The highlights of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2027 – as they happen

Ralph Lauren is having a moment

Polo Ralph Lauren’s Pony motif has already proved ubiquitous this Men’s Fashion Month as guests adopt the American powerhouse’s Ivy League stylings through their personal wardrobes (in part helped by the embrace of preppy dress codes at other buzzy brands like Celine and Dior in recent seasons).

This evening at the Palazzo Ralph Lauren in Milan on the first evening of the city’s fashion week, its eponymous designer capitalised on the moment with an expansive and eclectic S/S 2027 runway show comprising both the Polo and Ralph Lauren Purple Label collections – designed to outfit the wearer through his various summertime pursuits.

‘When I began designing menswear, my inspiration came from the ease and traditions of collegiate style,’ Lauren wrote in a letter to attendees. ‘These collections are inspired by that spirit. It was about character and camaraderie.’ JM

Umit Benan is creating some of Milan’s best menswer

Some of the most compelling collections in Milan are often found off the runway: case in point, the Stuttgart-born, Milan-based designer Umit Benan’s S/S 2027 offering, presented in his airy headquarters on Via Bigli (the brand’s beautiful Martin Brûlé-designed store across the road is also well worth a visit; today, it turned into an impromptu flower shop). Crafted from superlative fabrics – this season, silk and linen mixes, lightweight suede and superfine cashmere – Benan reimagines quotidian garments in luxurious style, though the effect is never overwrought (encapsulating this was a pair of silk pyjamas designed to be worn like tailoring). Most striking, though, was the palette: alongside his usual grounding hues of brown, tan, beige and navy were enlivening shots of pink, banana yellow and sky blue. JM

Dunhill S/S 2027 calls to mind ‘generations of Englishmen’

Image 1 of 5

During the presentation at Villa Mozart this morning, creative director Simon Holloway described the Dunhill S/S 2027 collection to Wallpaper* as: ‘a bit of a love letter to the blue blazer’. The letter itself might have been composed by any number of debonair gentlemen – Roger Moore, Lucian Freud, Lord Snowdon – who were on Holloway’s mind this season, as he furthered his ‘character study of British masculine identity’. The ‘blue blazer’ was interpreted as a sports coat in worsted cashmere panama, woven in Huddersfield; as a double-faced reefer coat made from rare Escorial wool; or reimagined in vivid aquamarine in addition to the traditional navy.

A timeless, cinematic quality was lent by details like an archival Art Deco table lighter adorned with playing-card motifs, 1980s-inspired superfine kid mohair, and silk dupioni evening suits ‘woven on antique looms dating to the 1960s’. IBJ

Church’s takes over the Fondazione Adolfo Pini

Image 1 of 5

It is rare to find yourself at a location during Milan Fashion Week which has not before been used to host a runway show or presentation – such was the case this morning at Church’s, seeing the British shoemaker present its S/S 2027 collection in the Fondazione Adolfo Pini on Corso Garibaldi. Once the home and studio of Italian painter Renzo Bongiovanni Radice, the 19th-century building houses artworks and furnishings from his collection, providing a serene setting for the collection, as well as pieces from the Church’s archive (their oldest shoe, and first catalogue, were on display). Highlights including a new slouchy slipper in various shades of suede and leather – perfect for padding the halls of Milanese residences like these. JM

Caruso conjures the spirit of Irving Penn

Image 1 of 5

The singular visual world of Irving Penn provided the inspiration for Caruso’s S/S 2027 presentation at Grand Hotel et de Milan this morning. Within a set built from mirrors, echoing the clean lines and corners Penn used as backdrops for his portraiture, the collection palette was anchored in greyscale, punctuated by fruity shades and floral prints (Penn was, afterall, one of the greatest photographers of food and flowers of all time).

