Spring/Summer 2022: six fashion shows to remember from Milan to Paris

The just passed men's fashion weeks of Milan and Paris are the first example of how the events related to the universe of fashion shows are adapting to the post-covid world. Despite the possibility of presenting the collections live, most brands, with a few exceptions, preferred to continue experimenting with the digital format, a choice probably motivated mainly by organizational needs. The theme that we find, however, in most of the catwalks is the dream dimension, a dream made of enchanted landscapes, as well as simple moments that a couple of years ago were part of our everyday life. We present here a selection of the six events to remember from the men's Spring/Summer 2021/2022 collections.

Presented again in video format, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons tell us about “the utopia of normality” with their summer collection. AMO has imagined as a scenography for the occasion a red and winding tunnel, an escape route that ends in a space where nature and artefact interact. At about two minutes from the beginning of the video, the models reach the beach, among the clear sea and warm sand, scenes shot in the south-eastern tip of Sardinia, on the coast of Capo Carbonara, where the Maison is also funding the reforestation of marine ecosystems. Lying on the sand among granite boulders and floating red platforms, the models – almost all of them featuring the bucket hat with almond brims and triangular pockets with logo on the back, the collection’s signature piece – enjoy the uncontaminated landscape: a surreal encounter with nature and an unexpected beach infrastructure.

When our city and our personal spaces statically condition our imagination, Silvia Venturini decided to dedicate an entire collection to the eternal city, shooting the whole short film inside the monumental EUR, Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana as well as the brand’s headquarters. With the seven hills of Rome as a perspective, Nico Vascellari told the sense of freedom and lightness of the collection – from loose silhouettes and cropped jackets in pastel tones to long shirts worn with bare legs, from transparent trench coats to shorts with pocket details – using the elevated arcades and the roof of the rationalist architecture as a catwalk. The consecration of Rome, also returns as a texture with the graphic Fendi Land, a stylized plan of the capital, and Fendi Earth, a more abstract topographic version with sharp contours.

Directed by Alessandro Sartori, Ermenegildo Zegna’s collection is marked by aesthetics and functionality, reflecting the archetypal model of the work uniform. The video first shows the models running through a labyrinth in the large park surrounding the Masino castle in Piedmont and then through the stairs of the new IULM building in Milan and the amphitheatre of the Gallaratese residential complex by Carlo Aymonino and Aldo Rossi. The show then concludes with a shared dinner on the water in the Rho Fiera area. Collarless kimonos, utilitarian coats, long duster coats, oversized shirts parade among the architecture in a short film that overlaps freedom and constraint, natural and concrete.

Inspired by the Amen Break, a drum break widely sampled since ’69 and later becoming foundational to hip-hop, the new Virgil Abloh collection explores the myth of ownership in contemporary design. Applied to fashion, the instinctive phenomenon of artistic appropriation and reinterpretation offers endless possibilities for suits, dresses, shirts and t-shirts. With a film directed by Mahfuz Sultan and starring Lupe Fiasco, Goldie, Saul Williams, and GZA, the show focused on transmitting ideas across generations. The video features a father and son united by an unnamed loss, travelling through a dream world to share a message in the afterlife. A recurring motif in the collection and an icon of the rave wardrobe, the jumpsuit is juxtaposed with the suit several times as Virgil Abloh activates  activates a dialogue on the unconscious biases attached to these two key wardrobe pieces.

Kim Jones starts from an episode in the life of the founder, Monsieur Christian Dior, who, in 1947, a few months after his first collection, left for the United States and went to Texas. Accustomed to the rose gardens of his birthplace in Granville, the American landscape struck him with the difference in the manifestations of nature. From here, the brand celebrates its return to the catwalk with a collaboration with rapper Travis Scott, a rapper, composer, and music producer from Houston, Texas. In Paris-Texas (quoting Win Wenders’ cinematic masterpiece), the models appear in a desert landscape, populated by a buffalo head, cacti, roses, and giant mushrooms, where Christian Dior’s Granville memories and memories Travis Scott’s Texas encounters contribute to a dreamlike set.

Breaking away entirely from both the runway show and short film format, Jonathan Anderson chooses a dialogue with two artists for the Spanish house, presented through a print publication. The first part is a collection of the new wardrobe immortalized by British fashion photographer David Sims, while the second is dedicated to New York artist Florian Krewer, whose paintings of urban night scenes have greatly inspired the designer this season. The collection is inspired by club energy, creativity and collective jubilation, with an eye also on fluo kids and other colourful pop trends of the 2000s. “I wanted to feel fluidity,” Anderson explains in the video announcing the season, “and something where we weren’t locked into a kind of universal gender boundary.” The first part is a collection of the new wardrobe captured by British fashion photographer David Sims, whose eye for the male model is particularly appreciated by Jonathan Anderson, while the second is dedicated to New York artist Florian Krewer, whose paintings of urban night scenes have greatly inspired the designer this season.