He has the muscle of Marlon Brando and the dreams of John Lennon, whose music accompanied the show. Black leather over faded jeans is his uniform, with the omnipresent black leather cap, and a belt impertinently buckled to the side. Giorgio Armani, who showed Thursday, combined the macho with the romantic in a collection where fabric rather than style made the difference. An interweave of cashmere and tweed takes the rigor out of a military trench coat. In the suit department, super-soft pants are worn over velvet jackets, or inversely cardigan jackets are matched up with classic gray flannel pants.
Zippers often replace more complicated buttoning.
In his own minimalist way, American designer Calvin Klein, who manufactures his menswear in Italy, achieved this soft simplicity. In his almost-all navy blue collection he intertwined silk and rugged wool to achieve a soft sexy look. In general, the latest round of more than 70 collections presents a man able and willing to make up his own fashion mind. Emblematic of this is the emphasis on uniform garb, which far from stiff and restricting, becomes a way of expressing a new fashion freedom. Military jackets, leather trench coats, striped pants, epaulets and gold buttons showed up at almost every show.