Milan Digital Fashion Week: back to simple essentials

For next summer, Milanese designers have chosen to concentrate on essentials. The third day of the Milan Digital Fashion Week featured pared-down, nearly non-existent collections and lines - the clothes sometimes barely hinted at - and seemed as bare as some of the presentation videos, with a focus on the summer 2021 pre-collections. Clearly, in these post-lockdown times, labels prefer to concentrate on a limited selection of distinctive garments alongside a set of easier, more straightforward and often monochrome items.

DSquared2 stood out on Thursday, presenting one of the most comprehensive, multi-faceted wardrobes, with twin brothers and designers Dean and Dan Caten acting as MCs. The Caten brothers stood up from their film director chairs and faced the camera on a pretend film set, inviting the audience to enjoy a backstage glimpse of the photoshoot for their Spring/Summer 2021 pre-collection’s campaign.

The film’s first part, shot in black and white, is dedicated to “formal wear and tailoring,” featuring sombre-coloured suit-and-tie sets with a retro feel, rigorously worn over a white shirt, tuxedos with shiny lapels and white waistcoats, and glittering jackets. Patent leather shoes and bow ties complete the ensembles, while the girls are clad in short black leather dresses.

The film’s second part is filmed in colour and is dedicated to sportswear, inspired by “summer, trips and travel.” The focus is on jeans, tracksuits and comfy sweatshirts in bold primary colours, like the one in bright yellow. The collection also includes open-work knitwear, cotton trousers, baggy shorts, sport shirts, lightweight nylon windbreakers and DSquared2’s new take on sailor-stripe tops. As the label concisely put it: “Real everyday wear for real men and women.” Dean Caten had the last word: “It's all truly real. There's no play-acting.”

In a similar vein, other labels featured a ubiquitous back-to-basics mood. Like Tod’s, whose Creative Director Walter Chiapponi delved into the label's archives to design a pre-collection hinging on a series of evergreen items. Salvatore Ferragamo too chose to plunge into the past, specifically in its Florentine palazzo, charting the label's history with a corporate-style video, showing only glimpses of the pre-collection looks. Neapolitan tailoring label Kiton presented a corporate video too, in which views of the beautiful bay of Naples alternate with images from Kiton’s ateliers.

Among the emerging labels presenting on Thursday, Numero 00, Valerio Farina’s street label, showcased a complete collection for next summer, shot around the ancient bridge of Tiberius and the river Marecchia in Rimini, a sea resort on the Adriatic. Sport shirts, shorts, wind-breakers and beige cotton jumpsuits are the staples of Numero 00’s informal style, in which details are all-important.

With a futuristic video style at the opposite end of the sensorial spectrum, Danish label Han Kjøbenhavn has envisioned the evolution of humankind, showcasing silhouettes for next summer that notably incorporate XXL, seemingly helium-inflated shoulders. Suit jackets sport power shoulders, and zipped gilets share the same ballooning, life-jacket-style look.

Broad-shouldered raincoats and maxi overcoats are cinched at the waist, for a cassock effect. Leather and silicone abound in the garments, as well as in the accessories, like the fairy-tale boots. The girls wear long, slinky bodycon dresses.
The rest of the day was dedicated to cruise collections by several womenswear labels, like Simona Marziali-MRZ, Philosophy by Lorenzo Serafini, Ermanno Scervino and San Andrès Milano. The latter unveiled a capsule collection designed for both men and women, with models of either sex clad in frilled shirts and wearing pearl earrings.

Milan Digital Fashion Week: back to simple essentials

See also