Milano Moda Uomo Spring / Summer 2009
Day 1: Afternoon, Saturday June 21, 2008

I feel like an apprentice with Imadge bossing me around. But, I guess between Imadge and Milan, I really don’t have a prayer to get a word out. Though both girls have been my roommates for only a month, I miss having Milan around. I wonder how she would fare here being named after this city. I’ll find out soon enough, but I better get cracking on reviews before the boss lady turns into a fire breathing dragon.

Missoni

Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of Missoni, but I can see how other men like the brand. Sartorially speaking, Missoni makes the label ‘Made in Italy’ the epitome of perfection. As for their innovative approach to prints and knitting, let us just say that it would give any aspiring colorist a lot of inspiration.

For Spring 2009, Missoni touched on the freewheeling lifestyle of the 1970s, focusing on the French Riviera specifically St. Tropez. Bright colors with an optimistic attitude, Angela Missoni was right on target of bringing hopefulness during a time of transition not just in fashion, but also about the world.

Burberry Prorsum

Burberry Prorsum Spring 2009

Dressing up to look dress down, Christopher Bailey once again proved how he has his finger on the fashion pulse. As the Internet generation comes of age, with some them already part of the workforce, a design house has to cater to their unique need of being the ‘coolest’ guy around, but do not want to look his older brother or worst of all, his father.

Reworking the jacket and the cardigan to make them just a tad longer and little bit slimmer than standard, then using masculine shades of ochre, green, mauve and lavender, joined the shades of gray and brown, Christopher Bailey skillfully transformed the traditional Anglo-Saxon looks into something fresh and modern without looking futuristic.

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Carlo Pignatelli Outside

Instead of being inspired by an era, Carlo Pignatelli Outside chose to morph three men into one – James Bond, Gianni Agnelli and President John F. Kennedy, men who has natural appeal who wear the clothes and not the clothes wearing them.

Perhaps, one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century for all fashion designers is that fashionistas had been bombarded with blatant or subtle advertising that it is no longer possible to forget the brand that they are wearing. In short, clothes have started to wear the man (or woman), instead of the other way around.

Carlo Pignatelli Outside is going back to basics, i.e., giving back fashion to the ‘wearer’ himself. In short, the authenticity and genuineness are the most important aspect of fashion as the silhouette adapts to the wearer: soft and loose on top, tapering and fine underneath, or the opposite, close and lean on top, fluid and more generous in proportions underneath.

Harmonious combinations appear according to an entirely unpredictable logic. The principle of the jacket/trousers suit set has been surpassed in favour of the affinity between jacket and shirt, or shirt and tie.

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