More menswear, FW 07/08
January 21st, 2007Milan men’s fashion week has ended, but the late winter fashion frenzy continues – tomorrow the Paris women’s haute couture shows begin, followed immediately after that by the Paris menswear shows. How very exciting.
In the meantime, here’re more emerging style notes:
(1) Designers are experimenting with excess length in sleeves and hems, particularly for knits. At the Burberry Prorsum show, designer Christoper Bailey’s opening look included a slouchy knit version of that house’s iconic trench coat, while several inches worth of sweater sleeves crept out under the coat and blazer sleeves of many of the other models. Over at Prada models were enveloped in mammoth woolly coats and fuzzy sweaters of epic proportions. Even at the usually body-conscious Dolce & Gabbana, loosely-draped sweaters with dropped hems were shown in heavy fabrics and cinched somewhere around the hips with hidden drawstrings.
(2) Worn, faded and distressed denim is completely out. When the key and leading purveyors of destroyed, treated and embellished designer jeans – Dsquared2 and Dolce & Gabbana – present only dark, polished and razor sharp tailored denim on their FW 07/08 runways, you know it’s time to retire the frayed, ripped bootcuts and get a new pair of straightlegs.
(3) Little things I liked from the Milan shows include: the carrying of two unmatched bags seen at Fendi (as women have long known, having two different tote bags is both practical and more interesting style-wise); the silver skinny tie, trainers and gloves as seen at Alessandro Dell’Acqua (and Dolce & Gabbana); the miles of fur seen at Prada (and Burberry), especially the mixing of different pelts and the use of a few feather accents as lapel pins – gorgeous! I now really want (and will almost certainly not get) a pair of yak-hair or goat-hair mukluks, a fur-lined (though shearling will do) vest or coat, and a pair of oversized fur mitts. Of course the ridiculously warm winter we’ve been having here in Boston is discouraging me from seriously considering these purchases. Even with the past three days of below freezing weather, almost the first we’ve had all season.
(4) Little thing I didn’t like from the shows: the prevalence of tights or sweatpants that appeared everywhere, from Marni to Jil Sander to Prada to Fendi. Ugh.
PS: Oh, and on a grooming note, long hair has all but vanished from the runways, leaving a desultory one or two at Alexander MacQueen. After all, this is the season of the shaved-head Chad White.