If pressed to find a word that bounces enough to sum up the spring 2013 menswear collections at Milan this week, we’d go with this: “jardigan.”
Yes, it is what it sounds like — a jacket meets a cardigan made to wear in a garden. It’s a casual and easy combo that, if you picture it in pink, tells you all you need to know about what’s happening in Italy.
Suzy Menkes didn’t make up “jardigan,” but she did use the term to describe an item in the Brioni collection, which was shown on the lawn of a mansion where people were playing pétanque. The scents and colors of the outside world were anything but incidental, as the clothes in many of the collections seem to be made for men who travel off toward the horizon in search of exotic locales. The hues are as vibrant as an exploding sunset.
The Ferragamo collection was packed with pants the color of cartoon tangerines and parkas the electric blue of a Slurpee. Prada played it a tad safer but still brought out rich sweaters dyed in aquamarines and blood maroon. And Burberry broke out the magenta metallic shirts, which crumple like the petals of a frozen flower.
Some designers had the London Summer Games on their minds, as men seemingly from Mount Olympus walked the runways of Versace and Emporio Armani, strutting as if the sun still never set on the the British Empire. At Versace, heavyweight championship belts latched around satin robes that didn’t cover much of each model’s pecs, and at Armani it was ties and swim trunks or chunky Bermuda shorts. All this makes sense, because Giorgio Armani designed the uniforms for Italy’s Olympic swim team.
But not everyone can be a high-caliber athlete or — in the case of the men in the Brioni presentation — a member of the leisure class snacking on charcuterie at a picnic. Not everyone can risk wearing blinding colors to the grey office. Or perhaps there are no jobs at all, as is the case for many Europeans due to the debt crisis. It could seem like these collections go just beyond aspirational and become, instead, delusional.
As it turned out, this wasn’t exactly the case. The more absurd moments were presented knowingly, and the fierce reds and yellows celebrate the way people, all people, can wear clothes well and confidently. Take the Dolce & Gabbana show. In it, 70 average Sicilians, plucked from the streets, walked down the runway in bold stripes. It was all their first time in a fashion show. Everyone looked great. Maybe anyone can be a model, jardigan or not.
Click on the slide show to see images from Milan Men’s Fashion Week.