A BEAUTIFUL ESCAPE
Where does fashion go when the going gets tough?
With the world in financial meltdown mode, with the
traditional order in gender, politics and media gone topsy-turvy, with the
planet’s natural resources challenged as never before, menswear for
Spring/Summer 2013 is headed for the nearest exit. The Milan
menswear collections took flight to a simpler, more innocent time: childhood.
All the key trends seemed to be inspired by the obedient schoolboy
and the lost innocence of the playground: eye-popping colour, nursery school
florals, the T-shirt, shorts, a simple, stripped-down aesthetic, and an easy
fit dominated.
Jil Sander
Jil Sander’s much-heralded return to her eponymous label
(after seven years) was a re-stating of her trademark minimalism, but
softened. Sander’s scrubbed schoolboys were de-sexed in prim little collars,
wide sleeves and billowing shorts. The deconstructed jackets and coats, though
precise and boldly coloured, had the cosy fit of a granny’s cardigan.
Prada
The Prada man was also dressed in a child’s androgynous
clothes which had the graphic, flat pattern of paper doll separates. The
tick-tock sameness, like an assembly line of uniformed students, is another
form of retreat from the times into the order and discipline of a Utopian age.
Square, oversized tunics, and cropped straight pants are decorated by wide
white stripes; a contrast border outlines a clean neck or a cartoonish placket
or hem; Sharp lines emphasise reduction and simplicity. There is a 1970s (the
decade of peace and love) note, the wide stripes bringing to mind the athletic
clothes of that era. The shoes were unisex athletic sandal from beginning to
end, unsexily styled with black socks.
Bottega Veneta
Tomas Maier's collections, usually gritty, had an ease that
said flight-from-the-city. The overall trope seems to be the freedom of the
open road, hinting at the all-is-well hippie movement. The suede fringe and
exaggerated eyelet closings (lacing was used rather than buttons) for collars
are childish features, and have a Robin Hood quality about them. Are we playing
Sherwood Forest today? The matching fringed booties
immediately recalled the happiness of playing at cowboys and Indians. Little
boys grow up into jocks in the athletic separates, a hot teenager off to a game
perhaps, with the sporty panels and zip-fronts. In the mix was a dreamy floral,
in ensembles of gauzy floral print, that is as feminine as it sounds, rendering
straightforward jackets a cute ‘play-date’ quality.
Dolce & Gabbana
Nostalgia and an escape to a more innocent era (here Cinema Paradiso 1950s) marked this
collection. Domenico Dolce's and Stefano Gabbana Sicilian roots were shown in
rose-tinted splendour in a recreation an entire village. The cast of urchins,
salesmen, sailors and piano-tuner were actually drawn from Sicilian towns and
villages. It said authentic and felt emotional, a rare and beautiful thing in
fashion.
Although Dolce & Gabbana have carved out a business making clothes mined
from fashions past, the appeal of this season has a lot to do with a rustic
simplicity and innocence, obvious if you compare this collection with the gilded
opulence of the last one (Fall 2012). The high-waisted, pleated shorts, the
faded colours and antique prints, the oversized shirts, the awning-stripes and
pyjama tops, the sailor tees, all spelt summer, sun and sea. The escape is from
the formality of the city and the cares of the adult. The tightly belted
hand-me-down pants, and three-piece suits do not say ‘slick banker’ but have
that well-worn look of something worn by a country doctor.
Ermenegildo Zegna
The banker was also in retreat at Ermenegildo Zegna, the
bastion of traditional masculinity. Instead of the dour shades of wool from their
famous mills, the suitings were made in colour-saturated, glossy silks. Silk
showed up in every look, from sensual knits to shining shantung suiting, to softly
wafting shirts. The use of bold print was unusual at Zegna as well, not just
the traditional pinstripes or checks but botanical, organic repeat patterns.
The silhouette had the narrowness of youth, with tapered, high-waist pants, a
nipped waist and strong shoulders.
Salvatore Ferragamo
Salvatore Ferragamo, another bastion of the classic, was doused
in blinding Marvel comic colour. Creative Director Massimiliano Giornetti
completed the looks with vibrant-coloured sneakers instead of sober leather,
which had more than a dollop of Osh Kosh B’gosh.
Calvin Klein Collection
Creative director Italo Zucchelli recalls Calvin Klein’s
heyday in anachronistic ‘youth cult’ looks that seemed to come straight out of
1982. The iconography of American sportswear, a Never Never Land of jeans, khakis,
bomber jackets and some of the shortest shorts of the season (printed with
pansies to boot!) seemed taken directly from the boys’ department. (See the three looks above.)
Conclusion: The flight from troubled times has taken shape
in easy fit clothes that can be pulled over heads, like most children’s
clothes, such as T-shirts. The majority of tops were in fact collarless and
based on the tee – with short, wide sleeves for easy movement. A curious
sexless note is evident in the many Eastern inflections, including tunic
shirts, draped overshirts, and loose, pleated pants that hid the crotch, an obvious
sign that the virile alpha male has gone on retreat.
Did you grow up dazzled b the girls of Takahashi Macoto, without knowing it? I did. I can still vividly recall the Colleen colouring pencils that came in pompous tins, 36 colours all arranged in an ombre rainbow. For years, I attempted to copy the cover illustration, a Marie Antoinette type girl clutching a poodle, wearing a huge picture hat just laden with flowers. I thought the pencils were meant for re-creating the drawing. It is only now, decades later, that I learned that Macoto drew with pencil and then coloured with watercolour, in delicate layers, and that his signature sparkles in the the eyes were added later in a constellation of goauche dots and stripes!
