Tights, sequins and suits: Milan menswear turns up the volume

Milan Fashion Week menswear took a clear direction for Autumn/Winter 2024, with an injection of glam and a laser focus on tailoring, styled various ways to dress men through every occasion of their busy lives. Here’s our key takeaways from the week:

Frills and tights

Sabato De Sarno’s much-anticipated menswear debut at Gucci served up the glamour. Diamanté-embellished jeans and bags, glittery suiting and slick leather outerwear in shades of red, blue and olive green, were sent down the runway alongside full Gucci monogrammed looks. Ties were subtly transformed into leashes on exposed chests. It was sexier than De Sarno’s womenswear debut, and appears to have been met with a more positive response.

Elsewhere, there were sparkly shirts at Dsquared2 and lurex with a subtle sheen at Fendi. MSGM featured glittery knit panties, tinsel-textured knits and T-shirts from its archives, upcycled into sequin tops. JW Anderson leaned into the tights trend, with men dressed in sweatshirts — some adorned with large corsages — and nothing but sheer hosiery underneath. “I loved the velvet corsage flowers,” says Jordan Duddy, fashion editor of Another Man. “Who doesn’t love a man in ruffled frills and tights?”

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A boom in women’s eveningwear is being mirrored in menswear, observes Harrods buying director Simon Longland. “Whether the occasion calls for a beautiful dress shirt, dinner jacket or suit — this season has been a reminder that not every occasion requires a tux,” he says. Many of the designer mood boards displayed backstage featured female figures, as menswear increasingly celebrates femininity, says Vogue Runway contributor Tiziana Cardini. “As Silvia Venturini Fendi told me, it’s a very liberating moment in menswear,” she says. “Designers aren’t afraid of elegance in menswear. They’re liberated in their creativity.”

“It’s nice to see how menswear is increasingly progressive, and there’s a sense that by being more fluid it’s also becoming more glamorous,” Duddy says.

Dolce & Gabbana’s show, entitled “Sleek”, was monochromatic and sexy, with pussy bow silk blouses, more sequins and velvet. People clambered post-show to photograph Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancé Lauren Sanchez, who sat front row, as Sanchez’s son walked the runway.

MSGM showed in a metro station this season, and the collection reflected the metro’s bright colour palette. “This is my version of masculinity today: fast glamour,” said creative director Massimo Giorgetti of his glittery knits and upcycled tops, backstage post-show. “People are always rushing through their day from place to place, the collection reflects that.”

Clothes to be lived in

Men’s lifestyles played on designers’ minds this season. While most collections were majority tailored or occasionwear looks (likely shooting for the high-income customer, as aspirational shopping declines) there was a pragmatism to the shows this season, as brands inserted their looks into real-life contexts.

Prada’s set, conveying the contrast between office life and nature, began with office desks in the entranceway, before opening out to a vast garden, complete with rock pools and grass beneath a glass cover. The vibe was office workers who can go to the park at lunch. Sharp tailoring contrasted with figure-hugging bright knits and bob caps, to create a versatile wardrobe described by co-designer Raf Simons as “[the] idea of echoing surrounding, being influenced by environments in the garments themselves — office and nature, inside and out, the instinctive change of people shifting between these opposite spheres”. Fendi riffed on a similar theme, contrasting “the urban and the bucolic” with a collection of cosy checked knits and large pillow bags interspersed with slick outerwear and boxy mini briefcases. At Zegna, even while wearing the finest cashmere, models were given a “real life” edge, walking the runway with their sleeves rolled up, or carrying pairs of gloves.

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Some brands showed their designs in multiple contexts. At DSquared2, the brand cast twins (reminiscent of Sunnei SS23 and Gucci SS23) to present a grunge and glam version of the same look, before designers Dean and Dan Caten themselves closed the show, with Dean in full drag, to the soundtrack of George Michael’s ‘Freedom’. Gucci’s De Sarno repeated some looks from his SS24 women’s show on men for AW24, in what the designer describes as a “mirroring”. While Stone Island’s Friday night spectacle, a one-off show to mark its new era, featured 54 models but only 10 looks, showing them on models with different skin tones and hair styles.

Coherent vision, but a lack of new blood

While menswear trade show Pitti Uomo has upped its guest designer quota, and the upcoming Paris schedule features young brands like Kiko Kostadinov or Jeanne Friot, there was a marked lack of new blood in Milan this season — particularly without rising star Magliano, who showed at Pitti last week. “Milan is institutional,” says fashion commentator Osama Chabbi. “Paris, there’s some young names coming through but in Milan, it still feels very old school.”

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That said, “wild child” British-Italian label Jordanluca brought some newness on Saturday. Vivienne Westwood creative director Andreas Kronthaler walked the runway sporting a mohican and shiny rubber jacket. That night, the brand staged a rave in the venue, complete with heavy techno and a sex swing, until 4am. LVMH Prize winner Setchu held a low-key presentation on Saturday, which Cardini notes as a highlight.

Raves aside, with De Sarno’s more classic, subtler vision for Gucci and a more romantic showing from JW Anderson this season versus last, the shows were about the clothes, not gimmicks like pigeon bags or severed heads, editors and buyers agree. “Milan Men’s Fashion Week has felt more united than ever this season,” says Longland. “Where in the past we would have seen a more obvious nod to streetwear and relaxed options, we have seen an alignment across all the key shows and a shift towards a sartorial and elegant offering.”

“There’s a lot less confusion this season in menswear,” Chabbi adds. “Brands now are saying this is how you’re supposed to dress and we’re offering you a pretty cute closet.” After lockdown sportswear and streetwear fascinations, Milan has found its way back to what it does best: a very good suit, with a modern twist.

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