Familiar Faces Return to Milan as Menswear Month Approaches
A month before the Spring 2024 fashion season kicks off with Milan Men’s Fashion Week in June, the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana has shared the official schedule for the week, giving us some familiar favorites and interesting changes to look forward to.
Kicking off the week on the afternoon of Friday the 16th is Valentino, which is holding its first standalone men’s show since it switched to a co-ed format in spring 2021. Forming a kind of homecoming for the label, the show will be held at the Università degli Studi de Milano Statale, where Valentino Garavani staged his first menswear show in 1985.
Directly following on Valentino’s heels on the first day of shows, Margherita Missoni – granddaughter of Missoni’s founding couple – will debut her new label, Maccapani, which she has been developing since 2021. The brand’s design ethos will lean into the Italian jersey fabrication, which Missoni saw to be an undersung powerhouse during her time at her family’s company, and will feature what is essentially a see-now-buy-now format with the collection being available directly from the brand’s website the next day. Genderless in principle but leaning toward the feminine form, the brand leans into the expanding trend of co-ed and gender-fluid collections and brands finding a home at men’s week.
Also returning to the city is Ralph Lauren Purple Label, which last showed in Milan during the Fall 2020 runway season – the last before the industry’s traditional schedule was upended by the pandemic.
While last season Gucci held a standalone men’s runway show, a move away from Alessandro Michele’s favored co-ed format, this season will see the house make another change, as it will hold a menswear presentation rather than a runway show. It will also be the brand’s last showing before creative director Sabato De Sarno makes his much-anticipated debut at women’s fashion week in September.
Established Italian powerhouses like Prada, Giorgio Armani, Etro, Dolce & Gabbana, Zegna, and Tod’s are sitting comfortably in their traditional spots on the calendar. Missing from this list is of course Fendi, which instead is set to close out Pitti Uomo in Florence as its featured guest designer.
JW Anderson, who typically shows in Milan but usually has separate men’s and women’s shows during their respective weeks, will show both collections with a nighttime show on Sunday the 18th.