Here’s What Happened at Milan mens week SS27
Milan Fashion Week SS27 kicked off on 19th June and drew to a close yesterday, with a packed schedule spanning bespoke tailoring launches, queer activism, globe trotting collections and Saul Nash doing what Saul Nash does best. Menswear was the dominant conversation, with designers drawing on everything from Indonesian spice routes to the work of a late Emirati conceptual artist, while independent voices made their presence felt alongside the big houses. Here’s everything that happened.
At Giorgio Armani, Leo Dell’Orco looked to the sun bleached ports and spice scented markets of the Mediterranean for inspiration, translating that spirit into a collection rooted in Italian craft but open to the world. Relaxed safari jackets, fluid shirts and slender trousers carry a quiet nomadic energy, while cobalt blues, warm earth tones and muted gold capture the shifting light between open sea and shaded courtyard. Tailoring, reimagined through travel.
Over at Canali, creative director Alessio Lillocci took a similarly well travelled approach, drawing inspiration not from a single spice route but from the spices themselves. Cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, vanilla, ginger and nutmeg each represent a historical meeting point between distant worlds, from Indonesia and India across East Africa and into the Mediterranean.
The SS27 collection follows that same journey, setting sail from the Indonesian islands towards India before tracking down the East African coast and on to Greece, finally docking at Alicudi. The palette maps the route: sesame, star anise and cinnamon shade the lightweight fabrics of the earlier legs, while nutmeg tones the trousers and cardamom the knitwear as the collection grows lighter along the African coast. Japanese denim with indigo warps, micro perforated cotton knitwear and ultra light nappa leather accompany the voyage, alongside a blue blazer that becomes the collection’s centrepiece as the journey crosses iridescent Mediterranean seas.
Etro leaned into its merchant heritage with similar wanderlust, staging the collection around a train platform strewn with luggage. Archive foulard prints, laser cut suede trench coats and Paisley in every conceivable variation made the case for dressing as freely as you travel.
Paul Smith’s Suits in Unsuitable Situations was a sentimental addition to the week. Presented in an intimate, salon style show, the lifelong daily wearer of suits Paul recalled how his grandfather used to stand knee deep in the sea in a full suit and tie. Paul himself once turned up to help a Tuscan grape farmer in pristine white linen, leaving with it permanently stained burgundy. The collection treated tailoring as something to be lived in rather than preserved, in a combination of function and elegance.
Brioni, meanwhile, went deep on personalisation with the launch of Brioni Maestria, a new bespoke tier sitting above its existing Su Misura offering. Clients can now have a hand in everything from buttons to linings to the specific Roman hue of their suit Rosso Roma and Trevi blue among the options.
Caruso looked to Irving Penn for SS27 specifically his belief that subtraction creates intensity and that every element must earn its place. The palette runs from ash graphite grey and frozen blueberry through rich greens and deep dusty tones, while silhouettes grow more defined with structured shoulders and stronger posture. New constructions including the Nabucco shell and Butterfly jacket sit alongside evolving house icons, among them the checked cotton-linen Caruso Jacket and the raw cashmere Norma.
London based Saul Nash brought genuine electricity to Milan, showing his STANCE collection at the Milanese Gymnastics Society Forza e Coraggio one of the city’s oldest sporting societies and an appropriately charged venue. Wrestling singlet graphics, nipple exposing Henley shirts, darts engineered to open on the body in motion and a merino pinstripe jacket with a built in hood: Nash’s collision of sportswear and tailoring is as sharp as ever. He also previewed the fifth and final SLNSH chapter with lululemon, which launches on June 30th.
Qasimi’s Undercurrent was one of the week’s most considered collections a tribute to late Emirati artist Hassan Sharif, developed in dialogue with his estate. Exposed seams, inside out tailoring, crochet belts with trailing threads and sheer panels nodding to pearl diving and fishing nets composed a collection that treated clothing as a record of labour and gesture over time. Hoor Al Qasimi’s note that working in someone’s absence rather than alongside them shaped the season gave the whole thing a quietly profound weight.
Independent queer collective Laud End Praud brought its sixth edition to Base Milano under the theme Queer Cosmo imagining a fluid universe where identity follows its own trajectory. The show took shape through eight capsule collections and each interpreted a planet from the solar system, Mac Cosmetics came on board as a natural creative partner, and all runway looks will be auctioned at Fondazione Sozzani with proceeds going to Sportello Trans di ALA Milano Onlus.
Rounding things out, Philipp Plein launched his SS27 collection from his Corso Venezia store a sun-soaked, jet setter coded offering in soft neutrals and summer pastels built for Hamptons days and Santorini evenings.
Credits:
Images courtesy of Philipp Plein, Laud End Praud, Qasimi, Saul Nash, Caruso, Brioni, Paul Smith, Etro, Canali, Giorgio Armani.
Words: Sufiya McNulty @ellasufiya