The brand’s mission statement for the season was to define ‘a man who constructs his presence through proportion, detail, and quality,’ and accordingly, offered up pared back tailoring essentials, with an emphasis on materiality and a defined silhouette. IBJ

Dolce & Gabbana goes on a Sicilian holiday

The island of Sicily has been a perennial inspiration for Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, with next month’s Alta Moda show – the house’s equivalent to haute couture – taking place in the ancient seaside town of Taormina (Dolce was born on the Italian island, and it has become something of a spiritual home for the brand). This season’s menswear show once again looked towards the locale for a collection titled ‘Vacanze Siciliana’ (‘Sicilian Holiday’): backdropped by a film of Taormina’s Isola Bella from dawn to dusk, models wandered into the runway as if returning from a day at the beach, some clad in robes and branded trunks, others swimming shorts, linen shirts, vests and silk pyjamas. Elsewhere, house signatures returned – from broderie anglais short sets to citrus prints, as well as plenty of surface embellishment, like jeans adorned with crystal jewels. It feels like a sweet spot for the label to drill into a high summer mood – after all, come August, its customers are likely to be found island-hopping in the Med. JM

Variations on a theme at Brioni

The collection on display today at Palazzo del Senato was just one version of what Brioni’s customers will be able to purchase for the S/S 2027 season – personalisation and customisation being at the heart of this summer’s offering. ‘Elevating the brand’s bespoke excellence to new levels of exclusivity,’ Brioni’s intention with this collection, titled Brioni Maestria, was to balance established customs of tailoring with the whims of self-expression. Thus we saw a refined edit of elegant suiting which can be made one’s own with variations in – in addition to the fabric itself – buttons, linings, combinations, and technical specifications. IBJ

Paul Smith finds joy in the suit

Image 1 of 5

Paul Smith is a lifelong wearer of suits: after his S/S 2027 runway show yesterday, held at his Milanese headquarters, the British designer said that he has worn tailoring almost every day of his adult life, even in the height of pandemic lockdowns while stuck at home. Seeing the suit as something liberatory, rather than restricting, the brilliant summer collection saw him look into his Nottingham archive for inspiration (the facility houses over 5,000 garments), honing in on styles from the 1980s where silhouettes were loosened up as a riposte to the ‘uniform and rigid’ tailoring of the decades prior. Another inspiration was a photograph of his grandfather on holiday wearing a suit in the sea, trousers rolled up to the ankle, and this sense of impromptu ease permeated the collection – shirts were unbuttoned, cuffs of suits and shirts pulled up, and ties undone – while charm-like jewellery featured pewter shells, boats and pennies, evoking keepsakes from a trip to the beach. JM

At MSGM, Massimo Giorgetti goes back to his roots

Massimo Giorgetti chose Ordet – a contemporary art gallery in Milan’s Città Studito neighbourhood – to present a vivid S/S 2027 collection for MSGM, honing in on the original spirit of the Milanese label, which he founded in 2009. Namely: a vivid use of colour and print (neon paisleys; a multitude of stripes, often layered in a single look), as well as a broad range of clashing references, from tweed two-sets to studded western jackets. Artworks by Los Angeles and London-based artist P. Staff accompanied the presentation – the trippy video installation explored themes of ‘dreaming, excitement, inebriation and exhaustion’ – while later in the evening, the designer hosted dinner at Ligurian restaurant U Barba, a nod to the region where Giorgetti owns a seaside home. JM

Prada lights up for S/S 2027

Each season, the Deposito space in Fondazione Prada is transformed by OMA for the house’s fashion shows, an over-25-year-long collaboration which has redefined runway architecture. This season, a vast Perspex floor has been installed in the hangar-like space; underneath, a series of glowing strip lights (matching clear Perspex benches provide the show’s seating). It echoes the invitation for the show: a Prada-branded light stick, like those you might wield at a pop concert (albeit it in sleek, minimal style). What does it all mean? The show starts shortly… JM

Prada strips it back

Image 1 of 4

‘An exercise in clarity,’ is how Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons described their S/S 2027 menswear collection, which was presented on a clear Perspex runway at Fondazione Prada this afternoon.

Opening with model Julia Nobis, the collection was about a ‘highly controlled silhouette,’ which largely drew on the shape of jeans and jean jackets, reimagined in different fabrications – from brightly hued leather to a sheer material that revealed the construction beneath. The T-shirt was also revisited in elongated proportions, while accessories included bags which hung off belt loops, or silk scarves tied around the waist.

