When pants become skirts

Fitted frock coats, bow ties and exuberant colours graced the runaway as Dolce & Gabbana and Fendi both imagined more glamourous, post-pandemic wardrobes for their fall/winter collections at the Milan men’s fashion week.

Designer Silvia Venturini Fendi took inspiration from the 1920s dandy at her fashion house’s show on Saturday, 15 January, punctuating refinement with touches of eccentricity.

Blazers were transformed into capes, knitwear featured sizeable chest cutouts and the accessories veered towards the flashy.

The collection also aimed for a more fluid interpretation of typically gendered clothes, with wide-leg pants ballooning into half-skirts.

“We women wear men’s jackets, I do not see why they could not take inspiration from our wardrobe,” said Fendi, granddaughter of the Italian fashion house’s founders.

At Sicilian duo Dolce & Gabbana’s show, casual and sartorial styles mixed in a celebration of returning to the great outdoors.

Tailored to appeal to a younger generation, the show featured rap and punk music orchestrated by Machine Gun Kelly.

Models wore loose-fitting coats with leopard or zebra prints, white suits embroidered with pearls or tight-fitting pants and tuxedos with wide shoulders and a cinched waist.

Others were wrapped up in thick, oversized down jackets in bold colours or eco-friendly furs, ready to face the winter cold during post-Covid excursions.

And like at Fendi, the skirt featured as part of the male wardrobe, with the designer duo citing young people’s ability to choose their clothes freely, without worrying about gender.

Both shows carried on despite the disruption sown across Europe by the surging Omicron variant, which has curtailed the fashion week calendar.

After Giorgio Armani announced its withdrawal, the number of physical shows was reduced from 23 to 16. Eighteen brands opted for a purely virtual presence, while others presented their collections by appointment.

Still, those that went ahead, like Dsquared2 on 14 January, embraced the return to the catwalk.

In their first live show in two years — attended by football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic — the Canadian twins behind the label displayed a festival of bright yellows, pinks, reds and blues alongside floral patterns, sequins and crystal embroidery.

With a glimmer of hope and much enthusiasm, Dsquared2’s globe-trotting styles were a nod to getting out of the cocoon and going on a long-awaited trip.