Milan Fashion Week: menswear

Salvatore Ferragamo
Programme notes referred to ‘A Passage to India’, yet the references were subtle rather than literal. It could also be that the pioneering brand, always up for venturing into new territories (they entered China back in 1994), are keen to expand their presence in India, a market where they just signed a new joint venture.

The show opened with all white, and moved through to the softest palest greys, off whites and dusty sand, accented now and again with bright spicy colour like orange, fuchsia and blue.

There was an emphasis on hand-work, like crochet, embroidery and pleating and plenty of ‘decoration’ in the form of pearls and garlands of flowers (made from pleated cloth) ceremoniously draped round the necks of the models. Dress shirts came with extraordinary origami-pleated plastrons, which were almost three-dimensional.

There were some very good lightweight cottons suits: most wanted had a tie dye effect (the more subtle were best). They looked like the garments had been left out under the Indian sun for too long - all part of the Milan trend for laundered and lived-in garments.

Images: Catwalking.com