MILAN (AP) — Italy's fashion
capital is getting a little more traffic than usual as Milan Fashion
Week kicks off, thanks to the Expo 2015 world's fair at the city's
gates, now in its second month.
Four days of
menswear previews for next spring and summer began Saturday with Emporio
Armani, Dolce&Gabbana, Jil Sander, Versace and Philipp Plein. And
Marni is showing menswear on the runway for the first time.
It wasn't Gregory Peck's Vespa but the girl on the runway could be an updated Audrey Hepburn.
Emporio Armani has teamed up
with Vespa to create a sleek new 946 scooter with matte black paint,
suggesting a time somewhere between nostalgia and now. A series of the
scooters greeted guests at the menswear spring summer preview in Giorgio
Armani's more intimately renovated theater.
The
collection was light and layered, featuring classic Armani shapes in
neutral tones. The looks were loose with textured and sometimes crinkled
fabric
, easy to imagine zipping along urban streets. There was a focus
on pants, with roomy pleated trousers that seemed to drape the leg. More
athletic knit trousers were cinched at the ankle. Whether the look was
formal or causal ultimately was defined by the jacket, ranging from
double-breasted to more Asian-inspired looks with pagoda shoulders. And
there were wonderful papery anoraks for that unexpected shower.
Shoes
included surprising sling-back Oxfords as well as sneakers, while ample
back-packs fastened snugly to the body. The looks were topped with
berets and dark aviator glasses.
Though
it was menswear, Armani sent a dozen women's looks down the runway,
displaying the adaptability of men's tailoring for women — something in
which Hepburn pioneered. A series of men's cut shirts over ba
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S ROBBINS
Actor
Tim Robbins, hair slicked back and mixing blue-and-black in Armani
fashion, was in the front row for the Emporio Armani show.
"I
don't know fashion," said Robbins, who is in town to perform a
"Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Triennale. "But I liked the clothes."
Robbins says he's been exploring Milan by bicycle, which is not for the faint of heart given the traffic and tram tracks.
"The
Duomo is beautiful," he said referring to Milan's cathedral. "But I've
been going with my bicycle everywhere, so I've ... seen so many things,
not going inside, but just trying to figure out how to get around in
the city."
He'll be performing Monday through Wednesday evening with the Actor's Gang.
"I'm just happy to be in Italy. I just love Italy," he said
ggy
trousers would have suited her well.
EAST MEETS WEST
Dolce&Gabbana remain rooted in their beloved Sicily but continue to find foreign influence in its rich cultural heritage.
This season, the Chinese
Palace of Palermo offered inspiration for the menswear collection,
designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana explained in nine languages
in a colorful booklet with the show invitation.
There was a flow to the
collection: Silk suits segued into Oriental-style tops with matching
trousers and then into silken pajama style shirts underneath
double-breasted suits — East and West mixing seamlessly. The looks were
printed with ornate patterns inspired by the palace, including teeming
scenes of flora and birds and rich reproductions of dragons and
peacocks.
On the more
casual-luxury side, tops with Oriental prints or embroidered details
were paired with ripped jeans or Bermuda shorts.
Espadrille-style shoes were worn with even the most formal looks, often out of luxurious leathers and animal prints.
Dolce&Gabbana
complemented their iconic ornate looks with bold black and white
graphic patterns this season — giving the collection an edgier touch.
The
traditional finale featured a runway full of polo shirts in florals,
oriental patterns, graphic prints and introducing the brand's new crown
symbol
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