Spring has arrived – and with it, that irresistible urge to get away (if it ever really left). It’s time to dust off your passport, start planning, and say yes to new adventures. Whether you’re booking a spontaneous weekend escape or mapping out something further afield, a little smart prep goes a long way.

From versatile luggage and bags perfect for quick getaways to must-have tech, beauty essentials, and clever hacks to outsmart travel’s usual health pitfalls, we’ve rounded up everything you need. The goal? To help you pack smarter, stay comfortable, look fresh, and – most importantly – keep things stress-free wherever you’re headed.

The Wallpaper* guide to spring travel essentials

The 109th edition of Pitti Uomo, the historic menswear fair that takes over the 14th-century Fortezza da Basso in the centre of Florence twice a year, drew to a conclusion yesterday (15 January). With two rising Japanese guest designers on the bill this season, and a spotlight on a disruptive next gen of Korean fashion, it was a bumper year for East Asian talent at the fair – a theme organisers leaned into with a series of tangential talks and events, including bringing Tokyo’s Sebiro Sanpo (suit walk) to Italy for the first time, where hundreds of men walk the streets in their sharpest tailoring.

As for the shows, Shinya Kozuka staged a poetic snowstorm in a hall behind the medieval fortress, while on Thursday afternoon, 2025’s LVMH Prize winner Soshi Otsuki received a standing ovation for his masterfully crafted exploration of 1980s power suiting, making for one of the most talked-about displays of the week. But it was Israel-born Hed Mayner who took centre stage, presenting his headline runway in a 1930s palace next to Santa Maria Novella train station – a collection that twisted familiar wardrobe icons through beautifully ‘wrong’ construction.

As fashion crowds take the two-hour train north for Milan Fashion Week Men’s A/W 2026, catch up on the best of Pitti Uomo here.

Tokyo’s Sebiro Sanpo (suit walk) comes to Florence

Walking around Florence throughout the week of Pitti Uomo, you’ll see hundreds of well-heeled men on every corner, with cafés a flurry of flamboyant suits and bars filled with Scandi gorpcore groups enjoying aperitivo. On the first afternoon of the trade show, however, a sight emerged outside the usual visiting hubbub – 200 menswear lovers and industry figures walking through the streets of the city in their finest tailoring.

Drawing intrigue from onlookers as they moved from Fortezza da Basso down to Santa Maria Novella square, the spectacle marked the first official Sebiro Sanpo (suit walk) in Italy – an event originating in Tokyo that invites menswear fans across Japan to gather and stroll in their favourite suit. Organised with fabric mill Vitale Barberis Canonico, which supplies materials to Zegna and Drake’s, it marked a joyful kick off this edition of Pitti, and a week where Japanese menswear culture was firmly in the spotlight.

Brunello Cucinelli’s candlelit palace dinner party

The Brunello Cucinelli dinner is a perennial highlight at Pitti Uomo. While in the summer edition the brand throws an outdoor banquet, in January, it is famed for hosting hundreds of guests in the grand ballroom of the Palazzo Corsini, a baroque palace that overlooks the Arno River. Continuing the tradition in style, over candlelit table settings on Tuesday evening, several courses of Italian fare were served with a side of theatricality – huge copper pans of tomato pasta served up table-side and cannoli filled by hand for each attendee at dessert.

The brand’s warm hospitality continued over at the fair, where it received visitors at an impressively built stand (which resembled a fully realised store, complete with carpeting and furniture) to see its A/W 2026 collection up close. This season, the brand’s sophisticated wardrobe leaned into influences that merged nostalgic military flight uniforms, academic fabrics like corduroy and Western-style embellished hardware. Another highlight of the week came on Wednesday afternoon, when the Italian designer sat down for a talk with Toby Bateman, CEO of Mr Porter, in which the influential men spoke on the shifting tides of men’s style.

Herno’s futuristic alpine ski lodge

In a gleaming silver box near the entrance of the fair, heritage Italian brand Herno hosted one of the most impressive displays at Pitti this year. Inside the dark, cavernous room, rails of the brand’s A/W 2026 men’s collection explored the idea of an ‘urban traveller moving through cities, landscapes and shifting temperatures’. A wall of candy-coloured puffer jackets formed the centrepiece – the Herno 7 Denari, crafted in technical quilted down – while the label’s codes of sophistication appeared in chic knits of pure cashmere and compact jersey, structured denim, and leather accessories. Leaning into an alpine theme this season, the back of the room took on the feel of a ski lodge – where more playful fleece and shearling pieces evoked a nostalgic holiday mood – complete with hot drinks and biscuits for fairgoers to enjoy between appointments

Shinya Kozuka’s poetic snowstorm in the Fortezza da Basso

Tokyo-based designer Shinya Kozuka (who styles his namesake brand as Shinyakozuka) has built a devoted following for his dreamy, expressive clothes – though largely within Japan. His presentation at Pitti Uomo this week marked both his debut at the fair and his first time showing outside Tokyo. Covering a hall behind Fortezza da Basso in several inches of fake snow, Kozuka staged a mid-winter scene inspired by the lost gloves he often spots abandoned on Tokyo’s sidewalks, imagining their wearers as a series of men walking through a snowy wilderness.

Leaning into the designer’s taste for storybook fantasy, the collection merged experimental tailoring and drapery in cut in a particular school of Japanese design, mixed with pragmatic shapes that recalled Americana workwear (the collection debuted a collaboration with Dickies.) Among these utilitarian pocketed looks, the designer's skill in inventing original, tactile fabrication was seen in wool punched with white thread to mimic dustings of snow and a dramatic white button appliqué coat that closed the show, jangling pleasingly as the model walked. It made a poetic Pitti debut that, for a few moments at least, transported Florence to the romance of a frosty Japanese winter.

Hed Mayner’s headline runway show

Hed Mayner was honoured with the headline guest designer slot at Pitti Uomo this season, an opportunity he used to do what he does best – carve bold, unexpected structures from the foundations of tailoring. The Israel-born, Paris-based designer first appeared on the scene in the mid-2010s with cleverly structured designs loosely inspired by the oversized tailoring of the orthodox Jewish community. He has since been awarded the LVMH prize and steadily grown his brand to global acclaim.

Unveiled on Wednesday evening, the designer chose La Palazzina Reale as the location of his A/W 2026 collection, a modern palace built in the 1930s located unusually close to the Santa Maria Novella train station. Balancing fantasy and everyday life, Mayner’s collection itself skewed tailoring archetypes with dramatic ‘gestures’ of oddness – a jacket with vastly exaggerated shoulders that suctioned in at the waist, a cinematic faux fur coat detailed with a leather strap across the back, and scarves so long they skimmed the ground. Set to a stirring soundtrack overlaid with the words of Canadian-American artist Agnes Martin, the collection was about seeking one’s own idea of beauty.

‘It’s about creating a body language, a certain gesture,’ Mayner said on the morning of the show. ‘When you wear these clothes, they put you into a certain mood, an environment. There’s something wrong about these shapes, and that wrongness is perfect for me.’

READ: Hed Mayner’s Pitti Uomo show was all about finding beauty in ‘wrongness’

Soshi Otsuki’s swooning ode to 1980s power suiting

On Thursday afternoon, guests were ushered down a pathway behind the imposing Santa Maria Novella cathedral, through a manicured courtyard and into a small, stony chapel lit only by the dying afternoon light for Soshi Otsuki’s Pitti Uomo display. As swooning 1980s jazz music began to play and the lights came up, what followed was for many editors the standout event of the week. Opening with three immaculately cut grey suits, Otsuki – who won the coveted LVMH Prize last year – used his Pitti debut to showcase his mastery in tailoring. Offsetting tradition with subtle, unexpected flourishes – from dandy-esque wide silk ties tucked into shirts, to jumpsuits that neatly fused shirting and trousers – the collection riffed on the broad lines and soft romance of the 1980s, while its razor-sharp attention to detail made each look unmistakably Otsuki’s own. Emerging in the room for a brief few seconds, the designer was met with a well-deserved standing ovation at the show’s close.

Korea’s disruptive new gen gets its own display

In its own small circular brick building in the grounds of the Fortezza where the trade fair takes place, a dedicated display of rising Korean design talent provided a respite from the busy crowds of the main fair. Following its successful debut last year, the ‘Code Korea’ exhibition introduces six designers who reflect a ‘bold dialogue between tradition and innovation, sustainability and experimentation’. Among the most interesting on view were Seokwon Yoon, a brand that disrupts the neatness of school uniforms and tailoring with punk influences, and Egnarts, a brand defined by its beautifully wonky silhouettes and use of surreal motifs.

It takes a courageous man to commission an Oscar-winning director and composer to produce a story of his life, give them free rein on the project, and then throw a glittering world premiere in front of the Hollywood A-list and global fashion press.

But then, if there is one takeaway from Brunello Cucinelli’s toe-dip into tinseltown, it’s that he has never shied away from doing something when he wants to.

Slated to be released on December 9, 2025, ‘Brunello: the Gracious Visionary’ is a celebration of the tenacity that propelled the fashion designer from a hardworking homestead in the Italian countryside in the 1950s to the custodian of a £5.5 billion dollar brand in 2025 and known as ‘the king of cashmere’.

‘Brunello: the Gracious Visionary’ premieres in Rome

Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, of ‘Cinema Paradiso’ fame, with music by Academy Award winner Nicola Piovani, it was presented at the world-famous film studios Cinecittà – where Hollywood classics including Cleopatra, La Dolce Vita and Amarcord were filmed – and marked the opening of the new Teatro 22, one of the two largest film studios in Europe. The film took two years to film and one year to edit down to the final cut and it was, says Cucinelli, a cathartic experience.

‘It was very moving,’ says Cucinelli, who collected his Outstanding Achievement Award from Sharon Stone at the Fashion Awards at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday. ‘This touches the deepest most intimate corners of my soul.’

Coined a docu-drama, the film sees archive footage and modern-day interviews with family members, colleagues and several famous faces (including Oprah Winfrey) cut with dramatic scenes re-enacting several important chapters of Cucinelli’s life to tell his tale.

Three actors were personally cast by Cucinelli to play himself as a child, an adolescent and a young man, charting his formative years from his rural childhood to the bar-frequenting, scopa-playing, motorcycle riding, happy-go-lucky young man who escaped the grip of a full-time job until he was in his mid-twenties.

Rather than risk having a film made about him posthumously, Cucinelli said that he commissioned the film now so that ‘people can have my take on things’.

‘I’ve watched many documentaries in the past and many of them were shot after these people had passed away. I didn’t appreciate many of them, not because they weren’t good to look at, but because they did not ring true,’ he explains. ‘I want my children and grandchildren to hear my true voice in the movie. This is the kind of legacy I can leave to future generations – my testimony.’

Through several interviews with the man himself, it also provided Cucinelli with the opportunity to present his manifesto for ‘humanistic capitalism’. It’s an approach that, among many other altruistic projects over the years, has seen him transform his beloved village of Solomeo from a run-down hamlet in the Umbrian countryside to the beating heartbeat of his billion-dollar business that preserves artisanal techniques and a thriving community.

As he says, the overriding message of the film is that ‘you can do business whilst respecting human dignity. And you can work with better conditions without the need to humiliate or belittle people. That’s the gist of it.’

‘Brunello: the Gracious Visionary’ is released in Italian cinemas on December 9, with an international release to follow.

There are few things more synonymous with the arrival of the festive season than the unveiling of Harrods’ Christmas windows: since 1931, they have become magical – and oftentimes transportative – portals that attract shoppers from around the globe. In this almost-century of the tradition, designs have spanned conventional Yuletide tableaus – sugary snow-covered Christmas trees; spinning ballerinas; foliage dotted with fairy lights – and more surreal scenes, whether featuring bobbing astronauts, piles of hot pink packages, or even a pair of enormous legs in ruby red slippers, as if Harrods had been blown into Oz and dropped onto the Wicked Witch of the East.

Recent years, though, have seen Harrods hand over the reins to a series of international fashion houses who have ‘taken over’ the store for the festive season – including the iconic Brompton Road windows. Most notably, Dior, who constructed an intricate gingerbread wonderland – and opened numerous pop-ups inside, including a restaurant – in 2022, while last year, Italian brand Loro Piana created a ‘Workshop of Wonders’, populated with a cast of miniature workers and animals painstakingly hand-carved in wood.

Explore Brunello Cucinelli’s Harrods takeover

This year, as revealed in a special ceremony this morning, it is the turn of Umbrian fashion house Brunello Cucinelli, a brand known for its work in cashmere which is made possible by a lifelong dedication to craft by the house’s namesake, who runs the company alongside his children in the hamlet of Solomeo. Not only turning the store’s windows into a tactile and inviting cashmere wonderland – complete with fluffy clouds, idyllic scenes of Solomeo and a protagonist in the form of a flying griffin – Brunello Cucinelli has also inaugurated a series of ephemeral stores across Harrods’ various floors, as well as designing limited-edition pieces for the house’s existing boutiques within the department store.

The theme, says Mr Cucinelli, who presented the windows this morning, is ‘Feelosophy’, a playful nod to the designer’s dual fixations: the creation of superlative fabrics and the philosophy of craft and community behind them (he is a longtime student of philosophy, which informs the way he runs the company – he deems his approach ‘humanistic capitalism’ in its focus on worker’s rights and a respect for the land). The windows are ‘narrated’ by Philo, the griffin which appears in the Brunello Cucinelli emblem and a longtime symbol of Umbria. Taking its name from the ancient Greek term phílos, meaning ‘one who loves’, the half-lion, half-eagle is rendered here in soft white, evoking ‘the noble cashmere fibre’.

In a speech this morning – in which Mr Cucinelli evoked a number of thinkers, from Sir Thomas More to Arthur Schopenhauer – the designer said that the arrival of the festive season had put him in a contemplative mood. ‘I’d like to spend a few moments, not on cashmere, but rather to dwell on life,’ he said through a translator. ‘We have learnt to run and rule mankind through science. But you need science combined with soul. This is the time when we need to treat our soul and tidy it up, the same that we do with our kitchen. How do we do that? We talk more, with our fathers, children, husbands, wives. We should try and heal as much as possible.’

The unveiling marked the beginning of a busy week ahead for the designer: this evening, he will take home this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award at The Fashion Awards, held at the Royal Albert Hall, while on Thursday, in Rome, he will premiere a new film on his life and philosophy, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Titled ‘Brunello: The Gracious Visionary’, the premiere at Rome’s famed Cinecittà Studios – known as ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’ – will be followed by an Italian release on December 9, 2025.

brunellocucinelli.com

It is a truth universally acknowledged that, when it comes to fashion, the basics are the hardest to master. Chief among them: the white T-shirt.

The white tee is the quintessential element of the capsule wardrobe. It adapts to nearly any aesthetic: it can be dressed up or down, layered or worn solo, accessorised or left plain, and is a year-round essential, equally useful under shirts, jumpers and jackets when the temperature falls.

Wallpaper’s fashion and creative director Jason Hughes and fashion features editor Jack Moss are united in their devotion to the white tee. ‘It’s the foundation of almost every outfit I wear,’ says Jason, who is rarely seen without a flash of white peeking from beneath a sweater or shirt. For Jack, the white T-shirt is ‘probably the garment [he wears] most’, again, usually layered under a shirt or sweater. As for me, I favour a pared-back, Scandinavian aesthetic, for which the white tee is indispensable. Pair with low-rise jeans, tailored trousers, a silk skirt… the options are almost endless.

What makes the perfect white T-shirt?

This elusive garment avoids extremes: not too tight at the neck, shoulders or waist – but not tunic-loose. The sweet spot? A slightly dropped shoulder and a relaxed silhouette. As for length, aim for hip level – just long enough to flatter the form without skewing proportions.

‘Because a T-shirt is so simple, its shape really matters,’ says Jack, who gravitates toward looser, boxier fits, adding, ‘it has to have a high crew neck’. Loose and boxy is a good rule of thumb for women, too; a too-snug tee will bunch at the waist and pull at the hips. If you want a smooth silhouette, don’t be afraid to go oversized. Acne Studios, COS and Arket all do models that fit the bill.

The best white T-shirts are substantial but breathable, with a GSM which offers structure and longevity. Jason’s go-to is a heavyweight crew-neck from US utility brand Pro Club. Jack also leans toward heavier cottons, swearing by classics like Gildan and Fruit of the Loom, but lately he’s been enjoying Extreme Cashmere’s cotton-cashmere blend (‘it falls really nicely’, he says, thanks to the softness of the superfine knit).

The best white T-shirts, according to Wallpaper*

Classic white T-shirts

Cult white T-shirts

Luxury white T-shirts

Sustainably-minded white T-shirts

Everyday white T-shirts

Earlier this month, the Q2 Lyst Index was released – the shopping app compiles the quarterly report through online searches and catalogued social-media data – seeing the Miu Miu boat shoe land at number four on the quarter’s hottest products (fellow top-tenners were a Skims white tank, Adidas sports shorts and the renaissance of the Isabelle Marant heeled sneaker). Miuccia Prada has long had a soothsayer-like quality – recent seasons have seen her sliced-away mini skirts, hanging bag charms, and ballet shoes achieve style ubiquity – and though the boat shoes were first shown in her S/S 2024 show for the Prada sister brand, it has taken a year for them to achieve true virality (Miu Miu released further iterations for Summer 2025).

The boat shoe’s appeal can be broken down by two prevailing trends: first, the rise of low-effort, off-duty footwear (The Row’s flip-flops or spa-style jelly shoes are examples, as is the rise of the Charvet slipper), second, the re-emergence of a preppy uniform (Jonathan Anderson’s first Dior Men collection featured cable-knit sweaters and schoolboy striped shirts, and a similar collegiate mood was struck at Michael Rider’s Celine debut earlier this summer). The boat shoe – traditionally designed to be worn on boats and yachts to prevent scuff marks on deck – has long straddled these two worlds, making it ripe for revival. And, while the Sebago or Sperry Topsiders remain the classical blueprint, fashion’s take on the style is altogether more eclectic – here, the Wallpaper* style team select ten of the best boat shoes of the season, from studded to slip-on, square-toed to two-tone.

Brunello Cucinelli has built his namesake fashion empire on Italian values: preservation of tradition and craft, the importance of local community, and – as any guest to the 12th-century hamlet of Solomeo, in Umbria, where the brand is based, can attest – gracious hospitality and good food (so much so, Mr Cucinelli’s dinners have become synonymous with vast bowls of paccheri pasta and golden drizzles of his own small-batch olive oil).

But Brunello Cucinelli is also a family business, with his two daughters – Carolina and Camilla Cucinelli – serving as vice presidents and creative co-directors, while living and working in Solomeo with their own families. ‘It is good to hear when a company reaches its sixth generation: that's what my grandfather would say, that's what my father would say. It is the value of guardianship and generation turnover,’ Mr Cucinelli wrote in a recent essay about the importance of family to his business.

The story behind Brunello Cucinelli’s ‘BC Duo’ bag

It’s why the house’s ‘BC Duo’ handbag – which arrives this March – represents something of a torch-passing moment, marking the first bag to be designed by the sisters. A softly structured tote, its design features geometric panels that loosely recall the ’BC’ of the house’s initials, and allow it to be folded inwards on each side to create a more compact silhouette. The sisters envisage it for everyday wear, particularly the largest shopper style which appeals to our own throw-it-all-in mentality (there are four sizes in total, including ‘medium’, ‘small’ and ‘mini’ iterations).

