired his designs.

He started his own company in the mid-1970s, but his major leap came in 1989, when he was tapped by Bernard Arnault to be the top designer for Christian Dior. At the time, it was almost unheard of for a non-French designer to take the reins of the venerable Parisian house.

Ferre stayed on at Dior until the fall of 1996, when he returned to Milan to tend to his own men’s and women’s collections.

Ferre’s style was based on simple and structured lines, and the white blouse became one of his trademarks. His suits were used by businesswomen around the world looking for a sophisticated look.

For the evening, Ferre often made important dresses with ample skirts supported by layers of crinoline.

Ferre himself cut a unique figure, a big teddy bear of a man dressed impeccably in three-piece suits.

Condolences from Italy’s top designers poured in as word of his death spread _ just days before the menswear spring-summer 2008 collections were to get under way in Milan later this week.

Giorgio Armani, perhaps the king of the «Made in Italy» world to which Ferre also belonged, said he had long admired Ferre’s artistic and intellectual work.

«When I think of Gianfranco Ferre, the idea that comes immediately to mind is the dignity, the calm, the sense of responsibility that he brought to his work,» Armani said, according to the ANSA news agency.

Donatella Versace called Ferre a man «from another time» who helped change Italian fashion.

«He was a great couturier who knew how to create an absolute chic with details that I will never get tired of looking at and that will remain in the history of fashion,» the agency quoted Versace as saying.

Roberto Cavalli said Ferre represented «the highest level of style, of artisanship, of creativity.

«A true artist, pure, a beautiful person who will be missed by the whole fashion world,» he said.

In 2002, Ferre sold Gianfranco Ferre to It Holding, but he stayed on as creative director. His spring-summer 2008 menswear collection is scheduled to be presented next week in Milan.

Born Aug. 15, 1944 in Legnano, in northern Italy, Ferre worked and lived in India for several years. His passion for travel and world cultures was often reflected in his collections.

He is survived by a brother and sister-in-law, as well as a cousin, Rita Airaghi, who served as his longtime assistant.

Giorgio Armani Beauty, a division of L’Oreal USA, won two FiFi’s at the 35th Annual American FiFi Awards.

The FiFi Awards are designed to honor the extraordinary creativity of the international fragrance industry in America.

Armani/Prive Cuir Amethyste, the newest addition to Giorgio Armani’s private collection of fragrances, won Best Packaging of the Year, Men’s Prestige; and Best Packaging of the Year, Women’s Prestige.

As the latest addition to the Giorgio Armani Beauty stable, the Armani/Prive Cuir Amethyste fragrance continues to support Mr. Armani’s sense of style.

Like his fashion designs, the fragrance is the expression of sophisticated elegance and was created with simple, rich materials of the highest quality.

To quote Mr. Armani, “I approach every fragrance from a personal standpoint, but these days fragrances are the intimate democratization of fashion.

They exist to allow everyone to own a piece of a designer’s creativity.”