Italian Menswear Goes Lighter as Milan Heatwave Shapes the Runways

A severe heatwave hit northern Italy this week as Milan Men’s Fashion Week wrapped on Monday evening with Giorgio Armani’s show. At Tom Brown’s presentation in the courtyard of Palazzo Serbelloni, an 18th century palace in central Milan, temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius and the audience was handed black umbrellas, fans and water.

Designers responded to the extreme weather with lighter, looser clothes and more movement. At Armani, designer Leo Dell’Orco showed soft silk suits, pastel colors and silhouettes cut away from the body. Dolce & Gabbana, in a show on Saturday, also leaned into relaxed shapes, ending with models dressed in white.

Alongside Milan, the long-running Pitti Uomo fair in Florence has become increasingly important in men’s fashion, helped by its high-profile shows and its close timing with Milan. This year, Irish designer Simone Rocha presented her first menswear collection there, and it drew strong reviews. Rocha’s collection used tulle, delicate embroidery and soft tailoring to create a gentle, romantic take on menswear.

Brown, who closed Milan Fashion Week and debuted on the city’s official schedule, staged one of the week’s most theatrical shows. He built the presentation around a fantasy world, sending models out in sculpted straw hats, tailored jackets, shorts above the knee and pleated skirts, creating an image of American prep-school dressing filtered through absurdist theater. The article says the most memorable runway and front-row moments are shown in photos above the story.