The sisters tell Wallpaper* that the inspiration came from ‘the idea of duality – two elements that come together to create something greater than the sum of their parts,’ with the bag embodying ‘tradition and innovation, simplicity and sophistication, functionality and beauty. [It’s like] the balance we strive for in life.’

As for designing as sisters, Carolina and Camilla call the conception of the bag a ‘truly special experience’. ‘We share an innate understanding of each other’s perspectives and a deep sense of trust, which allows us to challenge one another creatively,’ they say. ‘[Our] synergy allows us to create something unique – both our voices are present, but the final product is balanced.’

For S/S 2025, the ‘BC Duo’ comes in an array of fabrics, from classic calfskin and suede – long used for Brunello Cucinelli’s hand-crafted accessories – to bolder lamé and metallic finishes. Choosing a favourite is impossible, say Carolina and Camilla, though they sway towards the ‘soft, neutral’ shades of taupe and ivory – the hues with which Brunello Cucinelli has long been synonymous. Like father, like daughters.

The ‘BC Duo’ series is available from Brunello Cucinelli’s website and stores worldwide.

brunellocucinelli.com

In partnership with Brunello Cucinelli

The new Brunello Cucinelli Venice store has opened its doors, in one of the city’s most enchanting locations. Occupying two levels of the Palazzo della Borsa, the former stock exchange, the store can be found on the Calle Larga XXII Marzo, close to the Piazza San Marco. Once of Venice’s smartest streets, the Calle Larga XXII Marzo is lined with magnificent Palladian buildings once occupied by aristocrats, but now housing the city’s designer and luxury boutiques.

Inside the new Brunello Cucinelli Venice store

Built in the 1920s to a design by young architect Camillo Puglisi Allegra, the palazzo’s Liberty-style façade is embellished with intricate masonry work depicting Poseidon’s daughters, sea monsters, shells and chimaeras. Brunello Cucinelli was keen that its new store respected the building’s historical and artistic aesthetics, with the Italian fashion house’s architects paying close attention to the conservation of its original elements during the renovation. The airy but cosy layout begins with an entrance that leads into a long, elegant hall, characterised by a vaulted boxed ceiling and art nouveau stucco decorations.

To the right is the old trading floor, the Sala delle Grida (literally, the ‘Shouting Hall’), which is now home to the maison’s womenswear collections. The design conserves some of the building’s original wrought-iron railings, incorporating them into a fully staffed bar that echoes the traders’ habit of meeting and discussing in the best traditions of Italian conviviality. The former stock exchange café now houses the menswear collections, while the upper level, once the back offices, are used for displaying accessories and receiving private customers.

All the materials used for the renovation, from the Roman travertine flooring to the black nickel and glass counters and clay perimeter walls, reflect a simplicity and symmetry, as well as a desire to create a dialogue between past and present, to enhance the beauty of the sumptuous Venetian craftsmanship, while reflecting the Brunello Cucinelli brand’s distinctive contemporary elegance.

brunellocucinelli.com

Unlike its burlier sporting counterparts, tennis has long been synonymous with good style – whether the bygone elegance of classic tennis whites, the nostalgic glamour of Björn Borg and his 1970s counterparts, or the more outré uniforms of the contemporary power player, from Rafa Nadal’s searingly hued tank tops, Serena Williams’ catsuits and crystals, to Naomi Osaka’s panoply of designer endorsements.

Though it is safe to say that the past few months have pushed tennis fashion deep into the mainstream, largely down to the release of film director Luca Guadagnino’s tennis romp Challengers, starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as a love triangle on and off the court. On-screen, their tennis uniforms – from emblazoned college wear to sleek grand slam attire – looked particularly seductive thanks to the eye of Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson, who served as costume designer; on the red carpet, Zendaya served up a stream of tennis-themed looks, whether glimmering pleated mini dresses or vertiginous white heels that skewered miniature tennis balls.

And, ahead of its Cruise 2025 show in London which took place in May, Gucci revealed Australian Open champion and current ATP world number one Jannik Sinner – and his now-trademark on-court Gucci holdall – as its latest campaign star (as of this week, the Italian house also released a dedicated tennis collection). It comes as the sport is in the midst of a particularly blockbuster summer: last month, Spanish wunderkind Carlos Alacaraz won his third Grand Slam at the French Open, on Monday (1 July 2024), Wimbledon begins in London, while the Olympics in Paris will see the tennis competition held on the famed clay courts of Roland Garros.

It makes it a prime time for fashion brands to embrace the zeitgeist with tennis-inspired collections of their own. Here, from Giorgio Armani’s grass court uniform – made to coincide with the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic which takes place at London’s historic Hurlingham Club this week – to a Challengers-inspired T-shirt from Loewe, we pick the fashion brands serving a tennis ace this summer.

Fashion brands serving up tennis style

A Gucci collection which conjures the nostalgic glamour of 1970s tennis stars

In May, Gucci announced Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner – and current world number one – as its latest campaign star (see below). Now, ahead of the arrival of Wimbledon, the house has revealed a full tennis collection which harks back to the 1970s, a decade when Gucci embraced the sport with releases like the perennial Tennis 1977 sneaker. As such, expect pieces infused with a nostalgic glamour, albeit reimagined in current creative Sabato de Sarno’s sleek, contemporary style, from pleated white tennis dresses for women and sporty polo shirts and pullovers for men, alongside the requisite accessories, including sweatbands, an updated version of the Tennis 1977 sneaker, and a racquet holder in the Gucci monogram which is guaranteed to turn heads at the country club. Each is adorned with Gucci’s signature green and red ’web stripe’ detail, while an accompanying campaign stars rising British tennis stars Emma Cohen and George Loffhagen.

Gucci’s ‘Tennis Special’ collection is available from selected Gucci stores and gucci.com.

A court-ready Uniqlo collection from Jonathan Anderson and Roger Federer

Not content with outfitting the still-ubiquitous Challengers – and creating a viral Loewe T-shirt to match (see below) – Northern Irish designer Jonathan Anderson has also revealed a new Uniqlo collection made in collaboration with 20-time grand slam champion Roger Federer, who wore the Japanese brand on court for the latter part of his career. First introduced in September 2023, the ‘Roger Federer Collection by JW Anderson’ combines high-tech sporting fabrications with Anderson’s eye for good design. This year’s collection is inspired by the tennis uniforms of the 1970s and 1980s (also a touchpoint for the on-court attire of Josh O’Connor’s Patrick Zweig in Challengers) and features striped-collar polo shirts, nylon shorts and V-neck marl T-shirts, alongside more contemporary technical training jackets and sweatpants. It has been a busy month for Federer – who retired in 2022 – with the enduring tennis star also starring alongside his prolific Spanish rival Rafael Nadal in a campaign for Parisian house Louis Vuitton. Anderson, meanwhile, revealed his latest Loewe collaboration with Swiss sportswear brand On with a campaign starring on-the-rise American tennis star Ben Shelton (to tie it all together, Federer is also one of On’s major investors and a brand ambassador).

Uniqlo’s ‘Roger Federer Collection by JW Anderson’ collection is available at uniqlo.com. The latest Loewe x On capsule collection can be purchased from mytheresa.com.

A Giorgio Armani collection inspired by the Hurlingham Club’s Tennis Classic

Each June, the Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic takes place at London’s Hurlingham Club, an exhibition tournament on its famed grass courts that serves as an unofficial warm-up tournament for Wimbledon (this year’s participants include Holger Rune, Frances Tiafoe, Daniil Medvedev and the surprise appearances of Novak Djokovic, a last-minute addition). Alongside the glamourous proceedings – the Hurlingham competition has become a fixture on London’s social calendar – Mr Armani has also created a capsule collection of clothing to dress the ball boys, umpires and ground staff at the event. Crafted in simple cream, deep navy and white, the louche, unfussy collection is an exercise in Mr Armani’s nonchalant design codes – epitomised here in easy, unstructured tailoring, crisp white shirting and roomy, sportswear-inspired shorts, for men and women. Completed with the circular Giorgio Armani Tennis Classic motif, the collection is strictly limited-edition – it is available at the Hurlingham Club in a special pop-up, and for a short time in Giorgio Armani’s London boutique on Sloane Street.

The Hurlingham Club collection is available at Armani’s Sloane Street boutique and at Hurlingham Tennis Club now.

A monogrammed Gucci tennis bag worn by grand slam champion Jannik Sinner

The 22-year-old Italian tennis player Jannik Sinner – who made it into a select club when he beat Daniil Medvedev earlier this year to win the Australian Open and has since been crowned the ATP world number one – has long been courted by the Italian fashion house Gucci, first attending the house’s Cruise show in 2022 and becoming an official ambassador later that year. His allegiance has been expressed with his choice of on-court tennis gear, swapping the usual sportswear-branded nylon holdall favoured by players for a custom-made Gucci monogram duffle bag, which is now available for sale. In May, Gucci revealed Sinner as its latest campaign star in a series of on-court images by Riccardo Raspa – a surefire sign of the player’s soaring profile (it also puts him on par with Spanish rival Carlos Alcaraz, who has fronted campaigns for Louis Vuitton). The nostalgic mood of the images – emblazoned with ‘Gucci is a feeling’, a slogan from a 1980s campaign – is made to capture the house’s longtime links with the sport, which included the perennial Tennis 1977 sneakers.

The Gucci ‘Maxi Duffle Bag’ is available from gucci.com (£1460) and Gucci stores.

A Brunello Cucinelli tennis capsule instilled with the designer’s distinct brand of sprezzatura

Brunello Cucinelli brings his eye for luxury to a new tennis capsule, no doubt ready to be spotted on court in some of the world’s most exclusive locales this summer. Spanning menswear, womenswear and kidswear – as well as a handful of lifestyle products, from racquet holders to tennis bags – the collection continues Mr Cucinelli’s easygoing sartorial codes, inspired by his native Italy. As such, expect sartorial riffs on the tennis uniform: whether white polo-shirt dresses with gently pleated skirts, crisp pleat-front men’s shorts, or an array of cable-knit sweaters and cardigans (in keeping with Brunello Cucinelli’s brand of sprezzatura, try draped over the shoulder or tied around the waist). A Brunello Cucinelli-branded cotton cap – complete with tennis racquet embroidery – completes the look. ‘[It’s] dedicated to those who live tennis as a lifestyle,’ says the brand.

Brunello Cucinelli's ‘Tennis Sets Capsule Collection’ is available from Net-a-Porter and brunellocucinelli.com, alongside selected stores worldwide.

A Loewe T-shirt from Luca Guadagnino’s sensual tennis thriller ‘Challengers’

Not strictly tennis attire, we know, but it does hail from Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, the erotically charged tennis movie which stars Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor as three rising tennis players caught up in a will-they-won’t-they love triangle set in the run-up to the 2019 US Open (sexual frustrations are taken out on the ball in the film’s high-octane on-court scenes). British designer and Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson was behind the movie’s costumes, including this ’I Told Ya’ T-shirt swapped between Zendaya’s Tashi and O’Connor’s Patrick as they dual it out in sport and romance. ‘As an audience, you're never quite sure who to root for, and clothes are an instrument of that,’ said Anderson, who based the T-shirt on one worn by JFK Jr. To coincide with the film’s release, Anderson has created a Loewe version of the T-shirt, as well as a sweatshirt version, in white or marl grey.

The Loewe ’I Told Ya’ T-shirt (£225) and sweater (£475) are available from loewe.com and selected Loewe stores worldwide.

A tennis-inspired collaboration between Aries and Fila which sees two worlds collide

British skate brand Aries brings its playful, subculture-infused style to a collaboration with Fila, one of the longtime behemoths of the sport, having dressed Björn Borg in his 1970s heyday (and arguably shaped tennis style forever). Shaking up the classic tennis whites, expect zip-front bandage skirts adorned with the Aries and Fila logos, striped sweatbands, and co-branded T-shirts and jackets. The idea of the collaboration was to capture a sense of ‘Italian-ness’ – Sofia Prantera is from Italy, though now lives and works in London – featuring a soft-pastel palette of pinks and greens which are faded through garment dyeing, a longtime fascination of Prantera’s that is also synonymous with Italian streetwear. Eschewing tennis’ occasionally stuffy connotations, the accompanying campaign features sibling musical duo Sons of Raphael, who scored Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

Aries x Fila is available from ariesarise.com.

A preppy on-and-off-court uniform from Tory Burch’s Tory Sport

American designer Tory Burch introduced Tory Sport in 2015, crediting the sporty off-shoot as the beginning of a more creative approach to her eponymous mainline label in the way it encouraged her to experiment with shape and form (‘the concept of being ”on brand” and that wasn’t interesting to me because it inhibits creativity... so, over the last five years, I’ve smashed that concept,’ she told Wallpaper* in January). Though Tory Sport runs the gamut of sporting pursuits – each piece instilled with the preppy, playful hallmarks which define the label – recent arrivals have included her take on tennis wear, a nostalgia-tinged collection of white pleated skirts, dropped-waist dresses and 1970s track jackets, some complete with tennis racquet motifs of the Tory Burch monogram. Recalling the hazy glamour of New England summers, the tennis collection is completed with the ‘Convertible Tote’, complete with a removable zip pocket with space for two racquets.

Tory Sport is available from Mytheresa and toryburch.com.

It was a Roman holiday for Brunello Cucinelli this past week, who swapped Solomeo – the medieval Umbrian hamlet that the cashmere giant has transformed into its Edenic headquarters – for the Eternal City to launch a new eyewear collection at Villa Aurelia, a Baroque residence on Rome’s Janiculum Hill.

First built in the late 17th century for Cardinal Girolamo Farnese – then the governor of Rome – the ornate home was later restored by an American heiress, Mrs Clara Jessup Heyland, who bequeathed it after her death to the American Academy in Rome. It proved a suitably dramatic backdrop: beyond the ornate residence are sprawling gardens replete with Roman pine trees and palms, its winding walkways leading to breathtaking vistas of the city in its entirety beyond. 

Brunello Cucinelli launches S/S 2024 eyewear collection in Rome

From these gardens emerged models wearing the brand’s new eyewear collection in an intimate runway show which took place just at the onset of evening (naturally, beyond the sunglasses, they were entirely clad in Brunello Cucinelli, as if on a particularly glamourous eveningtime wander). The collection marks the first full offering under the Brunello Cucinelli name; previously, the brand’s eyewear collection, first launched in 2021, was created alongside American eyewear label Oliver Peoples, which was founded in West Hollywood in the 1980s.

This new collection is created as part of a new deal with French-Italian eyewear conglomerate EssilorLuxottica, which owns Oliver Peoples alongside creating sunglasses for Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Burberry and Versace, among others. Cucinelli, who has placed artisanal Italian craftsmanship at the centre of his eponymous label since its founding in 1978, said the deal with EssilorLuxottica was signed in 2022 after a conversation with Luxottica founder Leonardo Del Vecchio who passed away in June of the same year.

’Leonardo Del Vecchio confessed to me one day: ”Dear Brunello, I don’t know whether the glasses we make are beautiful, but they’re certainly made in the best way in the world!’’ Today, admiring the excellent result of such formidable work and harmony, I think back to the words of that gracious, strong-willed, steadfast and kind man, who saw in his Agordo company what he liked to call “the beautiful factory”, a little like I do with Solomeo,’ says Cucinelli (called the ‘Hamlet of Harmony’, Solomeo has become a lifelong project in combining community, culture, education and production in a single place).

Working together with Francesco Milleri, chairman and CEO of EssilorLuxottica, the Brunello Cucinelli team created the collection which includes both sunglasses and opticals and largely centres on riffs on classic styles – from Wayfarers to Aviators. Encompassing what Cucinelli calls a ‘gentle luxury’, the glasses feature lavish materials – from made-in-Japan titanium frames to arms plated in 18-carat gold, while lenses are made in the Barberini factory in Silvi, Italy. Cashmere provides the inspiration for the collection’s palette, alongside the colours and reflections of Italian sunsets.

Adds Milleri: ‘The Brunello Cucinelli fashion house has succeeded in creating a new concept of luxury, fueled by respect for labour and its dignity.... We are bound by more than just an agreement: Brunello Cucinelli is not only a great entrepreneur but also a friend whom I respect and admire. The collection we helped to create under his and his family’s creative direction expresses all these values, perfectly combining technology and superior craftsmanship.’

Wallpaper* joined the festivities on Thursday evening, which after the runway show began with aperitivo on the the Villa Aurelia terrace before guests entered the Sala Aurelia for a typically lavish dinner – Cucinelli is known for his Italian hospitality – which comprised heaving tables of antipasti, signature Paccheri pasta and an array of desserts, from chocolate-encased ice creams to cannoli filled to order. The evening ended, in typically Italian style, with music and dancing, as the lights of Rome twinkled below.

‘Plato said: ”Beauty is the splendour of truth”,’ concluded Cucinelli. ’I wholeheartedly hope that our glasses, which are so true and beautiful, will please customers and achieve all the success they deserve.’

Brunello Cucinelli S/S 2024 eyewear is available now on the brand’s website and in boutiques worldwide. 

brunellocucinelli.com

What to get the person with everything? From a beautiful hand-crafted chest set from Hermès to a Bottega Veneta domino set – each tile painstakingly cast in Veneto ceramic – or a decidedly sleek saffiano leather backgammon set from Prada, these will impress even the most fastidious of style aficionados (after all, sometimes a gift’s purpose is to please desires, rather than needs). 

In time for days of doing nothing and hibernating at home, we have picked a luxurious list of games and amusements from fashion’s finest, which make for gifts both generous and unique – or simply a precious addition to your own burgeoning games cabinet.

Luxurious board games from fashion’s finest

An elegant card set encased in Celine canvas

Encased in Celine’s signature ‘Triomphe’ monogram canvas, this card set from Celine is a beautiful travel companion with which to strike up a game wherever you are in the world (though would prove equally impressive when brandished after dinner at home). Inside the lambskin-lined case are two sets of cards, as well as a Celine-branded notebook and pencil for keeping score. 

Enquire at celine.com

A Bottega Veneta domino set made from Veneto ceramics

A reflection of the Italian house’s longtime dedication to artisanal craft – one particularly celebrated by current creative director Matthieu Blazy – this domino set from Bottega Veneta features 28 ceramic tiles crafted in Veneto, all encased in a beautiful walnut-wood box. Part of a recently released home collection from the house, other games available include playing cards and backgammon, as well as a wheelalong intreccio leather donkey for children.  

Available from bottegaveneta.com, £1,710

A hand-crafted travel chess set from Hermès

Keep your mind sharp – and your home chic – with this beautiful hand-crafted wooden chess set from Hermès, which also folds away for travel. One of the French house’s most popular amusements, the ‘Samarcande’ comes this year with a new deep red strap, the perfect complement to the mahogany and cassia board. Each of the chess pieces has a distinct, minimal design, as well Clou de Selle engraved stainless steel weights for satisfying hand-feel. 

Available from hermes.com, £2,360

A sleek backgammon board from Prada 

Prada aficionados will no doubt enjoy the Italian house’s sleek take on the classic backgammon set, which provides an impossibly chic centrepiece to your next game night. Constructed with the same meticulousness as Prada’s collections and accessories, the red, white and black board – complete with dice, shakers and playing pieces – is completely clad in the house’s signature saffiano leather (equally desirable are the house’s mahjong and poker sets). 

