When the going gets tough, the tough should take a long sabbatical. So think numerous designers anyway, judging by the spring/summer 2009 men’s wear collections shown this week in Milan.
Even allowing for the fact that Italian spring lines rarely contain many “work” clothes, the amount of non-office gear this season was notable. From Roberto Cavalli’s Bohemian Safari show – featuring a photograph of an Africa sunset superimposed on loose kaftans and printed jeans – to Salvatore Ferragamo’s one-button suits inspired by the pinks and imperial azures of Jaipur, to Giorgio Armani’s East Meets West shantung dhoti “trousers” with scarf belts, the pieces were clearly intended for a holiday (enforced or not) as opposed to a meeting.
Meanwhile, Dolce & Gabbana sent out smooth Mediterranean dandies in silky stripe suits à la St Tropez gigolo, while Prada offered raincoats in rubber, and blousons and jackets with interior halter necks worn over pyjamas, all ideal for a forgetful gentleman aesthete taking time off in the country to work on his first novel. Even at Brioni, that most upper crust of brands, designer Jason Basmajian themed his show “From Boardroom to Beach”, opening with a natty white towelling blazer with navy blue trim.
Then there was Gucci, where creative director Frida Giannini sewed tropical flowers on everything from torn striped jeans to white cricket boots or jacquard tuxedos. And Fendi, where Silvia Fendi used expensive fabrics and skins in revamped versions of peasant and worker garments to create a fashionable version of arte povera.
The most common trousers on the runway were, in fact, not trousers at all but pyjama bottoms, such as the broad striped models that opened the cool and beautiful Bottega Veneta collection. (Don’t sneer and say it’s a runway stunt: Bottega Veneta wracked up a 49 per cent increase in sales in 2007 to €366m. Clearly their finger is on the pulse of something.)
Though economists like to trot out their hemline theory of economic prediction – you know the one: when skirts go up, so does the Dow – there’s no reason men’s wear shouldn’t be given equal weight as a barometer of what is to come. Burberry, certainly, seemed to be expecting a downturn, as creative director Christopher Bailey did an about-face from last season’s shiny finishes, posh aristocrat military dandies, metallic trims and colours to stage a muddy affair, with crumpled jackets for guys whose career straits appeared to have forced them to lay off their cleaning lady.
Distraction from the gloom came thanks to Vivienne Westwood, who was attacked by local politicians for using gypsies as a source of inspiration. Her show featured boots made of carpet, shirts in patchworks of prints and florals, and a model with a pitbull on a leash, a mere month after a mob in Naples set fire to the shacks in a gypsy camp in protest against prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s crackdown on illegal education.
“I didn’t know there was this whole problem here when I designed the collection,” shrugged Dame Vivienne. “I know gypsies are tough but there’s a certain poetry in how they dress.”
Tom Ford, too, provided an antidote to the dour atmosphere, returning in triumph to Milan, the city he left after resigning from Gucci, to open a four-floor emporium for the new international rich, where a “better pair” of diamond cufflinks are priced at $40,000. “We’ve had no price resistance to our products,” Ford said, noting that his crocodile boots “cost $12,000” and his suits start at $3,800.
“Forget America. America is finished,” crowed Ford in his brand palazzo. “America is the last century. It’s over. Its like England and France in the 20th century. It’s not about America; it’s about the rest of the world. You have countries like Russia and China that are materialistic countries, that have historically been some of the most materialistic cultures on the planet and they have been denied materialism for the last 80 years. And they are ready now, and they want to spend on one thing – the best!” So what if one set of consumers gets pink-slipped? There’s always a new group to take their place!
But there was, at least in Milan, a third way of looking at the situation: neither cut your losses and embrace new markets nor mourn the old hedge funds. Rather, assume some day in the future it’s all going to get better again. Witness Calvin Klein’s suits in techy-finish cottons that looked ideal for a man on a mission to a sophisticated space station (if you can’t get a job on this planet, there are always other frontiers), and Alexander McQueen’s John Steed suits with sleeves and sides in optical-illusion jagged checks, and sleek jackets in burgundy nylon with transparent stripes separating the sleeve from torso.
McQueen also sent out the most admired look of the season: an evening jacket whose plumes of cigarette smoke were not simple prints but actually woven into the fabric with the help of a computer program.
As it happens, Donatella Versace used the same trick in her Miami pastel collection. She even left a smoke trail on flowery blue knits and beachside T-shirts, in a show where many models carried computer satchels ideal for a lazy terrace e-mailing session.
Apparently, when things look bad, emotional crutches start looking good. It may not be politically correct but it is subversively attractive. And think of all those exotic countries that haven’t yet banned smoking in public places. Now, if you can’t go there in person, at least you can go there in wardrobe.
