Milan Men’s Fashion Week AW16 highlights

Playful menswear

Milan is famous for seeing an injection of colour and fun given to autumn/winter collections. This season was no exception, with many designers embracing fashion’s playful side. Alessandro Michele at Gucci showed the emotive power of childhood memories in his clothing with the inclusion of cartoon character Snoopy, while the return of the bomber jacket appealed to discerning dressers, both young and old alike.

Oscars influence

With the Oscars Academy Awards ceremony coming up in February, many of the collections paid tribute to the biggest films of the year. Over at Gucci, Alessandro Michele’s models walked to the music of The Revenant – one of the biggest movie releases of the year so far. The collections themselves also seemed to pay homage to the film with pieces including large bear-like fur coats, reminiscent of its animal co-stars.

David Bowie tribute

Tributes to the iconic singer-songwriter David Bowie continued in Milan, with many Italian houses honouring the late musician. At Armani’s autumn/winter 2016 show, models walked to Bowie hits while Versace’s space-themed show was complemented by a burst of Bowie’s song Space Oddity. Many collections also echoed Bowie’s early style, with models sporting silk scarves, silver jackets and soft velvet touches.

MA-1 bomber jacket

The MA-1 American bomber jacket is set to be the jacket shape of AW16, with numerous designers including Versace, Jil Sander and Calvin Klein all featuring the iconic style. First designed in the 1950s, the MA-1 bomber jacket has been given a modern revival this season with silk finishes, embellishments and a variety of colourways.

Covetable accessories

Ever since Alessandro Michele debuted his horse-bit fur slippers for Gucci’s AW15 womenswear collection, he has become one of the fashion world’s most prominent and successful designers. All eyes were on his AW16 menswear show that once again revealed a highly covetable collection of menswear accessories. The fur slippers were reinvented this season with embroidery jacquard and check printing, while his new embroidered knitted hats are sure to be the latest must-have accessory. Other highlights came from Tod’s – its leather satchel is essential for the office.

Spaceman chic

Milan went into outer space for its autumn/winter 2016 collections. Astronauts, spacemen and fibre-optic outerwear seem to be a reoccurring theme for next season, with Versace leading the way in extraterrestrial dressing. Its science-fiction-style collection looked to reinvent the spacesuit and featured modern silver mackintoshes worn over classic Prince of Wales suits, high-shine metallic bomber jackets with NASA embroidered badges and white denim suits.

Girl power

Last season, Prada defied convention with a significant increase in female models and this season a series of other designers followed suit. While this does not mark the first time we have seen gender blending on the runway, there has been a marked increase in the amount of female models used during Men’s Fashion Week, pointing to the idea of gender deconstruction and a more gender-fluid approach to fashion design.