Available from harrods.com, £4,800

A minimal porcelain and wood draughts set by Brunello Cucinelli

In the house’s signature tones of beige and cream, this elegantly crafted – but minimally embellished – draughts set doubles as both an amusement on long winter days and an adornment for coffee tables and sideboards. Made in Italy, the sleek porcelain surface is inset with contrasting wooden squares, while the pieces come with a sturdy steel ring (and can be packed away using the handy compartments on the back).

Available from matchesfashion.com, £2,657

A traditional solitaire set in signature Berluti leather

Part of Berluti’s luxurious passe-temps collection – which comprises cigar cutters, champagne buckets and watch cases, alongside puzzles and games – this moulded leather solitaire set is a contemporary riff of pasttime which is said to have originated in the court of Louis XIV. It includes 36 brass balls, one delicately engraved with the Berluti logo. 

Available from berluti.com, £3,850.

When it came to the A/W 2022 menswear season in Milan, aficionados at home – and those watching IRL in the Italian city – had a sweep of style heroes to choose from. At Prada, a host of actors emerged from a futuristic illuminated tunnel at its Fondazione Prada Deposito space, including Twin Peaks’ Kyle MacLachlan, dinosaur-digging (and previously unofficial Prada mascot) Jeff Goldblum, Moonlight’s Ashton Sanders and Sex Education’s Otis Butterfield. Meanwhile, at Dolce & Gabbana, the label appealed to Gen-Z fans, with a performance from a sequin suit-clad Machine Gun Kelly. 

While the A/W 2022 season has been beleagured by the threat of Omicron and rising infection rates in Europe, a host of behemoth and burgeoning brands presented both physical and online shows from the Italian capital. DSquared2 celebrated its in-person return after a Covid-19 induced hiatus, and Prada presented its first physical menswear show under the co-creative directorship of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons. Ermenegildo Zegna and MSGM favoured a digital presentation, as did JW Anderson, the British brand which had originally been scheduled to present its first physical fashion show in Milan - this will now take place in June 2022. 

6 key takeaways from Milan Fashion Week men’s A/W 2022

Classicism is back on the menswear menu

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, designers have postulated on the future of the menswear cannon, considering the relevance of tailoring and the staying power of relaxed silhouettes. At Prada, the Milanese label turned this concept on its head, shirking seemingly endless conversations around comfort and loungewear, in favour of a wardrobe firmly rooted in work. ‘The language of sartorial tailoring, a formality which confers an importance,' read the brand's press release, of a collection which welded the executive with the utilitarian, featuring exaggerated leather trenchcoats, asymmetric blazers accented with shearling armbands, hazard-hued slacks and glossy boilersuits. A vital accessory for your vending machine change? A triangle motif coin purse attached to your belt buckle.

At Fendi, Silvia Fenturini Fendi was also captivated by notions of classicism. The Roman house presented a ‘treasure trove of future heirlooms' that riffed on the elegance and sophistication of old world silhouettes: Vichy check tweed overcoats, boxy cropped tuxedos, pilot's jackets and short suits, imagined in raspberry, mocha, taupe and white. In a dandyish flourish, sweeping coats were pinned with shearling corsages, Mary Jane brogues buckled with wristwatch strapes and bags had evening time proportions.

Elsewhere, Aspesi's Laurence Steele was struck by archetypal silhouettes, combining finesse with function, while Brunello Cucinelli mediated between differing sartorial codes, presenting luxurious pieces from peacoats to down jackets, incorporating super fine wools, shearling and Prince of Wales houndstooth. Tod's took inspiration from contemporary Italian art, tracing the line of its A/W 2022 silhouette back to the country's creative cannon, with updated classics in forest tones like fur-effect bomber jackets inspired by the traditional lining of outerwear and cashmere gymwear. 

Deep burgundy and bold blue: choose your favourite hue

Flavoursome news for wine buffs: a deep burgundy bolstered the Milan catwalks, as demonstrated by brands including Fendi, Ermenegildo Zegna and 1017 ALYX 9SM. Zegna's meditations around the ‘new suit', featuring softly rippling tailoring, drew on an organic palette, terracotta and tangerine, while 1017 ALYX 9SM – which presented in Milan for the first time – drew on lilacs, cherry reds and nude. Elsewhere, oceanic blues were favoured, with Brioni's Norbert Stumpfl creating bold suiting, including daytime double-breasted wool suits and striking silk satin tuxedos in exuberant turquoise. 

Inspect your new errogenous zone

Skin was a central element of the S/S 2022 shows, and continues to take extrovert effect for autumn. The erogenous zone of choice for the upcoming season? A sultry sliver of chest. At Fendi, this was demonstrated with heart-shaped cut-outs on cable knit roll-necks and V-necks in cricket white and glittering raspberry. At JW Anderson - whose digital runway show reveled in party silhouettes, fantastical flourishses and an all-out abandon into weirdness, the chest was revealed in knitwear weaved into chunky loops and hula hoop hemline crop tops in bright paintbox tones.

Power to the shoulder

Designers weren't concerned with playing proportions safe for A/W 2022, serving up striking strong-shouldered silhouettes that even David Byrne would be driven to. You'll need to watch out for Prada's work-inspired power-shouldered trenchcoats when you're in the office. Ardusse's Gaetano Colucci was also inspired by the strong shoulder. The label's collection fluctuated between decades, drawing on the frilled prom shirting of the Seventies, grungey long-sleeve tees and Ivy League style of of the Nineties and the power shoulder tailoring of the Eighties, with bold blown up check mohair coats in a square silhouette. 

Meet me in the Metaverse

Brands continue to experiment with the physical and online worlds: JW Anderson and Dolce & Gabbana recently launched NFTs, Phillip Plein accepts cryptocurrency, and glitchy, pixelated prints abound in brands collections - just look to the checkerboard and graffiti prints at Dolce & Gabbana. At Fendi – a brand that continues to experiment with the tech accessory world – the label teamed up with Ledger Nano X, on a Baguette bag shape that incorporates digital hardware wallet for cryptocurrency. JW Anderson also experimented with the digital realm. In anticipation of the brand's online show, the label released short films of female avatars sporting its A/W 2022 designs, jumping from the screens of iPhones and springing on stars. Video also unveiled blinking eyelids accented with bold make-up, with a JW anchor monogram logo at the centre of their pupil. 

Adventure is always on the cards

Happy campers have even more reason to be cheerful, as a host of brands celebrated the great outdoors, revelling in a nomadic and adventurous spirit. DSquared2 went wild with layered silhouettes that nodded to a range of outdoor pursuits from rock climbing to camping, to bouldering and birdwatching, with ponchos and sequinned cagoules, snuggly sleeping bag coats and quilted shorts, that riffed on the high-tech and the hippy. Missoni was also about high altitude. The brand's Mountain Calling capsule collection features psychedelic Nordic knits, featuring alpine scenes and a trippy logo. Etro too inclined to the outdoors, with a collection featuring wolf, fox and snowflake intarsia knit jumpers, jewel tone raincoats and puffers, plus velvet robe coats for a more resplendent take on around-the-campire dressing.

Technical outerwear specialist C.P Company, which continues to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary milestone and is fresh from a collaboration with Emporio Armani, also hosted the exhibition ‘Cinquata', featuring seventy iconic archival designs, sketches and memorabilia, that have defined the label's half-century. A-Cold-Wall also presented a digital film revelling in the label's performance and sportswear tropes, featuring striking foiled trousers and tracksuits swathed in paint, inspired by building materials like clay and plaster. 

Brunello Cucinelli has collaborated with Oliver Peoples for its first eyewear collection, unveiling five new styles made in Italy. The partnership – which is the first collaboration for Brunello Cucinelli – is a natural fit for both brands, who share a focus on simple forms, historical references and flawless craftsmanship.

The five styles reference Brunello Cucinelli’s history, with geometric silhouettes echoing the familiar ‘Monili’ pattern and a logo that encapsulates the skyline of the Italian village of Solomeo, the place where it all began.

Brunello Cucinelli and Oliver Peoples: eyewear with heritage

Such historical design codes make a chic foil for contemporary accents, reflected in the clean silhouette of the pilot-style ‘Disoriano’ frames drawn in neutral hues. Forms are more generously sketched in the vintage-inspired ‘Filu’ glasses, which play with colour across both lenses and frames. Also referencing the past are the ‘Nino’ frames, which echo old Hollywood in their retro silhouette: special editions created from sustainably sourced horn are also available, each piece unique.

Quintessential Oliver Peoples design details are threaded throughout the ‘Artemio’ glasses, the frames featuring a distinctive curved silhouette, and interchangeable as both opticals and sunglasses. In the ‘Oliver Sun’ frames, bold forms are drawn in a smoky olive hue.

The collection intertwines design motifs from both brands, nodding to the offbeat aesthetics that began appearing in the second half of the 20th century. The vintage-inspired frames in elegant hues that Oliver Peoples began to produce in 1987 were an antidote to the oversized, boldly coloured frames that were fashionable at time.

Brunello Cucinelli, too, presented something wholly new upon its inception in 1978, with its dyed cashmere – a product until then only available in natural colours – offering a new form of craftsmanship.

The new eyewear collection neatly incorporates these references, uniting natural hues and fluid silhouettes in elegant frames that are light and comfortable to wear.

INFORMATION

brunellocucinelli.com
oliverpeoples.com

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to curtail the fashion week schedule, we round up the brands which are bringing sartorial sway to the S/S 2022 menswear shows, whether presenting collections physically or online, from London, Milan, Pitti and Paris.

Kiko Kostadinov

Designing during a third lockdown and fighting the restrictions of Brexit, Kiko Kostadinov found the process behind his S/S 2022 collection creatively exhausting. Lacking the ability to travel and organically absorb inspiration, her took a personal parkour into memory, layering up fragments of narratives and influences that related to his diasporic design journey. Browsing an auction website, he stumbled across a Futurist teapot designed by Futurist artist Nikolay Diulgheroff, who Kostadinov was surprised to learn was a fellow Bulgarian, who settled in Italy in 1926.

The designer's fascination with Futurism began early in his fashion design journey, when Kostadinov began reading a book on socio-political manifestos, and he has found enduring influence in one of the Italian leaders of the movement, Giacomo Balla. The collection referenced the patchwork waistcoats beloved by Balla, also translated into shirting and coats spliced with panels of colour and shorts with pointed fronds in turquoise and brown. The textural brushstrokes in Balla's ‘Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash’ (1912) was also echoed in transparent blazers in circular folds of lace. Kostadinov was also keen to open his show – an interactive digital experience at Brixton Market – with a vest silhouette that slung low across the torso, a reference to the childhood memory of his father's interest in body building. ‘All these points allowed me to dive into the visual aspects of the collection,' he explained. ‘It's very easy to go to a museum or mark something in a book. I need to layer and layer everything in my head.'

Thebe Magugu

Magugu interweaves the facets of his South African heritage into his clothing, and for S/S 2022, the honorary guest designer of Pitti Uomo 100 was inspired by whistleblowers who challenge and stand up for corruption, who are often portrayed as pariahs rather than pioneers. Mandy Wiener's book ‘The Whistleblowers', which offers raw and evocative accounts of South Africa’s whistleblowers by drawing on first-hand narratives, inspired Magugu, who also looked to symbolic dressing traditions in Western films and the white hat-clad heroes and black hat-sporting bandits. Suiting and denim denoted tropes of masculinity, and silhouettes were swathed with archive illustrations by the political cartoonist Jonathan Zapiro. A cowboy-meets-equestrian boot also marked Magugu's first shoe design for his label.

‘We are living in a suspended moment,' mused Ami's Alexandre Mattiussi over Zoom, considering the purgatorial position in life that the pandemic has placed us in. For S/S 2022 the designer served up optimistic, upbeat and party-focused clothing, for stepping out in when we can live in the moment again. For women, this meant sheer mesh dresses twinkling with crystals and lurex bikini tops paired with slouchy tailoring. For men, tuxedo suits paired with louche transparent shirts and vests and leather suiting layered with twinkling net t-shirts. Mattiussi staged his brand's show film at a funfair, explaining that for him, the setting exemplifed ‘a beautiful escape'. He added, ‘the collection is about a promise of new beginnings'. 

Martine Rose

‘Controlled chaos is given full attention,' read the collection notes to Rose's S/S 2022 offering, which celebrated the diverse mix-and-match facets of personal style and ecclecticism over unity. For autumn, this meant traditional tailoring fused with relaxed sporty shapes, for an offbeat take on elegance, flirting with bad taste, like hairy wool wrap blazers paired with sparkly diamante studded denim, flared popper-detail tracksuit chaps teamed with a neon polo neck and smart jacket and bleached jeans paired with colour blocked cagoules. ‘Textures like crushed velvet and velour, satin and faux snakeskin are filled with the innuendo of naffness,' the release continued.

Jil Sander

Fresh from unveiling a naturalistic collection with Birkenstock, Jil Sander showcased a collection that revelled in contrast, tactility and fabrication. ‘This is a sharp urban collection about the right, and duty, to individuality and imagination,' read Lucie and Luke Meier's collection notes, which featured silhouettes with surprise personality-boosting twists, like workwear shirting accented with a pearlescent brooch, parkas layered with leopard print jackets and magenta neck scarves, brushed mohair t-shirts layered with a chunky chain necklace and sleeveless knitted jumpers imagined in colourful mistmatched panels. ‘Eclectic is a both vision and a value,' the notes concluded. What a liberating vision for spring.

Y/Project

It's been a busy S/S 2022 for Glenn Martens. Fresh from unveiling his debut Diesel collection as artistic director, the designer's spring offering for his own label Y/Project, also featured a collaboration with Fila. The link up is the next iteration of Fila's 100th anniversary celebratory capsule collections. Here, Martens has taken signature Fila staples, including the polo-shirt dress, windbreaker and hoody, and spliced and diced them into hybrid, versatile silhouettes which is synonymous with. How each piece is worn is up to interpretation, and features a mash-up of logos, and lines to drape and wrap around the body.

Phipps

Wrestlers, basketball players, footballers, new age hippies, hikers, climate crusaders: masculine stereotypes were top of the moodboard for Spencer Phipps' S/S 2022 offering, an optimistic, humorous and high-energy collection which played with stereotypes, tribalist motifs and the archetypal energies of mankind. In a time-and-location-defying show film, which used XR technology masterminded by ATO Designs, and flitted from forests to colosseums to spaceships, Phipps light-heartedly analysed what makes man today, riffing on the wardrobe of Dennis Rodman (think a gold beaded Chicago Bulls jersey and loin cloth) or a Viking rocker (cue a studded technical jacket and kilt). The designer also spoke of ‘really returning to the roots of Phipps', a label synonmous with an outdoorsy, intrepid and DIY spirit. Fabrications in the collection were technical and highly performing, and the brand worked with a factory that produces pieces for brands including The North Face. A colourful patchwork off road jacket and trousers, with leaf motif patches was functional. ‘It's windproof and rainproof,' Phipps explained. ‘Those leaves are actually fully protective shoulder guards.'

Dior

When Christian Dior travelled around America in the mid 1940s, he journey from New York to Dallas to meet the Neiman Marcus family. For S/S 2022, Kim Jones looked at the lasting impression that the Texan landscapes made on the maison's founder, bringing a contemporary flourish to the creative connection by collaborating with Houston-born rapper Travis Scott. At the brand's IRL show in Paris, complete with a catcus-lined catwalk scene, models strode in Jones' and Scott's collaborative creations: intarsia vests bearing a reinterpreted monograph incorporating the ‘Cactus Jack' initials of Scott's record label, sweaters with horn-clad figurative illustrations and flared neon suiting sparkling with catcus shaped brooches. There was a languid ease to tailoring, saddle shoulder bags were reimagined as bum bags strapped to the hip and the Dior logo reinterpreted with a scrawl and dotted with a desert flower. The collection also boasted a collaboration with artist George Condo, on a series of colourful hand-painted shirts.

Hermès

There was an elevated uplift to the brand's S/S 2022 menswear offering, which saw a return to a physical show at the Mobilier National building in Paris, after a two year absence. In the maison's show notes, Véronique Nichanian used the words, ‘optimism',  ‘energy',  ‘harmonious',  ‘freedom', to describe a collection brimming with contrasted colour and luxurious lightness, offering reinvented versions of timeless wardrobe silhouettes suited to our post-pandemic world. On sweaters, intarsia knits exploded with geometric daisies, shorts were cut into a relaxed Bermuda shape, celadon-green cotton shirts had zip-up Tunisian collars and two button suits were constructed for durable wool canvas. Chocolate juxtaposed faded rose, raw silk offset cotton serge. Nichanian added,  ‘...this creative collection is bursting with the vitality of a world reclaimed.'

Paul Smith

Escapist Mediterranean tones inspired Smith, who for S/S 2022 was fascinated by an optimistically rich colour palette, transcending from dawn until dusk. ‘It's about that pale sun yellow of the morning going through to the bright blue sky of an afternoon,' Smith – who owns a home in Tuscany – explains. The brand's offering of relaxed sports-inspired shapes, subtly nodded to the great outdoors, like transparent parkas with a zig-zag stitch evoking the details of Hobie Cat boat sails, fisherman's hats and jackets and cycling jerseys in Smith's signature kaleidoscopic stripes. Light shirting was also swathed in bold sunflower prints, nodding to the fields of flowers next to Smith's Italian home. The collection also marks a collaboration with Japanese accessories specialists Porter on a series of striped shoulder and duffle bags. ‘The son of the Porter Yoshida family was one my best friends and one of the reasons why I did well in Japan in the early days,' Smith says. ‘It was lovely making the decision to put our mixed up stripes onto the brand's bags.'

Lemaire

Layering was integral to the laid back lilt of Lemaire's S/S 2022 men's and women's offering, which served up a sublime selection of easy monochromatic ensembles screaming to be worn on bustling city streets, from utilitarian workwear to tailoring. Cue loose dark denim suits and ruched shirt dresses, oversized shirting and funnel neck jackets in caramel, stone grey, moss and navy. Following on from the brand's S/S 2021 artist collaboration with Martín Ramírez, for S/S 2022, the label have also unveiled a capsule collection swathed with artworks of American Outsider Artist Joseph Yoakum.

Rick Owens

The S/S 2022 shows have been hit with a heavy does of hedonism. Cue the Metalheadz-inspired silhouettes at Louis Vuitton, the raver-worthy neons at Loewe and the dawn till dusk beach goers at MGSM. ‘With a post-covid in view there might be a sense of frustrated appetites demanding to be doubly satisfied this summer, that might make for a voraciousness forgetting the humbling experience we all just went through together,' Rick Owens wrote in his spring show notes, reflecting on the sense of spiritual and physical abandon to come. For his fourth collection showing on the beach of Venice Lido near his home, Owens offered up a vision of considered hedonism, a hippy-centric collection abounding in dragging denim, laddered knitwear and Pagoda-shouldered structure. Owens was also interested in taking tailoring and pulling it apart, offering up its internal construction. His revellers marched with jackets with ripped sleeves and deepened armholes, reflective shield sunglasses and platform boots.

