Tailoring in shirt-weight fabrics seems to be a thing in Milan this season, and it’s long been Giorgio Armani’s thing.
For Emporio Armani, he pressed tropical wool-silk blends into service for languid blazers, shirt jackets and breezy blousons that seemed destined for the office, but took a detour to somewhere skyscrapers or industrial parks don’t block the horizon. Tissue-thin suede and gauzy linens made for fine double-breasted suits, or more casual safari styles.
The collection seemed to be less about shirking duties or escapism, and more about an introspective journey on a beach or in the countryside where you might pick up a strand of good-luck gemstones, or a sheaf of wheat for your lapel, along the way.
The show notes cited a wish to reconnect with nature, hence the images of galloping horses and swaying lavender that ringed Armani’s runway theater, and the sunglasses suspended on straps and banging on the models’ toned chest muscles. (Armani mostly dispensed with shirts this season.)
Too often, gimmicky pants — which narrowed at the ankle thanks to a short front zipper, side snaps or elastics so they could tuck into equestrian boots — marred the appeal of these loose, layered looks in a range of sandy and tawny colors.
Among the better ideas Armani hit on is supersizing a double-breasted jacket so it becomes an outerwear piece with a back vent and a lot of swagger.
Another was having his models smile, even meekly, expressing the show’s intention to celebrate “freedom in nature” and the balm to the soul it can be.
For the finale, a half-dozen women’s looks, mostly bold floral ensembles, strolled out, each accompanied by a male model who had ditched all his clothes but for shorts and suspenders, filling his wicker tote bag with lavender. Freedom in nature, indeed.
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