Milan Fashion Week: menswear

Bottega Veneta, Spring/Summer '09 (scroll down to read the review)
Bottega Veneta
The focal point of Tomas Maier's Bottega Veneta collection was the jacket he used as a way of bridging the gap between suit and jean dressing. He called it an 'extended meditation' on the jacket and proposed a few options (31 to be precise) from the unlined - as soft as a pyjama - to the more tailored - Neopolitan style in lightweight cashmere with a rolled shoulder - through to dinner jackets in silk shantung.

Best of all were the double jackets in shirt weight cotton poplin, which appeared to be two separate pieces but were in fact one made of two layers, the longer one underneath. Cut in the same cloth, in some cases they replace the need for a shirt at all, otherwise Maier proposed a matching shirt, beneath. In other cases he added flashes of colour under the collars and pocket flaps, giving a trompe-l'oeil effect shadow.