Louis Vuitton

‘Amen Break', a seven second four-bar drum loop central to seminal hip-hop and jungle, that filtered across genres and mainstream music to become the most popular loop in musical history, was a metaphorical symbol of Virgil Abloh's S/S 2022 epic collection video - directed by Mahfuz Sultan and starring Lupe Fiasco, Goldie, Saul Williams and GZA - which focused on the concept of transmitted ideas across generations and facilitating waves of change. Inspired by the life of Lupe Fiasco's father, an African drummer and member of the Black Panther Party, who grew up on the Southside of Chicago, Abloh's story centred on a father and son united by loss and crossing into a dream world. On their path, whether winding through woods of silver birch trees or witnessing samurai combat, they encounter figures of the elder and younger generations, marked by hybridised tailoring, sportswear and streetwear silhouettes, from belted suits sported with crumpled top hats to bovver boy baggy denim and rainbow leather bomber jackets.

Homme Plissé Issey Miyake

A huge rotated lamp positioned on high illluminated the S/S 2022 designs featured in the Homme Plissé Issey Miyake collection video. In style synonymous with the technical Japanese brand, the collection was divided into several categories, including the ‘Body Movement' series, featuring fluid silhouettes like sleeveless jackets and leggings with a paint and sand print tracking the undulating lines of the human body. Plus the innovative ‘Leno Stripe' series, which employs karamiori (leno weave) a traditional weaving technique that creates net like structures. These grids were transformed into vests with interior pockets and loose shorts, enhanced with a stripe detail formed by the label's signature pleating.

Burberry

Pierced, buckled up, leather-clad, there was a rebellious riff to the models who strode to an intense rave soundtrack amongst Burberry's sand dune-lined setup at London’s Royal Victoria Docks. ‘I wanted the collection to capture that free spirit of youth and its honest and daring attitude, that sense of experimentation and fluidity.... It’s a very raw energy that’s infectious, exciting and full of life. Like an awakening,’ said chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci, of the men's and women's collection, which abounded in bodily affirmation, raw seduction and experimentation. For men, oversized tees were transparent, signature trenchcoats sleeveless and decosntructed, trousers utilitarian and buckled and pocketed. For women, strap dresses had a fluid metallic appeal, outerwear was imagined in clear vinyl and with zebra print inflections and bikinis wrapped in ties around the body. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, young generations around the world have lost out on adventure. For Tisci, they'll be coming back with a bang.

Courrèges

'I was inspired by the archive fabric and shape wise, looking at the codes of the house but never copying them' says Nicola de Felice of his debut menswear collection for the heritage Parisian house, which looked to update archetypal silhouettes like a workwear jacket, 'valuable for one to wear'. De Felice nodded to the first men's iteration of a short Courrèges jacket, softly shouldered with mulitple pockets, and paired with a vinyl tank top and cap and fluid ribbed trousers. There was a contemporary sensuality to his sophomore women's Resort silhouettes – an extension of his debut for A/W 2021 – which nodded to subtle A-line silhouettes and bold cut-out designs, like sunshine yellow pinafores with a hole stamped from the chest and flaring mini-dresses paired with thigh high boots. The designer spoke or bringing a 'sharp aspect' to styles that might appear vintage, focusing on a white women's coat inspired by a 1976s style, the back crafted without a seam, subtly cocooning. 

Lanvin

In the opening to the video for Lanvin's Resort women's and men's S/S 2022 collections, a sunglasses-clad female model sits in hair and make-up, scrolling through escapist beachside images on her phone. Cue the viewer being transported into a trippy, tropical vista, courtesy of a hazy Noughties soundtrack thanks to All Saints' Pure Shores. There was an effusive, nostalgic atmosphere to a collection defined by bold, travel-inspired pieces, which had an easy mix-and-match aesthetic. Think Japanese wave painting print scubas suits paired with plaid coats and exaggerated thong flip-flops, floral print dresses with tassel trim, retro tracksuits and cropped boucle jackets teamed with mini skirts. In a beachy wooden cabin, models lounged in hammocks, played backgammon and engaged in a giggly Chinese whispers. It's exactly where you want to be.

JW Anderson

Many of us have felt nostalgia for the clothes and silhouettes we sported pre-pandemic, or for the mundane moments in life which now appear so simple and carefree. Nostalgia was also on the mind of Jonathan Anderson, who for his third photographic collaboration with Juergen Teller, mounted images of his eponymous brand's men's S/S 2022 and women's Resort collection in the foiled cardboard frames you often find edging kitsch school photographs. He was also taken by the privacy and freedom of dressing up alone in your bedroom, reinterpreting mundane silhouettes, like a striped top, slacks or camisole through a ‘voyage of newness'. Fleece tracksuits, beaded dresses and vests were splashed with a strawberry print inspired by a eighteenth century painting of a squirrel nibbling on berries, ubiquitous rubber sliders were splased with the ‘JW' anchor logo, jogging bottoms puddled like harem pants and retro sports jackets were emboldened with florals. ‘Glorification of being who you are,' Anderson added of the offering's impetus. 

Giorgio Armani

Customarily, Giorgio Armani hosts his runway shows at his brand's HQ Teatro in Milan, a majestic minimalist structure designed by Tadao Ando. It was one of the first locations to be shut down last February at Milan Fashion Week as the Covid-19 virus began spreading throughout Italy. It was prescient therefore that for S/S 2022, Mr Armani showcased his collection away from a stadium seated theatre, and in the intimate garden of his home, where his early shows were held. Titled ‘Back to where it started' the collection was an elegant ease-fuelled offering of insouciant tailoring, new suiting silhouettes, and sportswear shapes: white rolled up chinos paired with a foulard-lined single button navy blazer, Ikat jacquard waistcoats and Bermuda shorts, glossy silk safari jackets and preppy V-neck sweaters. Relaxed and refined, and debuted in a domestic setting, what could be more fitting for the new normal of today's world?

Prada

A simple summer holiday: clear sea, warm sand, a touch of tan, a concept which once seemed almost mundane in its ease, which is now so scant. Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons played on this dichotomy for S/S 2022, describing the collection as a ‘utopia of normality' and transporting Prada's viewers to a Sardinian beach landscape, which models strode into via a surrealist red tunnel. It's a skin-revealing Prada packing list for summer (a theme which has run throughout the Milan shows, perhaps a response to being shrouded under sweats for so long), featuring fuschia towelled hooded jackets, organic deck chair stripe vests and thigh-flashing all-in-ones and wiggle-detail woolen micro shorts layered with mini skirts. There was a subversive spin to these silhouettes, which also featured more traditional tailoring pieces, like ribbed cardigans, baggy suit trousers and pinstripe jackets. The soon to be most coveted piece on the beach? Bucket hats with sporty built-in sunglasses or zipped pouches for your spare change.

Fendi

Confined to one space, one city, one country for so long our personal sense of perspective have never felt so prescient. Silvia Venturini Fendi drew on this concept for S/S 2022, transporting Fendi collection viewers to the brand's Roman headquarters inside the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, which boasts panoramic views of the seven hills of Rome, the Apennine mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. There was a light sense of freedom to the collection, which revelled in both loose and body-flaunting silhouettes in sugary, pastel tones, from navel-revealing cropped jackets to long shirts sported with bare legs, transparent trench coats to pocket-detail shorts. Prints had a panoramic appeal, including a cartographic print of Rome and abstract patterns which resemled the striking strata of rock or marble, splashed over city coats or shaped into fleece. There were ‘It' accessories that appealed too, including micro Baguette bags worn as necklaces and bucket hats turned upside down and transformed into bags.

Tod's

Unsurprisingly, escape has been on the mind of many a brand for S/S 2022, whether Canali is lusting after Los Angeles or Dior is dreaming of Texas. Showcasing its collection on the staircase of the winery Cantina Petra in Suvereto – designed by architect Mario Botta – Tod's is getting a taste of Tuscan sun for spring. The Italian brand's collection was drenched in rich Mediterranean tones and revelled in silhouettes fitting for an urban safari, from washed chambray shirting to preppy V-neck sweaters. Collection highlights include a biker jacket with elbows studded with Tod's signature Gommino pads, an utterly luxurious suede hoodie and camera bags, for when life on inner-city safari gets scintillating enough for a quick snapshot.

MSGM

Italian DJ Lorenzo Senni created the heady and hypnotic soundtrack for the Milanese brand's S/S 2022 video, centred on a sun-drenched beach, and featuring models sprawled on craggy rocks, standing in shallow water on on the shoreline and floating out at sea. Founder Massimo Giorgetti looked to Stephen Milner’s photographs, from the Spiritual Good Time series, are the inspiration behind the offering, which have a surf-meets-rave sensibility, swathed in colour and print. Think off the shoulder striped sweaters, conch shell intarsia cardigans, neon shorts, Lycra leggings and cargo pants all paired with beach ready accessories, like zesty sliders, bucket hats and chunky framed sunglasses. Giorgetti is ready for the beach and he's not leaving till sunrise.

Canali

The sun-soaked setting of Los Angeles inspired the Italian tailoring label, who looked to California-cool Nineties dressing codes for S/S 2022. This culminated in louche tailoring and elegant daywear in oceanic and sunrise tones, from fuschia to moss green, aquamarine to sand, and luxurious fabrications like buckskin leather and suede. For summer, the Canali man, whether meandering in Milan or driving down Sunset Boulevard, will be sporting slouchy bomber jackets, floral silk bowling shirts and natty neck ties. The most outré ensemble? A hot pink suit paired with a white tee. 

Dolce & Gabbana

The world has experimented with a series of self-care methods in the wake of Covid-19. For S/S 2022, Dolce and Gabanna turned their attention to ‘light therapy', and to the South Italian tradition of light festivals, were areas are illuminated with a seemingly infinite array of colourful lights. The near-100 look strong catwalk collection was presented IRL at the brand's Metropol Theatre space in Milan and featured Noughties-inflected sportswear and tailoring, swathed in prismatic beads and gems. Metallic jacquards, stained glass and paint-splattered prints also featured in the offering, which abounded in nostalgic silhouettes, like oversized denim, slouchy bomber jackets and flesh-revealing shirting. 

Woolrich

The American label brings an intrepid touch to any location, and for S/S 2022 it had its sights set on both the city and the country. This meant durable and versatile men's and women's designs, with a utilitarian flair, camoflage-meets-florals print parkas in vibrant tones, grey melange tracksuits, dusty pink workwear jackets and pocket-detail shorts. The brand has used spring to celebrate its heritage, with the second drop in the offering titled 'Reimagined Americana', featuring oversized outerwear and paisley shirting.

Ermenegildo Zegna

New social spheres, new dressing codes, new normal: Alessandro Sartori mused on the new routes we find ourselves meandering within in a post pandemic-world with a film featuring models navigating different realms, from the paths of mazes to the steps of ampitheatres. The artistic director has spent the last couple of seasons musing on new requirements of tailoring, sartorial codes that merge sophistication with ease, function with flair. For S/S 2022 this was translated into silhouettes with a light elan, like collarless kimono shapes, utilitarian chore coats, long dusters, oversized overshirts and silhouettes without padding or internal construction. Fabrics were gauzy and luxurious, like featherlight nylon, silk and fluid glazed wool, tones had a water-inspired liquidity from calcite to grainy white and practical flourishes were seen in the form of padded paper leather slippers, foldable backpacks and canvas work bags.

Brunello Cucinelli

The Italian luxury house masterfully merges sartorial codes, bringing the finest materials to elegant-yet-infinitely insouciant silhouettes. For S/S 2022 this take came courtesy of tailoring which had a laid back lilt, like double-breasted pinstripe suits paired with denim shirts, Prince of Wales check jackets layered with loose jeans and white chino trousers sported with a shirt, tie and soft leather biker jacket. Softly padded suede gilets, pocket detail Bermuda shorts and plaid shirts were also Cucinelli's summer check list, with pieces imagined in organic shades, from washed aquamarine to sand.

A-Cold-Wall*

Samuel Ross has long postulated on human kind's relationship with external design forces, whether musing on man's affiliation with Brutalist architecture or how people are affected by constant geological shifts. The London-based designer summarised his brand's S/S 2022 collection in four words: 'Motion. Form. Oscillate. Converge', tenets that have new meaning after 18 months of isolation and restriction. For spring, the brand's streetwear-inflective protective silhouettes, were rendered in bold and elemental hues, with pieces like technical capes, cagoules and padded vests, cocooning the body. In the label's collection film, models strode through an urban metropolis, pacing metal staircases and tarmas, in aquamarine, orange and lime sportswear, with shielding pocket and straps, their silhouettes layered up, with totes, shoulder bags buckled to the torso and pouches strung around the neck.

Diesel

In Diesel's S/S 2022 collection film, a model surveys the red sky of a rocky planet, a symbol of the Italian brand's vision for the future, spearheaded by Belgian designer and Y/Project founder Glenn Martens. In a preview to the collection, Martens discussed his desire to reintroduce a ‘core' collection to the label, explaining that in just three months he'd streamlined the brand's supply chain into more sustainable channels, relocating manufacturers and operating through certified suppliers. Martens has bought an easy sense of the avant-garde to the brand's DNA, which spans everyday denim and sportswear. Think 5-pocket denim jeans with inbuilt Cowboy boots, jackets with a recycled paper print inspired by delivery boxes and trompe l’oeil effect tights and tops, plus hybrid designs which reflect the designer's splice and dice approach at Y/Project, like aysmmetric skirts shaped from coats. 'I wanted the belt to be the backbone of a garment,' Martens added, nodding to bandeau tops, t-shirts and jackets in-built with chunky buckles.

Arnar Mar Jonsson

The London-based utility expert nodded to Japanese and Italian designers of the Eighties, who merged 'sport and modern luxury.' This translated into technical silhouettes riffing on early mountaineering wear, including zip-detail nylon jackets and balooning trousers, jersey hoodies with circular inserts, silver cagoules and panelled jackets. Jonsson used a variety of high performing fabrications, from Loomstate Ventile and PU coated cotton, with materials naturally dyed using native Icelandic plants, Common Lady's Mantle and Thistle. Adding to this organic air, the brand's technical creations were paired with softly crocheted shoulder bags.

Qasimi

There was a soft sense of wrapping, draping and cocooning to Qasimi's S/S 2022 offering, which was presented in the grounds of St Ann's Court in Surrey, a modernist country house built in 1936, designed by renowned architect Sir Raymond McGrath in collaboration with celebrated garden designer Sir Christopher Tunnard. Architecture was essential to the structure of the collection which nodded both to stark Brutalist lines and 'muqarnas' –a geometric style of vaulting found in Islamic design. Shirting in exotic fuchsias and oranges draped in asymmetric cuts around the torso, 'tarbousha' – a woven tassel which is intrinsic to the wardrobe of a male Emirati, was used to accent khaki jackets and sweeping A-line skirts, while renchcoats were laser cut like militaristic net canopies. Lines and curves existed equilibrium, tones were head-turning and design references roving. 

Erdem

An imaginative sense of narrative inspires Erdem Moralioglu's collections, which nod to imagined adventures of both royalty and bohemians. For the brand's debut menswear collection, this sense of story was paramount, and nodded to the little sea-bound brother of Moralioglu's women, featuring ensembles inspired by figurative and textural Patrick Prockter paintings or the wardrobe of artist Derek Jarman, pottering in the gardens around his famed Dungeness seaside retreat Prospect Cottage. The youth-focused and ease-fuelled offering nodded to Jarman's knitted tank tops, worn cords and boiler suits, reinterpreted in cotton jacquard and floral printed cotton. Roll neck cable knit jumpers and striped vests had a nautical appeal, and toile de Jouy bucket hats a boyish sensibility. Moralioglu imagined city-meets-city silhouettes, with his imagined protaganists leaving a black tie affair in London, bound for the coast, sporting Cummerbunds with bright knitwear and sandals and billowing blousons and shorts.

There are some people who would describe their current style as slovenly. If you are one of those adherents, then we suggest you now step away from those slouch-inducing sweatpants and oversized sweaters. Your aspiration for spring should be sprezzatura, an Italianate nonchalance most effectively achieved through investment in appearance-uplifting, lightweight suiting.

Men’s suits for spring: the post-pandemic transition piece

Think of the springtime suit as a post-pandemic transition piece, sitting serendipitously between the sportswear silhouettes of your lockdown wardrobe, and the stiff, starch-filled tailoring of your former office-bound existence. Look to subtly oversized proportions that have a laidback lilt, easy unlined silhouettes and fabrics that welcome the warmer weather.

As we ease gently back into the outdoors, it’s only natural to feel the pull of organic tones, such as chestnut, honey and walnut. At Ermenegildo Zegna, artistic director Alessandro Sartori has looked to the hues of the label’s Oasi Zegna nature reserve, in the Biella Alps in northern Italy, for inspiration, while at Jil Sander, softer silhouettes have been imagined in slate, caramel and sky blue.

For those keen to emerge from lockdown with a more exuberant energy, we recommend offsetting that spirit with an insouciant stance, hands shrugged into loose trouser pockets. Turn your attention to Bottega Veneta’s bouclé suiting, which is striking in its textural fabrication. There’s another winning adjective for your new season style glossary.

INFORMATION

This article appears in the May 2021 issue Wallpaper*, available to download

As fashion journalists spend another season taking in fashion shows remotely, through a screen, there’s been much chatter behind the scenes regarding how they might emerge style-wise next season, when there’s a chance of shows being staged with a live audience. There’s the suggestion of a new Roaring Twenties, which will see people around the world glammed up as they emerge from lockdown, wearing bold outfits and eschewing loungewear and flat shoes for evening looks and stilettos. There’s also the parallel concept that after a year of yearning only for cosy silhouettes, we may simply never want to dress up again.

As in New York Fashion Week and London Fashion Week before it, Milan's designers mused on these concepts for autumn, creating collections and tying together 2021 trends that swung between romp and relaxation, extravagance and ease. Authenticity was also integral to a host of Italian brands, conscious that when consumer attitudes shift towards spending once more, people will be keen to buy from brands with long-lasting aesthetics. 

This concept was paramount to Kim Jones, who presented his heritage-nodding debut women’s collection for Fendi, following his first, Bloomsbury Group-themed haute couture collection for the Roman house earlier in February. Jones looked to the archival designs of Karl Lagerfeld, who was creative director of the house for 54 years, and the wardrobes of the five Fendi sisters, with a collection brimming with elegant, ladylike and luxurious silhouettes. Think cappuccino, khaki and midnight-tone slip dresses, tuxedo jackets, tailored coats and body-hugging knits, in luxurious fabrics including marbled silk, double cashmere and organza, and adorned with details of the past, such as Lagerfeld’s ‘Karligraphy’ monogram and the embossed stitching of the brand’s ‘Sellaria’ bags. The show’s accompanying set, an evolution of its haute couture set-up, also alluded to the past, featuring F-shape transparent vitrines, with crumbling columns resembling Roman artefacts inside.

Max Mara’s signature camel tones have reinforced its reputation for timeless, trend-subverting dressing, a concept that resonates strongly today. For the brand's 70th anniversary collection, creative director Ian Griffiths celebrated the classic house tones with an offering of elegant yet easy Italinate pieces, such as caramel teddy bear-fur coats, outdoorsy quilted gilets, loose knits and pleated skirts. Griffiths also applauded the ascendant nature of the women that wear his clothes (back in 1951, in contrast, the brand's founder intended them for ‘the wives of the local notaries and doctors'). In a playful twist, the collection referenced the stylings of the British aristocracy off duty in the British countryside, featuring flat caps, foulard headscarves and oversized retro sunglasses.

