Italian Fashion Watch

Italian designer team Dolce & Gabbana took a military theme to kit out men next summer, ranging from fatigues with tiny lights that glowed in the dark to camouflage patterned swim trunks.

On the first day of Milan’s spring/summer 2008 menswear collections on Saturday, Dolce & Gabbana’s signature line show was colored in army-inspired khakis, navy, black and white.

Models had tattoos and military-style haircuts, and wore baseball caps or square-crowned peaked soldiers’ hats.

Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce loaded fatigue-style trousers with pockets and webbing holders for phones or hip flasks, adding a kit bag in black leather and mud-tone canvas to carry any extras.

They stretched and squared classic camouflage print and used it on T-shirts and mini swimming trunks - a style of beachwear the duo are currently using in a white version for eye-catching adverts for men’s perfume range Light Blue.

Dolce & Gabbana suggested bermuda shorts in prints of blue and white florals with beige and maroon broad striped shirts.

Waistcoats were on show at Versace as well, as Donatella Versace pared them down to a T shape.

Trench coat shapes stopped short at the waist, shirts were long enough to double up as jackets and there were silky pastel colored cowls on T shirts.

The collection, which had no shorts, no beachwear and no swimwear, stuck to a formal, tailored theme in single-breasted suits and pleat-front trousers.

Versace, known for her glitzy designs for womenswear, fished for fabrics worn by oystercatchers 70 years ago to dress her men, painting silk protein on cotton for a waterproof shine.

The show of Gianfranco Ferre, who died on June 17 after a brain hemorrhage, was yesterday.

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.

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.

The company launched its renovated flagship store in Beverly Hills, unveiling a sleeker, more understated side of the decadent Versace style. In addition, creative director Donatella Versace will accept the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style award on Thursday night.

The 5,000-square-foot unit here was the first that the company overhauled from top to bottom.

“Everything is completely brand new, from the floors to the shelves to the ceiling,” said Roberto Lorenzini, president and chief operating officer of Versace USA.

The black-and-white color scheme is accented with Italian crystal display units and glossy black terrazzo marble floors, juxtaposed with matte white walls and ceilings.

“This is a new concept defined by Milan,” Lorenzini said. “For the U.S. market, the renovation is definitely an important step for us, because it’s going to show what Versace is becoming…The boutique is more sophisticated, elegant and modern.”

The store maintains a Rodeo Drive address — 248 North Rodeo Drive — but is located in the open-air Two Rodeo shopping complex, which intersects the iconic shopping street. Tiffany & Co., Gianfranco Ferré, Badgley Mischka and Gucci Fine Jewelry are among Versace’s neighbors in the center.

Last year, Gianfranco Ferre has collaborated with Julia Roberts, who promoted his creation with an enormous success.

This season, Ferre decided to hire Skin, the lead vocalist of Skunk Anastasie, which disbanded in 2001. Now, at 29, she’s got her own band.

In the next ad campaign for Ferre, she will be partnered with Patrick Petitjean.

“Strength and charm, energy and sensuality are, for me, indivisible in contemporary femininity. In choosing Skin - her body, the expressiveness of her eyes, her face most of all - I consciously put a special accent on the free, natural, easy and even aggressive spirit I sought… Yet, without forgetting the notes of composure, grace and languor I always consider essential. These surely contrasting and contradictory qualities I identify in Skin, as the primary and innate elements of her singular allure,” said Ferre.

The campaign will be shot by Mario Testino, with Skin and Petitjean in a nightclub setting with an imperial purple silk background.

In a season where every designer tried to present as many flashy items as possible, Gianfranco Ferre kept its traditional style without being influenced by this new trend.

The show took place at his headquarters in via Pontaccio, where he displayed modern designs with a somewhat classical appearance.

He proved to the audience that he really is a master at designing shirts, which were worn by some of today’s most talented models.

The hottest moment of the show was when beautiful models such as Natasha Poly or Bianca Balti ran down the catwalk wearing Ferre’s new collection of lingerie. The whole crowd was watching intensely.

In the end, Ferre took a huge round of applause from his audience, glad that he has offered them a fabulous fashion show.