SHARE
COPY LINK

CULTURE

Milan fashion week: Gucci brings back the boys

The return of Gucci to the menswear catwalk calendar, robust sales of Italian fashion and a farewell to the pandemic-imposed trend of virtual shows -- it's all systems go for men's fashion week in Milan which opened Friday.

A model presents a creation for Gucci's men's fall/winter 2023/24 fashion collection in Milan
A model presents a creation for Gucci's men's fall/winter 2023/24 fashion collection in Milan on January 13, 2023. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)

Promising spectacle and optimism after a year in which sales of Italian fashion showed the strongest growth of the last 20 years, presentations for Fall-Winter 2023/2024 men’s collections run until Tuesday.

Of the 79 shows, only four are digital, a holdover from the debilitating pandemic period that sent sales plunging and brought a halt to live runway shows.

Nothing replaces “the live experience, the frenzy, the expectation, the applause, the top models parading on the catwalk and the powerful music,” fashion consultant Elisabetta Cavatorta told AFP.

Most anticipated was fashion powerhouse Gucci which put on a menswear-only show for the first time in three years and the luxury label’s first since artistic director Alessandro Michele’s surprise departure in November.

New direction at Gucci?

At its minimalist show Friday, Gucci said it was celebrating “the aesthetics of improvisation” with a collection inspired by the classic wardrobe of the gentleman, revisited in a subversive spirit.

READ ALSO: Seven insider tips for shopping in Milan

Combining faded jeans with sequinned tops and green and red or pink boots with heels, the collection mixed genres and colours.

Long oversized coats with ample shoulder pads and maxi skirts split to reveal bare legs peppered the collection, while wool hats and rectangular tote bags tossed carelessly over the shoulder added to Gucci’s accessory arsenal.

A model presents a creation for Gucci’s men’s fall/winter 2023/24 fashion collection in Milan on January 13, 2023. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)

With his colourful collections seeped in the 1970s, Michele provided a new lease on life after being tapped in 2015 to revive sales at the storied brand with the world-famous stripe logo in green and red.

While sales exploded by 44 percent in 2018 for luxury group Kering’s flagship brand, growth has lagged competitors in the last two years.

“It remains to be seen whether Alessandro Michele’s departure initiates a change of direction for the fashion house,” Cavatorta said.

As to who will take over the reins at Gucci, the fashion world awaits news of Michele’s successor with bated breath.

A model presents a creation for Gucci’s men’s fall/winter 2023/24 fashion collection in Milan on January 13, 2023. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP)
Soaring revenues

Armani, Prada, Fendi, Dolce & Gabbana and Zegna are among the big labels set to unveil men’s collections in the Italian fashion capital.

But there have been defections including Versace, which plans to show its men’s and women’s collections together in Los Angeles on March 10.

Despite the war in Ukraine and the impact of the energy crisis on an energy-intensive fashion supply chain, sales of Italian fashion last year rose 16 percent to 96.6 billion euros ($104.4 billion).

“This is the highest revenue in the last 20 years,” said Carlo Capasa, president of the Italian Fashion Chamber, at a presentation ahead of the shows last month.

Inflation has had an impact, as Italian fashion prices rose by about nine percent in 2022, but their increase is “a positive sign that closes a year marked by dramatic events and difficult times,” Capasa added.

Exports of “Made in Italy” fashion climbed 18.7 percent in the first nine months of last year, driven by demand in the United States and the Gulf countries where exports both soared by more than 50 percent.

Sales to China grew more moderately, at 18.8 percent, while exports to Russia fell by 26 percent, in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

But one area in which the impact of the Covid-19 crisis will still be felt in Milan is the absence of Chinese buyers.

Despite the lifting of coronavirus-related health restrictions by authorities in Beijing, the number of buyers who will travel to the city for the shows will be “limited”, Capasa said.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CULTURE

Italian opera celebrated in Verona’s ‘magical’ Arena

Verona's ancient Roman Arena will host a star-studded classical concert on Friday to celebrate the addition of Italian opera singing to UNESCO's list of intangible global heritage.

Italian opera celebrated in Verona's 'magical' Arena

Some of the world’s finest singers will perform arias, including Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, French baritone Ludovic Tezier and Italian soprano Eleonora Buratto.

More than 10,000 people will attend the concert at the Arena, the largest open-air theatre in the world.

Italian opera was added to the UN’s heritage list in December.

The citation acknowledged it as an art associated with specific facial expressions and body gestures involving a combination of music, drama, acting and staging.

“Italian opera is our common ancestor,” baritone Tezier told AFP. “Opera is an Italian invention which has spread all over the world.”

Conductor Riccardo Muti will direct 160 orchestra musicians and more than 300 choristers from prestigious Italian institutes such as La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice.

The programme includes arias from Madame Butterfly, La Boheme and Tosca, all by Giacomo Puccini and marking the centenary of his death.

But there will also be extracts from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and Rigoletto.

‘Like a gladiator’

“There is a real vocal pleasure in Italian singing because the Italian language is itself extremely musical and sonorous,” Tezier said.

Verona’s Arena offered the ideal setting, he added: its atmosphere “is warm, conducive to opera. We experience truly magical moments.

“When you enter the arena, with this huge audience in front of you, you have a feeling of humility, you have the impression of being very small.

“But at the same time you feel like a gladiator going into battle because there is an exceptional energy that emanates from this place”.

The Arena in the northeastern Italian city was built in the first century AD to entertain Romans with gladiator fights, spectacular shows featuring wild beasts, and even naval battles.

The concert, which will be broadcast live, kicks off the 101st edition of the Verona Arena Opera Festival, which runs to September 7 and is expected to draw over 500,000 music lovers.

The festival was created on August 10, 1913 by the Veronese tenor Giovanni Zenatello. He the stone amphitheatre’s remarkable acoustics when he performed Verdi’s Aida there.

Opera came into being around 1600 in Florence, with the founding of an academy promoting an innovative combination of sung text and music.

The first great composer of opera is considered to be Italy’s Claudio Monteverdi, who lived from 1567 to 1643.

SHOW COMMENTS