Brunello Cucinelli also celebrated natural tones, broadcasting his brand's show live from its home village Solomeo. The offering luxuriated in creams, beiges and browns, featuring relaxed yet sumptuous silhouttes, including 1980s-inspired suiting, textural knitwear and robe coats.

Post-pandemic, as people consider their fashion choices, many will desire eye-catching silhouettes that still retain the ease of lockdown dressing and the luxurious nature of its fabrics. For A/W 2021 Loro Piana considered this requirement, with an offering that catered to work, leisure and beyond. Think shearling coats, uniform-centric knitted two-pieces, sharp overcoats and double-layer parkas in a spectrum of rich hues, from bottle green to chocolate, merlot to mustard.

This sense of comfort was also reflected by Tod's Walter Chiapponi, who served up a collection of soft, bourgeois-meets-sportswear shapes, including frilled puffer jackets, jumbo-corduroy trousers, padded dresses and pleated skirts. Similarly, Missoni drew on movement and the comfort of its knitwear heritage, creating sparkling-stripe pleated dresses and chevron-stripe knitted flares and cardigans – for looking and feeling good in.

For Prada's Milan Fashion Week menswear show back in January, co-creative directors Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons mused on the restrictions encountered during the Covid-19 era, as well as the liberation from conventional routine that lockdowns have also brought. The brand's women's show evolved this concept with an offering that considered polar opposites, and ‘the point between simplicity and complexity, elegance and practicality, limitation and release'. In the same OMA-conceived show set (myriad graphic interconnected rooms lined with tactile fake fur) models sported pieces that alluded to Simons’ and Miuccia's design canon, like oversized nylon MA-1 bomber jackets with retro jacquard linings, faux fur and sequin wraps clutched around the shoulders. Standard dressing codes were subverted, with tailored peacoats imagined in paint-box hues, body-hugging evening gowns replaced with knitted all-in-ones and conversative tailored skirt suits spliced to reveal the body. There was an exuberance and ostentation to the collection, which shimmered with paillettes among shaggy faux fur and bold upholstery prints.

Where Prada subverted and played with the parameters of dressing up, so No 21's Alessandro Dell'Acqua celebrated them in all their going-out glory. Dell'Acqua is clearly ready to shake off his sweatpants and, for A/W 2021, created a collection that swapped bedroom comforts for something a touch more boudoir. For women, there were fringed dresses that revealed lace knickers, leopard-print pencil skirts and stomach-baring sweaters. Dell’Acqua brought together ultra-mini 1960s skirt lengths, shrunken peacoats and platform shoes, and paired them with grungey separates, like plaid shirts that were slung on top of revealing bodysuits.

At MSGM, Massimo Giorgetti also made a case for going-out gear, with a collection that celebrated the underground nightlife of Milan, featuring latex pencil skirts and puffer jackets, rib-knit velour dresses, paint-cracked denim and holographic roll-necks, all in vibrant tones. Dolce & Gabbana, too, was in the mood for club-kid fashion. While the brand's A/W 2021 menswear collection nodded to the exuberant e-boy fashion made famous on TikTok, the women's kaleidoscopic offering addressed the e-girl, and abounded in 1990s raver silhouettes, with graffiti-splattered puffer jackets, foil jeans and shaggy leopard-print knitwear. The collection also alluded to the body-cinching shapes that Dolce & Gabbana was renowned for in that decade, with ruched dresses, bodysuits and form-flattering, double-breasted jackets.

Across fashion cities, designers have mused on the new requirement to create clothing to be viewed digitally, through a screen, rather than in person. At Marni, Francesco Risso's imaginative runway shows – resembling other-worldly greenhouses or forestscapes formed from paper – are a way of welcoming his fans into his art-inflected, ecclectic world. For A/W 2021, he used Instagram to invite show watchers to three Zoom events, a breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here, he presented clothing that was a hyperbolic, larger-than-life interpretation of designing for digital, with oversized puffer jackets swathed in shaggy fake fur, crochet two-pieces and tie-dye knitwear. Ruffles, ruching and multicoloured prints, along with bags blown up to XL proportions, appeared larger than life no matter how small the computer screen. 

In 2020, Giorgio Armani was the first designer to cancel his fashion show on the final morning of Milan Fashion Week, due to the increasing threat level of Covid-19. As regions around Milan began to close their borders, journalists travelling home or straight on to Paris began questioning their safety and considering the reality of a European lockdown. On Giorgio Armani’s A/W 2021 catwalk, there was a fluid relaxation to the silhouettes. The collection includes relaxed suiting in velvet and explosive floral jacquards and gowns in wispy transparent fabrics. There was an optimism in the bold blue and turquoise hues that accented the offering, which riffed on powerful 1980s tones. 

The 1980s was a decade that also inspired Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli. He referred to his decision to stage his A/W 2021 show in the empty auditorium of the historic Piccolo Teatro di Milano, which has been shuttered since the pandemic hit, as ‘punk’. This attitude was echoed across a solemn, largely monochromatic collection that featured ultra-short ‘scissored’ skirt lengths, shirting and slick tuxedo suiting. Elsewhere, DIY and punk elements came in spliced knitwear, slashed into Argyle shapes or cut out into floral motifs; stompy biker boots festooned with rose petals; and boxy, studded accessories. The austere nature of the collection was emphasised by models walking to the sounds of the Milanese symphony orchestra. 

Salvatore Ferragamo is a label familiar with operating during hardship. Its founder famously innovated with materials due to resource restrictions during and after the Second World War, incorporating tree bark, hemp and fish skin into his shoe designs. For A/W 2021, creative director Paul Andrew was focused on shapes and fabrics for a new world, presenting Future Positive, a science fiction-inspired film, with ultra-modern menswear and womenswear silhouettes. Andrew looked to a range of cinematic references during the collection's development, including Gattaca, Until The End Of The World, and The Matrix. Suiting was deconsctructed and bold, outerwear imagined in transparent plastics, metallics and leathers, and footwear had a motocross-meets-astronaut feel. Andrew innovated with materials across the collection, which included accessories made from upcycled pre-consumer offcuts and recycled pre- and post-consumer wool and cashmere, a dress made from recycled polyester, and footwear soles formed using pre-consumer TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) and metal-free leather tanned with plant-based materials.

Sportmax also operated with futuristic intent, looking at inspirational female figures across history, spanning statues of mythological figures and Annie Lennox, to create a forward-thinking fashion statement. The brand's collection featured models striding in parachute-volume taffeta gowns, The Matrix-worthy leathers and sparkling silver dresses, paired with shield-like sunglasses and thick soled wader-centric boots. 

Ferragamo dedicated its collection ‘to all those who must walk' – citing its founder – ‘at a time when we must be united in our determination to reimagine, rebuild, progress’, it summed up the impetus behind Milan Fashion Week A/W 2021 as a whole.

Pitti Uomo usually hosts nearly 1500 brands and retailers at its seasonal trade fair in Florence, where luxury and high street behemoths, buyers, stylists and journalists from around the world descend in stylish droves on the Italian city's Fortezza da Basso venue. But for A/W 2021, it’s 99th showcase named ‘Pitti Connect’, which has already seen a number of schedule reshuffles in the wake of the ever-evolving Covid-19 crisis, was held entirely online. 

For A/W 2021, ‘Pitti Connect’ celebrated the global network of insiders intrinsic to the seasonal menswear trade fair. The two-day digital event opened with a roundtable discussing the meditative and timeless nature of Scandinavian design, with panellists including Soulland’s Silas Adler and Storm Copenhagen’s Rasmus Storm, hosted by Scandinavian Mind. Pitti Connect's online showcase also placed focus on exhibited brands with Exhibitor Spotlights, featuring Herno and Brunello Cucinelli and invited international buyers, from Bergdorf Goodman’s Bruce Pask, to Wood Wood's Jens Wiinblad, to select their top pieces from the overall autumn offering. Live videos also featured, with brands including Ten C, debuting their autumn offerings through film.

In a focus most traditional of Pitti Uomo's menswear offering, Pitti Connect focused primarily on performance, sportswear and tailoring brands, including Lardini, Kiton, Ten C, CP Company and Colmar Originals. Particularly notable was the second iteration of its Sustainable Style initiative, which invites 15 global designers, curated by fashion journalist and talent scouter Giorgia Cantarini, to create environmentally and socially responsible clothing collections.

For A/W 2021, this included Myar, Yatay and Uniforme Paris. The initiative also saw American Paris-based designer Spencer Phipps awarded the Reda x Sustainable Style award, for a micro menswear collection of vintage alpine wear. For the collection, the designer was inspired by silhouettes in the 1979 film All that Jazz, directed by Bob Fosse, and created pieces in  merino wool in collaboration with wool sports specialists Rewoolution.

INFORMATION 

uomo.pittimmagine.com

Incredibly insulating, impeccably soft, utterly luxurious: cashmere has real material might. And if anything is going wrap us up against the unnerving entrance to 2021, its Italian label Brunello Cucinelli’s take on the fine natural fibre.

As part of the Solomeo-based brand’s ‘Never Ending Stories’ collection – which celebrates its most classic silhouettes – the brand has released a selection of ultra versatile, organically toned cashmere pieces for men and women. For women, think lightweight roll necks and t-shirts, which can be layered under sweaters, or sumptuously paired with loose tailoring, and for men, zip-up cashmere sweaters and cardigans, which have finessing working-from-home appeal. For video events that call for a little va va voom, the offering also features ribbed knitwear pieces sparkling with metallic yarn.

Cucinelli’s focus on timeless slow fashion aligns with our dedication to investing in classic designs that withstand trends and seasons. Cashmere may be snuggly and warming but its body thermoregulating qualities ensures that it can be worn in the summer too. Those lightweight t-shirts and sweaters will look just as chic with a linen skirt or chinos when the warmer weather rolls around.

INFORMATION

brunellocucinelli.com

‘We started by thinking about what our connection is to Florence,’ said husband and wife creative duo Luke and Lucie Meier, after presenting Jil Sander’s A/W 2020 show at the historic Santa Maria Novella Piazza. Connection is a suitable synonym to sum up brands' thinking at this year’s Pitti Uomo 97, which mused on our relationship to fabrication, handcraft, the cultural climate and the natural world we inhabit.

Join the sartorial dots behind menswear’s autumnal unveiling...

Jil Sander

Jil Sander creative directors Luke and Lucie Meier met in 2001 as fashion students at Polimoda in Florence. Since taking the reigns of the famed Germany-founded Milan-based house in 2017, the duo have cultivated a timeless, materiality and handcraft-focused aesthetic that chimes with the artful heritage of the city. ‘Our discovery of making and craft started here,’ the duo said backstage. ‘It’s so important to have the hand touch.’ It’s a prescient message amidst the frenetic whirl of the Pitti Uomo trade fair, that hosts hundreds of brands each menswear season.

At the brand’s majestic show space at the historic Santa Maria Novella, piles of vibrant orange marigolds lined the runway, a reference not just to the desert flowers the Meiers discovered when exploring South West America, but also to the medicinal properties of botanical-inspired products found at the nearby Santa Maria Novella Pharmacy, the world’s oldest (and most resplendent) of its kind. Here, models strode to Bjork’s Hidden Place in impeccably cut cashmere coats and capes, shirts with abstract watercolour splashes and soft mohair tabards. There has always been a push and pull behind the duo’s aesthetic, which unites minimalism with maximalism and the artisanal with the futuristic, and there was a softness bought to the more pared back shapes with fringed shawls, orb shape hammered-metal jewellery and tasselled shoulder bags. ‘We just do what we think feels right,’ they added. It’s an intuition that is spot on. 

Herno

The 72-year old Lesa-based company is a leader in highly performing, technically expert outerwear, and now Herno fans can also put their best outdoors-focused foot forward with its first sneaker. The label has teamed up with fellow Italian mountaineering shoe brand S.C.A.R.P.A. on Herno Laminar Assoluto, a technical trail running-inspired shoe in five colourways, ranging from black to reflective silver. True to Herno’s performance focused heritage, the style is anything but a fashion sneaker, and is constructed using waterproof, windproof and breathable Gore-Tex, and features a Vibram Megagrip sole. The ultra lightweight style weighs merely 320g, and is the ultimate accompaniment for wood, mountain or desert hiking, or simply sauntering to the office.

Armani Exchange

Armani bought a sense of fairground fun to Pitti Uomo’s tradefair terrain, setting up an Armani Exchange-themed funfair, complete with high striker and water pistol games. The brand’s accompanying A/W 2020 collection featured a cacophony of casual and sportswear essentials, ranging from chunky sole sneakers, AX logo backpacks and puffer jackets. Game on!

Woolrich

At the end of 2019, Woolrich opened its Snow Experience Room at its Manhattan flagship space, allowing customers to try out its protective parkas at glacial temperatures dropping to -20° Celsius. For it’s A/W 2020 presentation, it also had something Arctic in mind. On entrance to the brand’s hangar-size presentation space, guests were asked to layer waterproof rubber socks over their shoes, before stepping into an icy snowscape lined with powder-topped trees, with snowflakes falling from the air. The snow globe-like set up celebrated the 190th anniversary of the American outerwear label’s signature Arctic Parka, which has been redesigned for autumn in three different categories: Luxe, Tech and Eco.

Brunello Cucinelli

It’s no surprise Brunello Cucinelli threw a luxurious banquet dinner to kick of Pitti Uomo 97, the Italian label’s business grew an impressive 20 per cent in 2019. Luxuriousness lies at the heart of the Solomeo-based company and it’s A/W 2020 ‘Town about Man’ collection was comprised of sumptuous pieces, including a cashmere pinstripe tracksuit and impossibly soft vicuña overcoat. Burnt tones abounded in the offering, which included sporty puffer jackets with houndstooth panels, cord jackets and rubber toed hiking boots. Cucinelli’s strength lies in its ability to blend clothing categories, and a cream cord tuxedo jacket was particularly contemporary. Now we just need another banquet to wear it to.

Margaret Howell

The British label celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, and at an in-store Pitti cocktail party its guests made a toast to its A/W 2020 MHL collection. These are clothes that will travel timelessly not just into the next decade but into the next half century too, including colour blocked scarves, suede walking boots, fishing hats, stripe shirts and duffle coats. Cheers!

Telfar

The Renaissance splendour of Florence is palpable, and at Pitti Uomo guests gather in gilded and fresco-lined palazzos, at times pondering the raucous festivities and high jinks that once took place in their splendid chambers. For Telfar’s show at the Palazzo Corsini, guests entered into a post-banquet scene: a circular dining table laden with leftover-inspired cuisine designed by Spiral Theory Test Kitchen, like littered bone marrow and juicy pomegranates, grapes and half swigged bottles of wine. Baths were filled with punch, table cloths were stained, floral arrangements drooped and partly made double beds and poufs provided seating.

For A/W 2020, renegade designer Telfar Clemens (who counted Solange, Michèle Lamy and Grace Wales Bonner in his audience), bought baroque tropes to his idiosyncratic take on Americana, and to an energetic live performance provided by hip hop group Standing By the Corner and Carrie Stacks, models sashayed and wiggled across the brand’s dining table stage, sporting Telfar logo varsity hoodies, flared denim and colour blocked puffer jackets, paired with striped plus fours, slouchy crushed velvet tracksuit bottoms, laced medieval shirting, densely ruched elastic tops, dandyish pussy bow blousons and ‘T’ logo riding boots. Clemens has long explored sartorial homogeneity and the nature of wardrobe archetypes in his designs – his brand’s affordable ‘T' logo shopping bag, has become a cult hit and is a democratic take on the It bag. Here, the banal was imbued with the baroque in a truly modern take on the Renaissance man.

Brioni

There was a sense of symphonic celebration behind the brand’s 75th anniversary presentation – after all the Roman tailoring house was the first menswear label to stage a runway show at Palazzo Pitti in 1952. For its septuagenarian send up, the label opened up the Renaissance rooms of the astonishing Palazzo Gerini, where framed by gilded cornices, intricate frescoes and jaw dropping chandeliers, members of the world’s most talented Philarmonic orchestras, from Berlin to New Zealand, performed wearing soft Brioni tailoring, in deerskin, washed silk, embroidered silks and glittering jacquards. ‘I wanted to create a kind of haunted house mis-en-scene’ explained design director Norbert Stumpfl of the space, which was festooned with ghostly swathes of fabric. In one resplendent room, father and son cellist duo Andreas Brantelid and Ingemar Brantelid performed Tchaikovsky’s ‘Variations on a Roccoco theme for two cellos’ amidst two banqueting tables which were eerily draped with gauzy white linen and illuminated by candlelight.

Valstar

Street style supremo The Sartorialist could be seen outside Pitti Uomo’s Fortessa Da Basso location, patiently waiting to snap its most sprezzatura-encapsulating attendees. Inside its space, Scott Schuman also made his menswear mark, debuting his varsity-focused capsule collection with Italian label Valstar, pioneers of the Valstarino, a sporty take on the A-1 flight jacket, first designed in 1935. Here, this signature jacket was reinterpreted in soft suede and with a hood, and styled with relaxed hoodies and pocket detail t-shirts, embroidered with the calligraphic letter ‘V’.

Random Identities

Since 2017, ex-Yves Saint Laurent and Ermenegildo Zegna creative director Stefano Pilati has been operating his SSENSE-stocked label Random Identities from Berlin. Stepping into the brand’s debut catwalk show space inside Florence’s old Leopolda station – a vast interior illuminated with red light and smoke – you’d have been forgiven for thinking you’d been transported to a vast industrial hangar of one of the city’s notoriously hedonistic night clubs.

Berlin is emblematic of freedom and fluidity, and these tenets are essential to Random Identities, which since its launch has been framed around Pilati’s own archival wardrobe signatures. On the runway, a gender fluid mix of Pilati's friends sported looks that mediated between evening wear and tailoring, sportswear and streetwear. Like an executive black suit and white shirt layered with a twinkling rhinestone embellished bra, camouflage parkas paired with light up trainers designed in collaboration with Li-Ning, oddly proportioned tuxedo jackets paired with chunky thigh high boots, and graphic intarsia knits swathed around the body. The mood was one of individuality, sensuality and triumph, and at the show's climax, Pilati himself took a turn on the runway clad in a camel cashmere coat and stompy riding boots, giving the audience a final peace sign before disappearing into the darkness of the venue.

Piquadro

The Italian leather goods company had us mentally reevaluating our luggage leanings, with its latest range of sleek brushed stainless steel aluminium suitcases. Available in a range of sizes, including handy carry-on proportions, the styles feature brown grain leather details, silent swiveling double wheels and TSA locks. For the more multihued minded, the label’s ‘Pop Collection’ also presented a series of lightweight polycarbonate styles in sunburst yellow and postbox red.

Brooksfield

There was a sustainable sensibility behind the Italian label’s latest offering. ‘The Green Project,’ sees its denim, knitwear and signature polo shirt reimagined in eco-friendly fabrics and dyes. Soft wool jumpers are knitted in delectable shades of bright orange, petrol blue and grassy green, coloured using dyes found in the food industry. Elsewhere a series of light hearted slogan knits had an environmentally-aware élan, emblazoned with the phrases ‘Done is better than perfect’ and ‘Urban forest not concrete jungle’.