‘The ambition was to do something new with "nothing" against exaggeration, against complex material. Against useless design,’ the designers said. ‘The new silhouette is fundamental. There was something compelling about reiteration, about this focus.’ JM

Canali’s transcontinental spice route

Alessio Lillocci took spice as his theme for Canali’s S/S 2027 presentation – the plants themselves, with their heady fragrances and colours, but also the routes they have historically been traded upon. Pulling from regions from South Asia, East Africa, and the Mediterranean, the collection unfolded in shades of cardamom, sesame and star anise, and was conceived with layering in mind; like flavours in a dish, or the way an intrepid traveller might adjust his apparel to suit the climate and culture he finds himself in. IBJ

‘It’s against useless design’: Read our full review of the Prada show

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons called their latest menswear collection, shown yesterday afternoon at Milan Fashion Week, ‘an exercise in clarity’. The runway was made from clear Perspex; underneath, row upon row of strip lighting, as if models were striding along an enormous light box, like those used by photographers to spot imperfections in their negatives.

Prior to the show, the designers said that they were putting menswear’s fundamental garments under their own scrutiny: most notably, the denim jean, a piece of clothing so ubiquitous that it is still being worn despite Milan’s close-to-40-degree heat. Others were the T-shirt (also ubiquitous, including being worn by Mrs Prada herself, underneath a duster coat), the denim jacket, the blazer and the leather blouson. They called them ‘striking in their pragmatism… a framework for ceaseless possibility and reinterpretation.’

Continue reding here: Prada’s latest menswear collection strips things back: ‘It’s against useless design’

The essence of summer at Brunello Cucinelli

Capturing the mood of a sweltering week, Brunello Cucinelli’s S/S 2027 presentation at their Milan HQ featured sun-bleached cable knit sweaters, and dusty shades of apricot, peach blossom, vanilla, aqua green, and powder. The effect was a feeling of clothes which have already lived a life: beautifully imperfect, time-worn, loved (and slightly heat-exhausted). IBJ

Thom Browne's show set featured 400 seersucker plant pots

Four-hundred plant pots, covered in the Thom Browne signature seersucker and filled with fabricated tall-stem roses, punctuated the gravel courtyard at Palazzo Serbelloni this afternoon – marking the brand’s return to Italy for the first time since 2008. The pots were ‘arranged in a grid, reflecting the symmetry in the neoclassical porticoes’, in front of which guests sheltered from the sun under black umbrellas. IBJ

Thom Browne brings his magic to Milan

Image 1 of 3

Set amid 400 seersucker flowerpots in the courtyard of Palazzo Serbelloni, Thom Browne brought his signature wit and whimsy to Milan Fashion Week with his first Italian show since 2008.

A typically theatrical outing, models donned beekeeper-style hats and wore versions of Thom Browne’s signature tailoring – here largely cut from summer seersucker – adorned with bugs and flowers. It ended with a ‘bride’ in a white suit and tulle cape, before Browne took the runway for a final bow in a frog-shaped headpiece.

‘I’m always trying to push people to think differently about tailoring, but all rooted in that original idea behind the grey suit,’ the American designer told Wallpaper*. ‘An evolution but never a change.’ JM

Up close at the Prada showroom

Image 1 of 8

A closer look at Prada’s precise and focused offering for the season, ‘an antidote to complication,’ where clean colour and clever fabrication won out over extraneous embellishment. The most perfect versions of menswear staples. IBJ

Giorgio Armani hosts a Mediterranean market

Image 1 of 5

Breaking with tradition, Giorgio Armani showed its latest collection in the courtyard of Palazzo Orisini – the historic headquarters of the house and the former private residence of the late eponymous designer – instead of the usual purpose-built showspace in the building’s basement. It was reflective of the collection’s mood: titled ‘Mediterranean Market’, the open-air space was covered in rattan mats and Moroccan-style seating, while the collection drew on Mediterranean codes of dress, seeing louche tailoring, safari-style jackets and gilets, and open-weave knits in earthy desert tones and blues that evoked of sea and sky. Alongside the menswear collection, designed by longtime Giorgio Armani collaborator Leo Dell’Orco, Silvana Armani – Mr Armani’s niece – presented a Cruise 2027 collection, which mined similar codes, albeit with flourishes of glamour, like a closing series of looks rich in surface embellishment. After the show, the doors opened to the Brera residence’s bucolic gardens for an impromptu party. JM