Milan Menswear Autumn/Winter 2008

Bottega Veneta
Utilitarian workwear (as in manual labourers) is not something that you would normally expect to find at Bottega Veneta, the home of ultra-sophisticated understated luxury. But then the carpenter pants, jumpsuits and other garments that had originated, like the humble jean, from workwear have had the Tomas Maier treatment.

Take the new baggy pant, cut in laundered cotton backed in soft poplin giving weight without stiffness, to the untrained eye they are nothing special but to those in the know they are the pant they have been searching for (thanks to the cut, fit, shade of white, their low rise and the top stitching).

And that in a way is the point; these are clothes that are anonymous to all but a few. Maier mixed these cotton pieces successfully with Neapolitan-style formal tailoring (fluid with a high roll on the shoulder) in more traditional materials like British woollens and Italian cashmere. It worked.

Images: Catwalking.com