Canali

The Italian label turns 85 this year, and unveiled three diverse and celebratory collections inside Florence’s Odeon Cinema, ‘Black’, ‘Exclusive’ and ‘Canali 1934’. Its sportier ‘Black’ range, unveiled last season, has a more urban focus, featuring hybrid puffer jackets, backpacks and sleek knitewear in shades of black, grey and neon green. Elsewhere, its premium ‘Exclusive’ line sees the introduction of a new suit style, featuring jackets with wide lapels and gathered shoulder seams and trousers with a high waist.

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Chunky, patterned alpine knits have a tendency to conjure up images of 1980s ski trips, sipping eggnog, or kitsch art teacher attire. But that Italian master of fabrication Brunello Cucinelli has tapped into A/W 2019's penchant for artisanal details, and instead given a luxe, handcrafted lift to this winter fireside essential.

We can't wait to snuggle up in jumpers and cardigans from the Umbria-based fashion house's Opera collection, which are woven by hand using fine natural yarns, such as cashmere, combined with silk, alpaca, mohair or sparkling Lurex, in a minimal colour palette. Featuring patterns inspired by ancient Nordic intarsia knitting styles, we're longing for the days to get even chillier.

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Armani/Silos Fabula Charles Fréger: Milan Fashion Week Men’s allowed editors the chance to catch Armani/Silos’ exhibition of the work of Charles Fréger. The photographer is famed for capturing different global communities, rituals and dress codes, and the showcase features over 250 retrospective images, from Steps, Fréger’s portraits of the Finnish ice-skating team, to the famed series Wilder Mann, a series dedicated to pagan figures, which crosses 18 European countries. The exhibition is on view until 24 March 2019.

Kiton: There was an air of expedition behind Kiton’s A/W 2019 offering, one crafted to cater to its on-the-go tailoring and travel obsessed customer. Suiting has taken on an ease, unstructured and more casual, with heritage houndstooth and Prince of Wales check taking on a renewed relaxation. The collection also introduces a range of outdoors worthy pieces new to Kiton’s canon, including luxurious parkas lined with fur and cosy sheepskin jackets.

Versace: RuPaul’s commanding refrain ’Shante you stay, Sashay away’ announced the start of Donatella Versace’s A/W 2019 show. The opening section paid homage to the bondage codes Gianni dabbled with in the early 1990s - harness printed T-shirts were teamed up with see through plastic trousers, while backless tailored jackets held together with straps where worn over baroque silk shirts. Elsewhere, sharply cut grey suits were given a high octane boost with floro lace linings and feather boa trims. The tempo revved up further in a collaboration with Ford. The automotive giants iconic logo was emblazoned over jeans and shirts. An update of the brand’s souped-up Chain Reaction sneaker came in leopard and an array of ultra brights.

Andrea Pompilio: The designer continued to evolve his unique approach to producing playful updates on wardrobe staples. He looked to rave culture and the early morning post club journey home for inspiration. Big and baggy proportions were key, with Pompilio turning up the volume on a plaid duffle, while elongated shirts appeared from under boxy blazers. Elsewhere, a macro-check wool overcoat had the ease of a dressing gown and jumbo cord trousers were teamed with plus-size sneakers. Other highlights included a down jacket and parka in mismatched heritage fabrics and tech nylon, and an anorak  emblazoned with leopard print.

Church’s: This season Church’s took a leisurely stroll around the streets of West London. Presented against a photographic backdrop of houses and front doors, styles were displayed on Church’s logo emblazoned door mats. The brands classic Shannon style appeared with a creeper sole and a bold silver buckle side fastening, while their Pembrey penny loafers were given a punk makeover and covered in flat studs. Elsewhere, the cobbler expanded its St. James’s collection with new bag styles and an elegant double buckle monk in soft grain leather.

Bed J.W Ford: Self-taught designer Shinpei Yamagishi was feeling reflective ahead of his Milan Fashion Week debut. Since 2010, his label – pronounced ‘Bedford’ – has become known for its street slouchy tailoring and play on gender codes. For A/W 2019 the duality was illustrated in thick wools paired with elegant satins, soft leather with nylon. There were fringed shawl collars on wool trench coats. Rolled velvet collars. Dusty jewelled tones of rust, amethyst and red. It is a languid eclecticism favoured by Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester and Haider Ackermann. New for the season was a capsule made with Adidas Originals. The sportswear brand’s iconic three stripes are brought inside the leg on purple velvet track pants. Sock boot sneakers had gently spiked soles.

Brioni: Newly appointed executive design director Norbert Stumpfl presented his quietly confident debut collection for Brioni in a velvet lined room. The sumptuous surroundings showcased a collection of considered pieces that focused on effortless tailoring with luxurious details. A formal coat hides a shaved beaver lining, while a softly cut blazer came with an astrakhan collar. Elsewhere, a field jacket was given an exotic makeover in crocodile and a trench appeared in butter soft leather. As always tailoring was key – blazers in knitted jersey and cashmere had an easy elegance. The collection also introduced the Primo suit, a new slender fit silhouette and minimal construction making it the perfect day to night uniform.

Brunello Cucinelli: The brand loosened things up this season in a collection that turned up the volume while staying true to the brand’s classic silhouettes. Generously cut caban jackets and roomy cable knit cardigans were effortlessly thrown over single and double-breasted blazers. A suit in Bordeaux cashmere moleskin had a casual gentlemanly elegance about it, while the easy yet luxurious feel continued with a series of corduroy tuxedos. Elsewhere, fine v-neck knits appeared from under shirts, and relaxed fit jeans came in premium Japanese denim. Brown leather trekking boots and suede Derbies with rubber soles added a rugged sensibility.

Dondup: The Italian label is known for its subtle detailing and sure-fire wearability. For the coming season, the modish, understated outfitter pushed an outerwear message with the warmest, urban chicest style; a trench in wool plaid had a generous volume. Sleeves on slim cashmere knits were extra long. A nylon parka had fuzzy, teddy bear lining. Standout were custom parachute patchwork cargo pants – a canvas of velvet, corduroy, ultra light nylon, silk and heavy cotton. They had a modern, military rhythm.

Giuseppe Zanotti: The glamour and glitz of the label’s namesake founder was front and centre with splashy, sparkling leathers and glimmering textures on its classic styles. Standout was the Blabber capsule of sneakers, a development from S/S 2019’s Urchin style. This elegant new shape for the brand has a double tongue and double silver eyelets, lending it a lo-fi, 1990s Japanese insouciance. Covered in 3D printed vinyl spikes, it’s still packed with Zannotti’s seductive joie de vivre.

Miaoran: The Chinese-born designer Miao Ran moved to Italy to study at the Politecnico di Milano and has a Masters from Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, where he teaches today. After some time working with Missoni, Ran launched his namesake brand in 2015 in Milan. He referred to his A/W 2019 show as a love letter to Milan – ‘seen through foreign eyes’. Earlier in the week Alessandro Sartori talked of the diversity and transience of the city; Ran’s approach is to remix its sartorial codes. From the clergymen to the Carabinieri and pizzaioli, the clothes had a monastic line. Washed denim was in workwear shapes. Fine-wool suiting had formal uniform details lined in hot-pink piping. Trousers were ruched at the waist. The clothes had a sombreness that felt local yet unknown.

Missoni: Angela Missoni presented the brands A/W 2019 collection in an installation created by artist Anton Alvarez. Mannequins stood amongst a series of colourful cylindrical sculptures dressed in a more minimalist Missoni attire. Striped unstructured blazers, grandfather style cardigans and chunky jumpers came in a refined colour palette of soft gradients - shades of camel fluidly morphed into ochre; crimson red into bright orange; and deep wine into electric blue. Texture was also key with different knit techniques often being layered over each other for tactile effect. In a special collaboration with Alvarez, two distinctive cable knit dégradé sweaters came with whirling relief patterns embroidered by hand.

Etro: There was a pinch of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s playful Puck in Etro’s A/W 2019 collection, one designed to take wearers on a fantastical pastoral voyage, through verdant forests and across flowering fields. The offering abounded with medieval style tapestries, patchwork motifs, foliage prints, the house’s signature paisley and alchemical gold thread details, and featured sumptuous smoking jackets, bold suits, puffer jackets and shearling coats. Excellent finery for escapades in enchanted forests.

Ralph Lauren Purple: This season Ralph Lauren mounted his horse and channeled his deep affinity for riding in a collection rich with equestrian tropes. A soft suede bomber emblazoned with laser cut ridding motifs taken from archival scarf looked polo ready, while a gabardine raincoat featured the same scarf print as a lining. A generously cut wool overcoat closed with buckles was inspired by the RL Stirrup Watch, this also appeared on belts and sneakers with a strap fastening. Wool-cashmere turtlenecks, and Fair Isle sweaters were tucked into high-waisted trousers reminiscent of jodhpurs. A touch of fun came in the form of a coat made of Steiff teddy fur.

Santoni: The accessories house has never followed convention and this season was no exception, with the brand holding a mock auction to present their A/W 2019 collection. Guests were invited to bid on pairs of shoes, each lot being humourlessly introduced by the auctioneer. The brand’s classic double buckle monk appeared in shiny ebony leather with a slightly squared toe, while an ankle boot with eliminated seams looked super sleek. The brand’s signature lace-up mountain boots came in a high-top version with soft ankle padding and para rubber sole, alongside a low cut walking style. Elsewhere, loafers in exotic crocodile were toughened up with a chunky tread, and brogues came with untreated heals and soles. A range of running shoes using the brand’s unique artisanal approach and finest leather completed the collection.

Tod’s: Set in the grounds of the grand Villa Necchi Campiglio, Tod’s presented a collection of fine menswear staples, giving each a luxury makeover. A classic puffer came in super soft chocolate brown leather, while a utility jacket in pale grey suede had an easy elegance. These were teamed with fine cashmere roll necks and basket weave knitted jumpers. Elsewhere, neat bombers and overcoats were made in eco-sustainable fabric. As always footwear was key – pull-on boots came with a new toecap embossed with the Gommino pattern, the classic Tod’s moccasin got a sporty update with a neoprene inner sock; and sneakers appeared in brushed calfskin with a Velcro fastening.

Tom Ford: The designer took a more minimalist approach this season in a pared down collection that played with volume, while staying true to the brand’s sleek silhouettes. The focus was high voltage outerwear - a blown up black parka revealed a cosy duvet lining, while a super lightweight puffer in copper came with a double-breasted zip fastening. The protective yet luxurious feel continued with nylon jackets and matching trousers that could be worn uniform-like. Elsewhere, a black leather suit with pronounced topstitching along its seams added a touch of danger, and an arctic white cashmere zip-up hoodie looked après ready. Bags in exotic skins came with concealed zips and robust hardware, and a new more sturdy monk strap ankle boot expanded Ford’s accessories range.

Jimmy Choo: A statement hybrid sneaker/trainer/shoe is the footwear of today; Jimmy Choo’s A/W 2019 collection explored a retro vision of the future. A millennial penchant for the glamorous and bold encouraged creative director Sandra Choi to new limits. The Diamond style sneaker which premiered last season returned, but amped up. Based on a crafted racing shoe, its chunky, semi-transparent octahedron sole is designed to look as if you’re about to step into a brilliant gemstone. It is a nod to Cinderella’s slipper via rock-infused, sportswear-inspired 1960s Americana and the ergonomic metallic sheen of the mid-century space race. Fantasy and the final frontier.

Out in the rolling curves of the Umbrian countryside, Brunello Cucinelli is indulging his utopian urges. Headquartered in the 12th-century hilltop village of Solomeo, once largely ruined but now restored and fruitfully occupied, the cashmere mogul runs an experiment in what he calls ‘humanist capitalism’.

This is not fantasy or folly, though there are certainly eccentric insertions here and there. Cucinelli’s mission is grounded in the simple belief that you can treat your workers with respect, let them leave the factory every evening at 5pm sharp (he insists on an email shutdown until they show up again at 8.30am), and still turn a tidy profit. Last year his eponymous company returned a net income of over 42m, with sales up nearly 11 per cent in Europe and over 36 per cent in China.

In 2000 he moved his Solomeo staff from quarters in a converted castle in the village to a set of low-slung existing industrial buildings in the valley below. Samples are manufactured here, while the range is produced by 330 subcontractors big and small, all in Italy (and 80 per cent of them in Umbria). When he moved operations, he inserted large picture windows so all his workers had views out into the green valley. The buildings are meticulously tidy, light and airy, and there is little distinction between white- collar and blue-collar space, but rather an easy flow. Cucinelli also created a large subsidised canteen, again open to its environment with covered terraces and comfortable seating for the postprandial snoozes that the hour-and-a-half lunch break allows, and that the healthy – in all senses – portions demand.

Cucinelli’s ethos is simple: he pays his workers generously for the sector and expects them to work hard when they are at work. He is unapologetically disciplined. ‘They call me the German, that’s my nickname,’ he says. ‘I’m happy with that. I’m strict and rigorous.’ Even unnecessary adjectives are discouraged. Everything in Cucinelli’s world is either beautiful or ugly. And beauty is everything.

When they are not in the factory, though, his workers should be entirely free to rest and spend time with friends and family. Life should be one of work, relaxation and prayer, he says – though he doesn’t insist on the prayer. ‘St Benedict, talking about his monks, said you should be a master and a loving father at the same time,’ he says. ‘Strict but gentle. Demanding but gracious and kind.’ Cucinelli, a self-educated classicist in a buff cashmere blazer, has cast himself as the ascetic but benevolent patriarch.

Solomeo is Cucinelli’s vision of a civilised corporate set-up. And deliberately not a Silicon Valley-style campus, filled with distractions in compensation for 14-hour working days. That comparison is instructive: the company has a strong business in the US and he is an intimate and outfitter of the Aspen/Davos liberal elite.

While we are visiting he receives an email from Amazon chief and rocket man Jeff Bezos asking if he wants to meet. He is particularly friendly with the tech billionaire and innovative philanthropist Marc Benio, whose cloud-computing operation, Salesforce, regularly picks up plaudits for its enlightened employment practices. The pair share similar ideas about the possibilities for benevolent business. Cucinelli and his company, and the model it represents, are a challenge to the ‘move fast and break things’ champions of tech-driven disruption.

Cucinelli took his company public in 2012, but he made clear to his potential investors that ‘this company believes in dignity and a fair profit. This is how the company works and this is what you are investing in.’ The IPO still attracted blue-chip investors. And while the Cucinelli family retains its 60 per cent stake in the company, he can continue his policy of restrained ‘elegant growth’. Production will remain in Italy and he will open new stores, adding to an existing 126 standalone stores, at a gentle pace. Quality and exclusivity are everything. He is, unsurprisingly, uncomfortable with the term luxury. He prefers to talk of ‘costliness’, a much more useful idea, a tally of material costs, high-skilled labour costs and so on.

Cucinelli, though, is determined on being more than an exemplary corporate citizen. He also wants Solomeo to be a model for a very modern and vital village life and economy: a counter to the centrifugal forces of urbanisation and a sales pitch for a new kind of country living. It is a mission rooted in his own biography.

Now 65, he is the son of a farmer and grew up in the nearby village of Castel Rigone. His father, Umberto, worked his land by hand and young Brunello was charged with pulling the oxen while they ploughed the fields. (He puts his belief in rigour and order down to his father’s insistence that he keep his furrows straight because they were more beautiful that way.) Umberto eventually decided to take a job in a cement factory and Brunello saw the effect the job, brutal and humiliating, had on his father (Umberto, now 97, lives in Solomeo).

He decided that was not the path for him. He studied engineering but dropped out at 24, spending most of his time at a bar in Perugia, where the family now lived. He was, though, already well advanced in his personal study of philosophy, ethics and theology, with Kant an early favourite. It’s a self-education he has continued and he must be the only fashion industry chief who regularly drops quotes from Plato and Francis of Assisi into conversation. His renaissance villa in Solomeo is liberally scattered with marble busts of Socrates, Marcus Aurelius and, a more recent commission, Barack Obama. (A committed Anglophile, Cucinelli is also a fan of John Ruskin and William Morris.)

In 1978, a year after abandoning college, he bought a batch of cashmere and, noting the success of Benetton, dyed it in bold colours and turned it into a half dozen sweaters. He took them to local retailers and eventually received an order for 50 more. By the end of the century he was selling 200,000 sweaters and 75 per cent of the business was export. Cucinelli insists that even then he had an eye on sustainability, noting that – moths notwithstanding (and Cucinelli can even attend to those) – people tend to keep hold of cashmere. In 2000, after encouragement from US department stores, he started to offer complete collections. In 2003 the company started to open its own stores.

He grew enamoured of Solomeo as a teenager, when he fell in love with one of the local girls, Federica, now his wife. In the mid-1980s he started to buy up buildings there, determined on a complete restoration of the village and its establishment as an idyllic company town, and moved his HQ into the town’s castle. Since the move down into the valley below, the castle has become a school for tailors, knitters, masons and horticulturalists.

Cucinelli’s mission to update the economies of villages such as Solomeo depends on the supply of fresh young artisans, not just to produce high-end goodies, but also to maintain their ancient buildings and make the most of land around them. 

The school is operated by the Cucinelli Foundation, bankrolled by 20 per cent of the company’s profits. The foundation also funded the painstaking restoration of the old heart of the village, now complete. It includes a chic hole-in-the-wall café-cum-grocery and a more traditional bar, perfect for the manly arts of smoking and card-playing. (While we were there, the village was being readied for its annual nine-day medieval festival, another Cucinelli innovation). 

In 2008 he opened the Teatro Cucinelli in the village, expertly built to Palladian principles and holding 240 mushroom cashmere seats (Cucinelli has a symphonic command of off-white and earth tones). Later this year he is expecting a visit by Peter Brook, whose Battlefield play, based on the Mahabharata, was shown at the theatre in 2016. In front of the theatre is a small amphitheatre, anked by an inviting library that is open to anyone wanting to brush up on their classics.

The village resuscitated to his liking, Cucinelli has more recently turned his attention to the valley below. In 2014 he added a small stadium in Castel Rigone, but he is more concerned with beautification than new additions. He has removed six industrial buildings, convincing their owners to relocate, and replaced them with what he calls the garden of Solomeo. He has also taken over 70 hectares of adjacent land, now given over to vegetable gardens, vineyards, olive groves, orchards and trees, most of its produce destined for the company canteen and the village store.

This autumn Cucinelli is unveiling a restored winery in the valley, complete with new intricate terracotta-tiled ceilings. Above it sits a meticulously restored country pile, potentially a retreat for artists or writers. A short walk into the vineyard there is a series of concentric circular marble benches, a place to gather, talk, engage or just gaze at the stars. Another nearby building will soon be restored and turned into a bakery.

A short drive across the valley is the new Monument to Human Dignity, a series of five marble arches around a dais, crafted as the Romans or Greeks might have done. It is an indulgence, of course, a folly, but, in its own way, spare and modest. Cucinelli hopes that it will be used as the backdrop for concerts or perhaps even speeches and debates, dialectics to please the ancients.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Cucinelli says one of his inspirations for the Solomeo project was Adriano Olivetti, ‘a great man and a benchmark’, who turned the family typewriter business into a household name. He too had a concern for the proper work/life balance and essential dignity of his staff. The company came to dominate the northern Italian town of Ivrea and, from the 1930s to the 1960s, some of the country’s leading architects designed housing and factories there. Olivetti built low-rise modernist apartment blocks surrounded by generous green spaces. His factories also had generous windows, better to capture the landscape, large cafeterias, libraries and screening rooms. Ivrea’s fortunes have declined with Olivetti’s, but this year Unesco declared the area a World Heritage Site.

