Best menswear looks from Milan Fashion Week

Whether for work or play, next season's clothes will be light and breezy, with comfort being key

Giorgio Armani men's collection celebrated underplayed luxury on the runway. EPA

The spring/summer 2024 collections showcased at the recent men's Milan Fashion Week featured a decidedly softer aesthetic.

An easing toward the subtle elegance of tailoring, seen across Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Prada, Etro and Giorgio Armani, the message was about quiet dressing and the sensory experience of wearing well-made clothes in top-notch materials.

The antithesis of flashy, logo-driven dressing, this week's looks were built around loose-fit cuts that leaned into the subtle joy of muted, downplayed colours. The trick to all this relaxation, however, was the shapes created by skilful cutting.

The return to an effortless mode of dress was evident in the proliferation of pyjama bottoms on the runways, as elasticated waists become the new marker of upscale comfort.

Made in silk or linen, and scattered in embroidery or tidy, tie-inspired patterning, these are clearly the trousers to be seen in.

Lightweight coats at Dolce & Gabbana

Dolce & Gabbana fused impeccable tailoring with flourishes of its own haute couture, Alta Moda, for its latest round of menswear. One of the most covetable arrivals was a lightweight coat worn over equally weightless trousers.

Cut to hang long and lean, yet with a hint of a waist, this is familiar territory for Dolce & Gabbana, which has built its name on dazzling cuts. The crisp coat – with slightly exaggerated shoulders – is given a couture flourish, with a handmade flower worn as a buttonhole. Sharp yet effortless, this is how to make an entrance.

Zegna's laid-back suits

At Zegna, amid the loose-cut linen came a leather jacket in pale mint green that caught the eye with its simplicity. Single buttoned and collarless, and with sleeves cropped at the elbow, it was unlined, with the leather instead fused onto canvas.

Teamed with a round-necked woven T-shirt and flat-fronted wide linen trousers, the look merged the sartorial ease of loose linen with the 1980s vibe of Miami Vice. Light, fluid and almost carefree, this is for those looking to impress at an artsy venue, with its fresh and laid-back message.

Streetwear at Etro

Etro, best known for its florid patterning, has dialled it down for spring/summer. And the result is gorgeous.

With long kaftan-style tops and outdoorsy blanket coats recurring themes on the runway, one look stood out for its streetwear Americana. A baseball shirt, collarless and with sleeves, hanging past the elbow. It came in blurry checked pattered, matched with flowy pyjama pants.

On the shoulder and sleeves and running down the outside of each leg were great scrolls of flowered embroidery, unexpected but beautiful. Underneath, was low necked, finely woven top in a lace pattern. This look works thanks to its sporty credentials, fused with almost feminine touches, resulting in a loose, confident appeal.

Upscaled utility at Valentino

The Roman house of Valentino knows a thing or two about insouciant dressing, and how to mix luxury materials such as taffeta into everyday living.

For spring/summer 2024, this desire to fold the remarkable into ordinary life – that creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli sees as the opening up of fashion – arrives as lightweight, yet upscaled shirt and trousers. The best, however, is something a little more street infused, yet still with a flash of romantic drama.

A pistachio-coloured shirt, with long integral neckties, arrived with flat front shorts, cut to mid-thigh, in rich ox blood red. On top sits a boxy, button-front jacket in heavy camel canvas. Blunt cut through the hips, this utilitarian, vaguely sporty jacket, with a single patch pocket, gets an upgrade thanks to the silhouette of a single, long-stem flower printed on the front of the jacket. Teamed with mid-calf socks in burnt sienna and slip-on leather shoes in bitter chocolate, this single romantic touch changes everything.

Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons go breezy

The ongoing partnership of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons offers a fascinating, intellectual window into the world of these two deeply cerebral designers.

For spring/summer 2024, the pair offered a recurring outline that combines the exaggerated shoulders and nipped-in waist of the 1940s, rethought for a modern audience. The once-heavy wools have been replaced with modern fibres, which dramatically changes how the pieces can be worn.

Case in point, the horsehair padded structure of a vintage wool suit jacket has been replicated in crisp cotton, so fine it can be tucked, effortlessly, into shorts. Transformed into a new type of shirt, with overlong sleeves and a notched lapel, it arrives in a faded khaki nude, and worn with shorts – flat at the front, gathered on the sides – in a warm shade of sand.

Worn with smart, mid-calf socks and lace-up, patent shoes, this is about nailing a look that blends intellect with breezy comfort.

Practical looks at Fendi

Fendi built its collection around the idea of artisanship, in celebration of the many people involved in making its handmade bags.

As far as the fashion goes, this was translated into a strong utilitarian leaning, such as factory floor overcoats, shorts with belt loops for holding tools and even leather aprons worn slung around the hips, reaching to the floor, or peeking out from underneath jackets. Tops were made in breathable mesh, with drawstring necks and simple shirts elongated into workshop overcoats.

The most wearable of these was an all-cream look of curtailed dungarees worn under a jacket. Cut from natural denim, with brown stitching that felt like the cutting pattern not yet removed, the legs stopped mid-calf, while around the hips sits an apron of pockets, with more pockets in the dungaree's bib, and also down the sides of the shorts. A measuring tape has been draped around the neck, running through loops to hold it in place. Merging practicality with wearability – denim gets softer the more it is used – the model carried something sure to make everyone jealous: a Fendi monogrammed coffee holder.

Giorgio Armani's underplayed luxury

Giorgio Armani is the master of languid menswear, and having invented the style in the 1970s, he still has plenty to say on the topic. His Milan show, for example, was a sublime display of the art of underplayed luxury. It was told through collarless blazers, silken pyjama pants worn with slubby jackets, and front pleat trousers cut for a loose, almost rounded feel.

While Milan as a whole embraced this summery attitude, Armani is the architect of this look so to update it, here he offered intriguing mixes of materials, such as pleat fronted trousers in crumpled linen, worn with a formal waistcoat, also in loose linen and left unbuttoned. Over this Armani put a sleek suit jacket in pale grey, now elongated ever so slightly into a new shape. On the runway, jackets were worn shirtless, with just a foulard loosely knotted at the neck, and lightweight trenches are collarless and loosely belted. The little patterning there was arrived in muted greys and silvers, mixed with separates in ochre, khaki, chalk, and Armani’s ever-present greige, and mixed with soft knits, washed linen and shirts patterned to look like cable knit jumpers.

The message was best told through suits cut from lightweight, grey silk. A three-piece in the loosest possible sense, the formality was turned on its head with drawstring-waisted, pyjama pants. Instead of a shirt, there is a long two-toned silk foulard, in white and eau de Nil, while shoes have been replaced with slippers. The jacket sleeves are cut to stop just shy of the wrist, while the jacket is entirely unlined – a master stroke of its own. Aimed at those who are wealthy enough to never have to shout about it, Armani is still the way for anyone looking to show their style credentials in one look.