Cucinelli shares much of Olivetti’s vision, if not his taste for contemporary architecture. But then Cucinelli is taking the long view. ‘The Greeks and Romans would plan for eternity,’ he says. ‘Now we only think about the next ten years. But the winery will still be here in 2,000 years. The theatre will still be here. The monument will still be here because it was built exactly as the Coliseum was built. I’m sure of it.’

He wants this place to connect with something profound but also project forward, to last. Of course, Cucinelli cherry picks the aphorisms of the classical world that have aged well. And anyway, the classical statuary and the Marcus Aurelius mottos are sort of a distraction: Cucinelli is much more an Olivetti than he is a Renaissance prince. And at Solomeo he is trying to answer very contemporary concerns, to run a very modern business – but with a classical twist.

As originally featured in the October 2018 issue of Wallpaper* (W*235)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Brunello Cucinelli website

COS: the brand is known for its minimal clothes and artistic presentations. At Pitti it introduced a new season-less capsule collection of 17 menswear essentials entitled Soma with a performance choreographed by Wayne McGregor. The collection of separates in white, navy and grey melange have been designed to explore what essential menswear means. ‘Every detail has been designed with functionality and the movement of the wearer in mind,’ said Christophe Copin, COS head of menswear design, of the understated aesthetic. Dancers drew on the connections between garment and gesture. Wayne McGregor said: ’My choreography, performed by the dancers, has movement which is both familiar and unfamiliar, light, inventive and playful, but in its essence – simplicity. Soma is of the body, of nature, of being human.’

Craig Green: London Fashion Week Men had a number of notable gaps – one of the biggest was left by Craig Green who, as menswear guest designer, was the headline act at Pitti Uomo 94. Since starting his label in 2012, his padded workman’s jacket with tie-fronts has become a staple for sartorial men across the world. His palm tree collaged cagoules for S/S 2018 were worn by many guests to his show, held in the enormous Boboli Gardens. The space was dressed in tarpaulin and metal structures made in collaboration with David Curtis-Ring. Models moved in and around the grass and stone walkways. The collection riffed on Green’s ‘travelling men’ – his muse is often esoteric, embracing new shapes and forms as he goes. Here, he added more fluid flourishes to his signature, rigid style. Shapes and materials were collaged onto the body; multicolored flyknit tops were made in collaboration with Nike. Vests were wrapped and worn layered, high and tight over the torso; a series of crisp white shirts had vests trapped between them. Red rope cables ran across the back and down the arms of clothes. The show closed with a series of multi-floral quilted tarpaulins attached at the shoulders with knitted cables. Flora and fauna. Nature and future.

Federico Curradi: The designer, who presented his S/S 2019 collection in his home city, looked to Tuscany’s Arno river for inspiration. Organic hues meandered through casual and relaxed separates, like garment-dyed silk waterproofs in orange and sea green, rusty chunky knit V-necks and loose striped shirts. Patchy garment dye techniques evoked the salt spray of the sea, while fish-shape charms and woven belts had a crafty, nautical flair. Fabrications and silhouettes that float our boat.

Roberto Cavalli: Creative Director Paul Surridge arrived last year at the helm of a design house steeped in swagger and sex. Cavalli’s inimitable namesake founder built an empire on animal print pep, sand-blasted denim, leather and gold – all things that seem today at odds with our more sombre times. What does the manicured machismo of the Cavalli man look like today? Surridge’s S/S 2019 collection was entitled ‘Reboot’ – re-working and re-examining the brand’s DNA. Athletic tailoring was front and centre. The mood was relaxed as models walked across a red and blue carpeted catwalk set inside an epic Carthusian monastery high in the suburbs of Galluzzo. Modestly lavish, the collection focused more on surface tension than dramatic silhouette or OTT gestures. ‘My mantra is respect the past embrace the future, and that is my approach at Cavalli and how I navigate this brand to the next chapter. You just have to believe in yourself and protect your vision,’ he said. The show opened with all-white abstractions of animalier; throughout, the anticipated animal motifs were sliced, sun-bleached and out of focus. They appeared as tone on tone jacquards or perforated onto leather. ‘This is a wardrobe that reflects the times; I wanted the clothes to be immediate and not over designed or complicated. This collection is the new foundation of things to come.’ His approach is lenient and sparing; the opulence is all left to the touch.

Herno: on the first day of Pitti Uomo, Herno unveiled L.I.B.R.A.R.Y. – an installation inside the Leopolda Station that explored two important anniversaries for the brand. It is 70 years since its inception and half a century since it has been in Japan. Conceived under the creative direction of Anomalia Studio, the exhibition presented pieces from the archives stored at the factory in Lesa – from the double-breasted coat added to the line in the late 1950s to a whole section dedicated to Japan, which included a white cashmere coat worn by Princess Masako in the 1960s. Herno started with the raincoat; fittingly guests first hear and then see Studio Azzurro’s installation: a drop of water drips rhythmically into a container at the centre of a 10 by 10 meter space, falling from an upturned cap of a silk parachute suspended from the ceiling. As you stop each drop with your hand, you interact with one of the eight surrounding screens. Later on, unpublished clips from Istituto Luce in the 1950s show founder Giuseppe Marenzi launching his first collection as he wins the Rally della Moda at Saint Vincent – his car taking pride of place in this story of dynamism, vivacity and elegance. Here, in an exclusive film, you can see the exhibition coming to life.

Z Zegna: tennis may be emerging as a micro-trend for S/S 2019 – is it a key inspiration for Z Zegna’s chic summer wardrobe. Where Bally honoured the retired Swiss tennis stars Marc Rosset and Jakob Hlasek, Z Zegna announced the appointment of its first ever official face for the brand: Alexander Zverev, the youngest tennis player in the ATP top 20 and currently ranked number 3 in the world. Game, set and match. The collection offers a range of practical, smart sports tailoring in the brand’s trademarked TECHMERINO textile. From classic navy and grey, to the more seasonal spearmint and pale pink, a wash and go wardrobe of deconstructed jackets, technical blousons and tailored joggers work for both on and off the courts

Birkenstock: For its second fully fledged catwalk show, the German footwear brand pitched up at the Giardini Torrigiani, taking over the 16th century garden with a collection chock-a-block with updated classics: the cross or double strap Siena and Malmedy reimagined in khaki and with gold closures, the introduced of leather soles into the women’s ranges, the thick upper Zurich upgraded in green and brown camouflage. The label has been going from strength to strength, and bolstered its fashion credentials earlier this year with its launch of a Rick Owens collaboration. For spring, it also showcased the ‘Summmer Stride’ collection, a series of closed-shoes in unlined leather and with a cork sole.

Moncler: In February, the prominent outerwear and lifestyle brand announced a brave new communication and business model: the Moncler Genius project. Periodic collaboration with designers and artists across disciplines is now creating a laboratory of innovation and technological research. ‘We have overhauled everything, by overcoming the very concept of seasons. Our approach is monthly, weekly, daily. An approach which considerably reduces the time that elapses between the collection presentations and when they actually arrive in the stores,’ Remo Ruffini, Chairman and CEO of Moncler said at the time. At Pitti, the label unveiled a two-part project with Japanese polymath Hiroshi Fujiwara, whose fashion work is always centred on streetwear and music. His 7 MONCLER FRAGMENT HIROSHI FUJIWARA collection fuses the weatherproof DNA of Moncler with a hip-hop, urban sensibility. Jean jackets are in the iconic padded fabric in a military palette of white, fatigue green and black.

Brunello Cucinelli: there is a reboot of Riviera chic happening at Cucinelli – the customary pastel pinks and blues have been replaced with earthier deeper colours such as caramel, off white, brown and radish. The collection takes inspiration from the Roaring Twenties – a time when formal elegance collided with the sporting world. (The golf and tennis motifs writ large across so many of the collections at Pitti each summer owe much to this phase of the American Dream). The mood here is prim. Linen is key. A white one and a half breasted suit in dry cotton and linen mix is worn over a denim shirt with pearl buttons, exemplifying the coming season and a fittingly summery mood

Band of Outsiders: the fourth collection by design director Angelo van Mol and brand director Daniel Hettmann was shown on a post-rain patch of grass inside the grounds at Palazzo Forteza, scattered with broken columns and statues. Models arrived in a giant golden yellow school bus and sauntered across the square one by one in easy separates inspired by varsity vacation to Italy. Cue wide-leg Bermuda shorts worn with windcheaters in sugary pastels and boxfresh trainers in collaboration with Sergio Tacchini, lightweight tensile shirting and unstructured tailoring in plaid (worn with matching bucket hats). The mood was summery and fresh despite the added quirk of the rain-drenched setting. Whimsical cartoonish prints are by Brooklyn based artist Amit Greenberg. Inspired by childhood excursions to Roman ruins, his drawings are repeated over boxy, boyish shirts and shorts.

Corneliani: ‘silk is the cashmere of summer,’ creative director Stefano Gaudioso said when introducing his latest collection. The focus for the coming season is on silk and streetwear; a trio of raincoats, from a 1950s classic egg-shaped belted mac, to a sharp, laser-cut nylon style exemplify the tension at the heart of so many classic tailoring brands. How to do modern without abandoning heritage? In a time where Off-White styling and Supreme sweatshirts rule, Gaudioso is busy giving the classic sprezzatura of a fifty-year-old company subtle upgrades. S/S 2019 brings with it a more extensive range of athleisure in the finest fabrics – zip up jackets in stretch suede, lined in jersey with an elasticated membrane give luxury a new mood. ‘I am already working on a concept of street tailoring for next winter,’ Gaudioso says. ‘I want the suits to become less stiff, I want to work with different materials, maybe inserts, to do things that are a little more edgy. The suit is our heritage, sure, but in order to keep up with how the world is changing, you need to move with the times.’

Parajumpers: the label, which derives its name from the vigorous pursuit of parachuting is all about functionality before form. Inspired by a chance meeting between founder Massimo Rossetti and a serving member of the 210th Rescue Squadron in a bar in Alaska, Parajumpers has become known for its rugged, technical styles. The latest collection features high performance outerwear in vibrant, crinkle-effect washed nylon; generous cargo pockets at the chest are shaped for iPads and maps. Packable jackets come with taped seams and zippers. But it isn’t all about the rugged outdoors: the Limited Edition by Yono line (made in collaboration with Japanese designer Yoshinori Yono) introduces leisurewear made from three layer laminated fabric both stretchy and waterproof. It works just as well at home or at sea.

Woolrich: In October 2017, the heritage American company Woolrich International announced an alliance with Goldwin Inc, the Japanese experts in technology for the outdoors. Their debut collection Woolrich Outdoor, unveiled at Pitti is said to explore the balance between humanity and the natural world, which translates as super desirable, lightweight, functional, youthful clothes designed to adapt to the demands of active pursuits. The collection features a new curvier logo for Woolrich, which acts as a preview of the brand direction to be rolled out in A/W 2019. Stand out are a series of lightweight seersucker outdoor pyjamas, cut wide they come folded up in their own little cross body bag. The mood is lively and light. Let’s go outside!

MCM: for the last few years, the MCM logo backpacks have become omnipresent on city sidewalks around the world. Founded in 1976 in Munich, the brand was acquired by the Seoul based Sungjoo Group in 2005 who had worked with the brand as a distributor and licensee from the early 1990s. The label chose to debut its first full ready-to-wear and accessories collection at Pitti Uomo. Under the direction of Mrs Kim, founder and chief visionary officer of Sungjoo Group and owner of the MCM brand, the proposed ready-to-wear was aimed at the ‘21st-century Global Nomad’, striding alongside the signature backpacks, leather goods, eyewear and footwear. ‘Millennials have less need of leather goods than previous generations, because they can basically do everything with just a mobile phone. So the need for multiple bags and large bags is becoming less important’, Mrs Kim said. The performative, immersive show opened with a tropical storm and was punctuated by the landing of a skydiver down the catwalk. Metallic and holographic textiles reflected the light. Outerwear was functional and free.

Pringle of Scotland: the collection for S/S 2019 takes its influence from photographs in the Pringle archives from the 1980s. The label’s iconic argyle sweaters were worn in and out of sporting circles for much of the decade. The look for the coming season is relaxed and playful as knitted pyjama shirts have matching wide cuff joggers. In the archives too are the many logos and iterations of the lion motif, which the designers have hand-embroidered onto the front of a classic golf jumper. The distinctive diamond argyle graphic appears on slim-fit jumpers and as texture on a sleeveless style made from recycled yarn.

Doucal’s: there is a discreet elegance and confidence about Doucal’s – the anglophile shoe label established in 1973. Avoiding fashion’s roundtable of trends and seasonal collections, the core styles are modestly updated with new details and colours each season; this is where Italian classics and sustainable sprezzatura come together. The signature flexible shoe comes this season with a double buckle; a tassel moccasin in red suede has a soft insole, giving the shoe a unique flexibility. Elsewhere at Pitti there’s has been a proclivity for terry towelling; at Doucal’s, pastel suede high-top sneakers come with natural sponge laces mimicking the feel of a foamy seashore.

Fanatic Feelings: when Nigeria’s World Cup 2018 Kit went on sale at Nike Town in Oxford Circus last month, queues formed around the block. It had received more than three million pre-orders after it was first seen online in February. Football is big business and fashion’s relationship to the sport can be seen in the hip clothes of Gosha Rubchinskiy and Martine Rose. This week, Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery presented a pop-up entitled Fanatic Feelings – Fashion Plays Football. Curated by Markus Ebner – founder of German fashion magazines Achtung Mode and Sepp Football Fashion – and art critic Francesco Bonami, the project threw a spotlight on the impact of football on the world of men’s fashion. This is most notable in the pervasive fusion of tailoring and sportswear. The duo handpicked a team of designers to make one-of-a kind football fashion pieces, which will be on sale for a limited time only. Christelle Kocher of Koché Paris designed a special World Cup limited edition capsule using vintage national football jerseys; Alessandro Sartori, who continues to champion active wear at Z Zegna, has designed a striped polo with football crests in superb, user-friendly TECHMERINO. Part of the proceeds from the sales will help to support the activities of Centro Storico Lebowski, a Florentine amateur sport’s association.

Bally: the value of designers’ archives is well known today as young designers seem self-consciously wedded to the idea of permanence in a digital age. Yet, the real value is in archival clothes that have a bigger story to tell. The Bally company has a vast archive of around 35,000 pairs of shoes in Schönenwerd, Switzerland – it is a constant source of inspiration. There, the design team unearthed the battered white sneaker with pink and blue rubber sole worn by the Swiss tennis stars Marc Rosset and Jakob Hlasek throughout the 90s. For S/S 2019 the designers looked to Bally’s sporting heritage, reintroducing the Champion style in soft calf-skin, fixed to a multi-component rubber outsole with herringbone mould for all-surface endurance. It has been reissued in the original colour way endorsed by Jakob Hlasek during the ATP World Tour in 1991. The nineties are still in.

Fumito Ganryu: Ganryu has been a pioneer of the hybridised approach to menswear since launching his eponymous cult line within the Comme des Garçons stable in 2007. A graduate of Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo, he started as a women’s pattern maker for Junya Watanabe in 2004 and so naturally his work fuses innovative pattern making with archetypal casual wear: ‘I do not consider my work as streetwear’ he says. ‘If people see the element of "street style" in my design, I assume it has come from what I have taken from skateboard culture. I focus on making garments that I think are necessary for the 21st century.’ In 2017 Ganryu separated from Comme des Garçons and Pitti marks his return to the spotlight. His S/S 2019 debut was futuristic and functional. Clothes were to be carried or worn as accessories, used when the need arises; shorts double as swimsuits. ‘What I would like to do is to create ‘non-sex’ clothes – garments without gender,’ he says. For summer this translated into garments attached to the body on silicon belts. ‘Transported rather than being worn, this would give the garments the sense of object, without being about sex.’ This is what Ganryu coins ‘conceptual casualwear.’

Margaret Howell: there’s a breezy nonchalance to the latest collection from MHL. Wool suiting is featherweight – cut in light Fox Brothers & Co cloth – relaxed shirting has big wide collars and long short sleeves, based on classic formal pyjama styles. Jogger trousers are hacked into shorts in lightweight cotton. New desert shoes are in suede with seamless backs and can bend in half for ease when packing. Blazers take inspiration from a woman’s style and are oversized and exaggerated in their slouch. A pioneer of anti-glitz, Howell’s suiting for spring is merrily sombre. Unlined and unstructured, it’s easy, sexy, cool.

Fratelli Rossetti: in 1968, as the world was ablaze with the vivacity of student protests, Renzo Rossetti developed the smart Brera tasselled loafer, inspired by the kids hanging around the historical artist district in Milan. On its 50th birthday, the brand is celebrating with a collection that has the same nonchalant poetry of youth in revolt; calf-skin loafers have soft suede backs so they can be folded down and worn as slippers. Classic woven styles have a bold graffiti snakeskin patina. A small showcase of work created by BA Students from the NABA Nuova Accademia delle Belle Arti in Milan was on show too. Invited to reinterpret the loafer, Arianna Monticelli proposes an idiosyncratic take on the tassel, mixing woven leather, suede and rope.

Tiger of Sweden: Pitti Uomo 94 marked Christoffer Lundman’s second collection for the classic menswear label. The head of creative and design, who cut his teeth at Burberry, Tom Ford and Acne, was fascinated by the spirit of adventure for spring, presenting versatile crease-resistant travel suits, short suits and tactile woven tote bags. Details that reflect a lifetime of travel populated the collection, like Asian prints, shirts with Cheongsam fastenings and stripes neckties, inspired by Sweden in the Seventies, naturally.

Colmar: Outdoor exploits are essential to the renowned Italian outerwear label, which pushes its own sense of adventure each season with the development of fabrications and finishes. For S/S 2019, Colmar looked to the endless promise of America, from the East to the West Coast, incorporating Pop Art-centric prints, madras fabric and colour blocking into its silhouettes. A women’s highlight was encompassed in a water-repellent jacket with a semi-shiny yarn belt bag attached at the waist, and a men’s was an ultra light version of the brand’s down jacket, imagined in super shiny ripstop fabric.

Left, scarf, £350; roll-neck, £355; trousers, £595, all by Pringle of Scotland. Earrings (used throughout), £111 each, by Maria Black. Right, coat, £1,305; sleeveless coat, £1,080; trousers, £325, all by Max Mara. Shoes, £110, by Geox. Fashion: Lune Kuipers. Writer: Laura Hawkins

Fashion’s answer to weathering winter chills with style this season is the sleeveless over-layer. At Max Mara, creative director Ian Griffiths was keen to put a new spin on the house’s signature camel coat. ‘I wanted to find a way to wear two at once, without cooking yourself. This sleeveless style works perfectly over a neat mannish overcoat, or brilliantly by itself,’ he says of the Italian label’s camel hair and silk version. At Pringle of Scotland, womenswear design director Fran Stringer was inspired by féileadh-mór, the wrapping and draping element of Highland dress, creating an asymmetric cashmere ribbed scarf that twists itself around the body. Margaret Howell, meanwhile, was inspired by playground apparel. A dress by the British designer, worn open, takes its form from school pinafores. And Italian brand Brunello Cucinelli riffed on the concept of the female explorer, creating a soft, sleeveless trench coat, in a classic city shape, that is completely water repellent.

As originally featured in the December 2017 issue of Wallpaper* (W*225)

Left, gilet, £5,850; trousers, £930, both by Brunello Cucinelli. Jumper, £725, by Oyuna. Right, wrap dress (worn as gilet), £495; trousers, £395, both by Margaret Howell. Jumper, £295, by Oyuna

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Max Mara website, the Pringle of Scotland website, the Margaret Howell website and the Brunello Cucinelli website

Like the soaring temperatures in Florence, the biannual Pitti Uomo trade fair, now in its 92nd edition, rose in global excellence this week, its rotating roll-out of international designer guests featuring London designer JW Anderson, German label Hugo Boss, who presented its younger counterpart label Hugo, and Virgil Abloh’s New York-based label Off-White. Abloh’s show marked a moving collaboration with Jenny Holzer, who recently worked on a limited-edition cover for our July issue (W*220).

Guests were also treated to Christian Louboutin’s staging of a Bike Polo tournament in the centre of the city, and even popped to a sneak preview of ‘The Ephemeral Museum of Fashion’. The exhibition, held in the spaces of the Galleria del Costume of Palazzo Pitti, and curated by Olivier Saillard, features nearly 200 pieces from the 19th century to present day, by designers including House of Worth and Gucci.

In fitting with Hugo Boss' guest status, Bart De Backer, senior head of Hugo menswear design, and Jenny Swank Krasteva, Hugo Woman senior head of creative, explored the status of the artist as an outsider for the label's S/S 2018 collection. The nighttime show, housed in a huge disused cigar factory, featured a long concrete catwalk sprayed with graffiti and illuminated with hundreds of suspended candles. The space was fittingly bedecked with brushstrokes and sketches, while the collection – featuring artful raw edges and loosely tied floral motifs, overall silhouettes and loose coats – veered towards an arty palette of of neutral shades and splashes of bright yellow, Hugo red and blue.

‘When we were working on the collection, we found a lot of photographs of Basquiat wearing designer brands,’ the Hugo designers explained. ‘He was wearing them in a very unconventional, non-precious way. This image of the artist wandering around in his own bubble, creating his own fashion aesthetic, was the starting point.’ This sense of personal style culminated in a play with proportion – for men, doodle print bags were blown up to XL size and for women, embroidery details had a DIY edge. The collection itself acted as a canvas for the London designer Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY, whose prints featured on mesh t-shirts and hand-painted organza dresses. ‘His unique style and strong vision of things fits in so well with the ideas and DNA of Hugo,’ De Backer and Krasteva explain.

From an emerging London label to a renowned name on its schedule, JW Anderson presented his Pitti debut in the gardens of a Villa La Pietra, a Renaissance villa in the hills outside Florence. Guests walked through its gardens, populated with lemon trees, topiary and geometric flower beds, before nestling on the floor on cushions. Behind them in the evening sun, stood grand figurative sculptures covered with dust sheets, and on the catwalk stood seven fabric sculptures by the Loewe Craft Prize finalist Anne Low (Jonathan Anderson is also creative director of the Spanish luxury house).

A grand location yes, but the collection marked a more pared back version of the designer’s aesthetic, honing in on beige chino shorts, roll-up jeans, cable-knit sweaters, Breton striped jumpers and a collaboration with Converse. Prints riffed on the Coca Cola logo and came in multicoloured panel love hearts. Anderson’s three year stint as the creative director of Sunspel marks his malleability to move between more subversive and commercial design. His guest status at Pitti marks not just a move in show city but a move towards a new customer.

A cellophane wrapped orange t-shirt acted as the invitation for Off-White's S/S 2018 show. It not only highlighted designer Virgil Abloh’s collaboration with Jenny Holzer, but also featured printed instructions for securing a lifevest- a hint at the political connotations of the show, in particular the Syrian refugee crisis. For the hour and a half long nighttime spectacle, held outside in the enormous front courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti, Holzer projected huge scrolling texts onto the walls of the vast renaissance building, taken from writings documenting war and conflict. Moving excerpts were taken from texts by Omid Shams, Ghayath Almadhoun and by current voices on on the Syrian and Palestinian conflict, living today in exile in the EU and US. Scrolling texts also included thirty verses by the Polish poet Anna Świrszczyńska, who was a military nurse during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

Utility wear references in the collection, like bright orange lace up boots, eerie hooded-shirts and wide-collared cagoules resembled both lifeguards uniforms and the apocalyptic protective gear worn during a nuclear fallout. Oversized plastic shoulder bags, flat bottomed and in searing orange, resembled miniature lifeboats, while puffer-jacket gilets and paper nylon jackets riffed on the life vests alluded to in the brand's show invitation. The clothes, illuminated in spotlight against the palatial backdrop, acted as a stark reminder of the world’s present political climate, contrasted in stark detail to grandiose architecture of a time gone by.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Pitti Immagine website

MSGM: Cool knits and bright gingham checks were the name of the game at MSGM where designer Massimo Giorgetti pasted together colour-blocked striped sweaters and big, boxy gingham tunics giving a bright punch to banged up, holey tennis shoes that looked like they were taken straight out of your older brother’s 10th grade closet

Gucci: Against a backdrop of leprechaun green, Alessandro Michele presented the next gen of Gucci slipper, this season fit for Liberace

Fratelli Rossetti: For S/S 2017 Fratelli Rossetti headed to the Hamptons. Fringe details ran throughout, adding a decorative touch to timeless loafers. The brand's signature hand dyeing technique conjured up colours reminiscent of the resort area's sand dunes, amber sunsets, blue seas and Long Island green lawns

Calvin Klein Collection: The spring collection posed a luxe riff on sportswear staples, rethinking the denim and varsity jacket in more luxurious fabrications including an unexpected satin sheen

Fendi: A cool pool of water set the scene at the brand's Milan headquarters for the debut of a multitude of holiday footwear ideas.

Bertoni 1949: The leather goods brand took to the skies for S/S 2017 with hand painted airplane motifs soaring over travel bags to briefcases. A new addition to the collection came in the form of a luxurious leather backpack

Woolrich: This season Woolrich team up with Australian cycle brand Deus on their first bike. The E-bike is equally at home being ridden in the city as it is in the great outdoors. The bike also comes with a saddle and handlebars made by Brooks

Emporio Armani: Giorgio Armani called his Emporio show 'a tense and sharp collection' fit for a 'pulsating metropolis'. It was indeed sharp, and focused on its cool urban mission thanks to a terrific, steady palette of always-right navy blue, denim blue and sage green.

Moncler Gamme Bleu: Mosquito netted tents lined Moncler’s grass-lined runway for a Boy Scout camping-themed show. Photography: Antonio Camera

CP Company: The original Italian sportswear brand continued to push the boundaries of outerwear this season. Fabric innovation was high on the agenda with the introduction of a technical linen that was waterproof yet retains the fabrics characteristic irregularities and organic appearance. This season also saw the addition of trousers and other separates to the brand's outerwear lexicon

Tod's: Set in the grounds of the grand Villa Necchi Campiglio, Tod's presented a collection of fine menswear staples, giving each a luxury makeover. A field jacket made of the finest leather came brushed with colour reminiscent of a Mark Rothko painting, while the rubber pebbled sole of the iconic Gommino moccasin appeared as a motif on a black suede weekend bag

Missoni: The Italian house had a great Guatemalan moment for next spring, borrowing colourful upholstery-like fabrics for its oversized shorts, chic tank tops and multi-hue woven Huarache sandals.

Boglioli: The brand’s moody colour palette of sea greens, rust browns and slate grey was reverberated in the grandiose ceiling of Palazzo Archinto.

Bottega Veneta: Tomas Maier’s S/S 2017 accessory collection looked even more dynamic close-up.

Rossignol: This season Rossignol moved from the slopes and headed to the court. High performance fabrics such as tech nylon, neoprene and parachute poplin were used to elegant effect on super light down jackets, Bermuda shorts and raincoats

Santoni: Shoe brand Santoni employed the help of critic and curator Angelo Flaccavento to create an intriguing installation, where viewers looked through a series of peep holes to view the collection. The iconic Santoni double buckle appeared on boots and as a clip for fridges, while slender lace-ups came with hand-sewn soles and slippers morphed into espadrilles

Prada: Mrs Prada’s leisure luxe show theme carried through to the sporting set and industrial mesh invitation.

Caruso: Italian tailoring brand Caruso continued to push the boundaries of luxury menswear for S/S 2017. Standout items included a softly tailored jacket hand painted with a flora motif and a series of broken suits that clashed bold checks and stripes

Philipp Plein: The ‘Sportsworld Spectacular’ show came complete with Harlem Globetrotters, 20 cheerleaders, three mascots and one rapper in Busta Rhymes

Bally: Creative director Pablo Coppola described his S/S 2017 outing as 'Happy luxury'. The collections mood board was bristling with a host of disparate references from Bianca Jagger in the 1970s to David Hockney and Daidō Moriyama’s graphic works. Standouts included printed silk shirts covered in motifs inspired by achieve Bally advertisements and candy coloured accessories

Neil Barrett: Milan’s king of cool sportswear refracted his always-athletic lens through the 1970s throwing together great suede and leather intarsia jackets and cool high-waisted stretch pants.

Salvatore Ferragamo: Ferragamo introduced ‘Tramezza’, its new made to measure shoe services in Milan's stylish Giacomo Bistrot restaurant

Brunello Cucinelli: The designer continued his exploration and evolution of menswear staples for S/S 2017. Blazers in the finest fabrics were paired with easy, drawstring trousers, while the humble t-shirt and polo were elevated to luxury heights. A pale grey bomber made in what looked like suede corduroy was a standout

Kiton: Alongside showcasing a collection that focused on relaxed lightweight suiting, Napolese tailoring band Kiton expanded their handmade footwear line with the addition of several new styles. Standouts included a selection of hand dyed shoes making no pair the same

Dolce & Gabbana: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana looked to the world of music for S/S 2017’s inspiration, taking us on a journey from the Jazz Age to 1980's Hip-Hop. Oversized streetwear tees and sweatshirts were mashed up with boxy jackets and slim cropped trousers, while graphic prints depicting cassette tapes and saxophones hit all the right notes. Standout accessories included boom box bags, chunky sneakers and print covered headphones.

Dolce & Gabbana: Nine giant sized metal frond, standing lamps lined the runway at Dolce & Gabbana

Church’s: The cobbler revisited its iconic Shanghai shoe by adding canvas details alongside introducing a boot style in two-tone leather

Massimo Piombo: The designer’s shop, the former studio of prolific architect Gae Aulenti, was filled with colourful flowers to match his signature peacock tailoring

Giuseppe Zanotti: Building on the brand’s luggage line, Giuseppe Zanotti introduced a collection of sleek neoprene back packs this season, while shoes and sneakers came covered in camo print fit for an urban survivalist

Ports 1961: Milan Vukmirovic kicked off Men's Fashion Week in Milan with a presentation in an old warehouse down the street from the Prada Foundation on the city’s outskirts

Andrea Pompilio: Big stripes are not big fashion news but Milan-based fashion designer Andrea Pompilio nonetheless made them feel very fresh with his mix of scales, configurations and fabrics, throwing together silk bottoms, knit tops and sturdy cotton Bermudas in always cool-hues of graphic black and white

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Kickboxers throwing punches at a live match hosted by Snoop Dogg, who rapped his heart out in front of tattooed, motocross-padded models at Philipp Plein’s men’s show

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Hunchbacked models at Maison Margiela

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Metal cage-covered rooms, of varying proportions, built by OMA for the Prada men’s show space

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‘Boob bag’, handcrafted from dark shiny leather, on Christopher Lemaire’s runway (‘Free the nipple!’ cried social media immediately afterwards)

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Thugged-out Looney Tunes characters dripping in bling at Jeremy Scott’s women’s Moschino show

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Kilograms of culatello consumed by 1,000 people in three hours, together with 170 bottles of Fortana del Taro red wine, at Caruso’s Milan presentation

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Rising section of the runway at Saint Laurent, where models and rock star Julia Cumming from Sunflower Bean started their catwalk procession

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Male models blatanly flashing their genitalia in frontal windows strategiacally cut out of their flowing floor-length tunics at Rick Owens

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Million followers on Instagram for 29-year-old Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing, the most-followed fashion designer in France

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Hands that work on Kiton’s suits

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Kickboxers throwing punches at a live match hosted by Snoop Dogg, who rapped his heart out in front of tattooed, motocross-padded models at Philipp Plein’s men’s show

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Trees and plants that Ermenegildo Zegna planted inside Milan’s former Fiera for its fashion show, all of which were later replanted as part of the Zegna Oasis environmental project

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Models swaddled in a cocoon of white bows at the Comme des Garçons show

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Headdresses in the shape of lampshades at Junya Watanabe

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Years after their first outing that Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson reprised their Zoolander roles by staging a surprise live runway walk-off at the Valentino show in Paris

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Boys at Gucci doing the girl thing in silky bow-front blouses

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Mary J Blige impromptu concert, staged by DSquared2’s Dean and Dan Caten at the end of the brand’s 20th anniversary show in Milan

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Moncler Gamme Bleu menswear models who quick-changed out of their jockey-inspired uniforms into totally new looks under flashing strobe lights

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Kanye West charity concert nights organised by Bernard Arnault’s son Alexandre at the Louis Vuitton Foundation during Paris Fashion Week

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Face and ear piercings on the female models at Givenchy, while four men had their mouths held tightly shut with cage-like metal clamps

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Couples (both hetero and gay) dressed for 25 sports at Moncler Grenoble’s pop-up ski lodge in New York, including a bride and groom in full wedding outerwear

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Days to assemble Chanel’s pop-up brasserie set inside Paris’ Grand Palais, which featured 9m-high walls, tiled floors, 100 seats and 14 barmen serving coffee, juice, champagne and croissants

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Life-sized, fully functioning roller coaster, complete with screaming riders, installed inside Milan’s retired Fiera for Philipp Plein’s womenswear show

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Books in the pop-up library at Julie de Libran’s Sonia Rykiel show

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Age of ex-model Benedetta Barzini, who was the star of Antonio Marras’ runway show

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Spinning 20ft towers that glided across the Kenzo runway like giant chess pieces

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Infants, toddlers and children, plus one very pregnant model, walking the runway at Dolce & Gabbana’s women’s show

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Fur handbags in the shape of bird of paradise flowers on the Fendi runway

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Rare pearls on a $150,000 Calvin Klein dress, which was stolen from the hotel room of actress Lupita Nyong’o after the Oscars

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Models wearing cashmere shoe laces at the Brunello Cucinelli presentation

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Handbags shaped and printed like ceramic coffee saucers at Chanel

Pringle of Scotland: In a continuation of the Scottish house's 200th anniversary celebrations, Michael Clark Company dancers performed live to an intimate crowd at Corso Como wearing heritage Pringle of Scotland knitwear from as early as 1915, combined with the brand's new S/S16 knitwear pieces

Brioni: This season Brioni drew inspiration from architect Carlo Scarpa, whose work was sensitive to the changes of time, seasons and history. Models breezed in and out of a concrete structure in elegant steel grey suits worn with parkas made from high-tech parachute-thin Japanese nylon that billowed with movement

Piquadro: The Italian accessory brand focused on remodelling the backpack this season. The graphics of a 'motherboard', a symbol of modern technology and the Eighties' idea of the future, was reworked to camouflage effect in brilliant colours

Diesel Black Gold: The denim titan pushed outerwear into a realm that was quite simply out-of-this-world for S/S 2016.

Salvatore Ferragamo: One of our favourite design gallerists, Claudio Loria of Leclettico, designed the brand's jungle-inspired S/S 2016 set, packed with real plants and design pieces from Gabriella Crespi, for Ferragamo this season

Bally: The Bally man took to the mountains this season in a collection inspired by the great outdoors. Jackets came with multi pockets while hiking boots and a Swiss Army inspired backpack were given a luxe overhaul in python skin

MSGM: Swedish artist Anton Alvarez of graffiti 'Yarn Bombing' fame inspired in a new era of knitting at MSGM.

Sportmax: During men's week in Milan, several women's brands got in on the fashion action like Sportmax who unveiled its latest artist collaboration with LA-based illustrator Langley Fox Hemingway

Facetasm: Showing at the Armani Teatro, Hiromichi Ochiai of Facetasm presented a collection of oversized shapes with an architectural edge that merged a street style swagger with a sartorial elegance.

Z Zegna: For spring Z Zegna fused city tailoring with the energetic world of kite surfing in a collection of weightless silhouettes with flighty kite-inspired shapes paired with sharp formal attire

Ports 1961: Marble skateboards took us back to our youth at Ports 1961

Missoni: The house of the zig-zag checked into the season's plaid trend for S/S 2016.

Calvin Klein Collection: Italo Zucchelli took to America's west coast in a collection inspired by Ed Ruscha's photographs of Palm trees and the surf culture of the area

Santoni: In addition to the footwear brand's superb S/S 2016 collection of new elegant sandals and formal shoes, the brand collaborated with Patrick Kinmonth and Antonio Monfreda on its latest Milan presentation. The duo created hand-cut collages that were used on shoe pillows, a film and a giant book that was over two feet tall and all presented within Palazzo Bocconi that had been transformed into a summer garden to celebrate its 40th birthday. Here's a peak at the video

Santoni: The new Santoni colour card for spring 2016

Kiton: Naples in the 1940s and the distinct style of Neapolitan men inspired luxury tailoring brand Kiton's S/S collection. Once again fabric innovation was key with the development of a super light micro wool appeared as elegant double-breasted jackets in bright Mediterranean shades.

Caruso: The house paid tribute to International Yoga Day at its presentation of the finest men's tailoring

Fratelli Rossetti: A sea of plastic shoe models bobbed along the floor at Fratelli Rossetti's men's presentation

Tod's: Craftsmanship was key at Tod's with hand painted details on military inspired leather jackets and knitwear

Emporio Armani: Claw tooth lace-up shoes and wool beanie berets were the quirky extras to an otherwise sober and very cool Emporio Armani show.

Giorgio Armani: The award for best bathrooms during Milan fashion week goes to Giorgio Armani in his Tadao Ando designed theatre

Neil Barrett: This coral reef, puzzle-piece camouflage print climbed all over the floors and clothes at the Neil Barrett show

Neil Barrett: On the runway, three button jackets gave off a slightly Nineties vibe.

Andrea Pompilio: Part biker, part jogger, part boxer, part snowboarder, Andrea Pompilio's man for next spring is wholly eccentric and completely convincing. Showing outdoors in the back yard of Milan's Pinacoteca was the perfect foil for these male peacocks

No 21: Milan's Palazzo del Conservatorio was the site of Alessandro dell'Acqua’s spring collection for No 21

Brunello Cucinelli: There is nothing quite as soothing on the eyes as a Brunello Cucinelli presentation and this season it was all about the pleated and tapered pant

Corneliani: Milan fashion week started with a bang inside the richly frescoed interior of Palazzo Litta, site of the Corneliani show