The ‘wonderbra' for men, and nine other new menswear trends

Times

2 days ago

The international fashion circuit kicks off with menswear in Italy, and as the shows take place in the heat of Milan, they are perfectly timed for presenting on the catwalk what we will see in a year's time on the streets all over the world. This season it was all about relaxed style — from silk eveningwear to driving blousons and comfortable and flexible suede moccasins. The look is elegant but not formal, a grown-up take on warm-weather chic.
You may not think of leather for summer, but then there is leather and there is leather. Summer leather needs to be soft and supple, as seen at Montblanc, the makers of Swiss pens, watches and leather goods, which launched its first fashion collection with 16 looks for spring/summer 2026 designed by the artistic director Marco Tomasetta. These jackets, shorts, shirts and trousers have a subtle summer colour palette — mustard, brown, blue and green — and feature the quirky detailing that speaks of the firm's enduring association with the film-maker Wes Anderson. There are multiple pockets for your pens and a '4810' embossed pattern referencing the height of the mountain of Mont Blanc in metres. But the key is the softness. Which is also Brunello Cucinelli's starting point with leather. Alessio Piastrelli, the menswear director at the brand, says, 'It's difficult to wear a leather jacket during the summer, so we were looking for a special leather that is all about weight.' He settled on a lightweight, supple quality. 'It's a really beautiful, soft nubuck,' he says, citing an ecru leather trench coat as well as pieces in colours like orange and red. There's also an ecru shirt and a black zip-up blouson. 'This is not the big-sized approach to leather of the Eighties and Nineties.' Instead this is tailored leather, to be worn elegantly. Not rugged or oversized styles, but a sleek look.
Summer colours usually lean towards neutrals and naturals, with a heavy dose of navy and white. This season we're seeing some pastels — 'dirty' pinks, sky blues and mustards at Prada, for example — but the real story is the use of colour as a highlight. Prada also has a strong red for this purpose, with a few pops of bold green, yellow and blue for sporty track pants with contrast side stripe. Meanwhile Massimo Alba introduced a rich 'grape' purple in a double-breasted jacket-cum-peacoat and a terry towelling short-sleeve shirt. Giorgio Armani also breaks from his greige palette to bring us shades of mauve. But it is to the king of colour, our very own Sir Paul Smith, that we have to look for a masterclass in using hues to spice up a summer wardrobe. Returning to show in Milan for the first time in several years, he presented a collection full of colour and prints. The source, he told us, was a book he bought 25 years ago in a street market in Cairo with his wife, Pauline, which had photographs of Egypt that had been hand-tinted. 'The entire colour palette is from that, and the prints are from photographs I took of the reflections in the water when we went down the Nile on a felucca,' the designer says. So look out for a sleeveless orange V-neck and socks and trainers, a yellow suede jacket, dusty pink trousers and red shorts. 'I just like the optimism of colour. Pauline always calls colour in an outfit a punctuation mark, because while a rock star can wear all red, or an actor can on a red carpet, most of us would just wear a colourful shirt or a belt or a sock.'
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If there's a competition going on to see who can make the bendiest shoes then Zegna and Santoni are tied in first place. Zegna had leather slippers that literally fold in half, with a flexible flat sole, while Santoni, the shoemaker from the Le Marche region in Italy, has a folding driving shoe with a natty orange rubber sole so you make a statement every time you cross your legs. This flex is more to do with on-foot comfort than any space-saving you achieve by compressing your footwear in your luggage — although this seems to be a selling point too. Elsewhere there are woven leather lace-ups at Emporio Armani and leather mules at Canali and Zegna, all of which are flexible. As is the Shanghai monk strap range at Church's, so called because these models are based on a pair from 1929 sent to the factory in Northampton by the grandson of their owner as a curiosity. It arrived from Shanghai, hence the name of today's interpretation. These have a leather fringed apron, brogueing and are made with a mix of materials, often calfskin and linen. They are a distinctive summer choice, like a sort of golf shoe mixed with a co-respondent. The originals were on show in Milan, displaying the worn Church's logo on the bendy rubber sole. The new variants have been distressed to look like the source pair, so no breaking in is necessary.
Luca Larenza took over one of Milan's regular flower stalls to present his handmade crocheted knits (alongside his equally handmade ceramics). The knitwear, a sporty polo in aquamarine cotton and a crewneck in beige, illustrated what he can do with an open-stitch effect, which is very comfortable in the summer. At Canali there was a zip-up ecru collared cardigan also in crochet. 'It's inspired by knitted, fingerless driving gloves, and we took that idea and applied it to knitwear,' Stefano Canali, the president and CEO of the company, explained. At Giorgio Armani, too, there were summer knits with big stitches that had a crocheted appearance in ecru and pale mint. It's all about the artisanal look and a ventilated feel.
A number of brands showed cars alongside their collections. There was a classic caramel Porsche 911T at Canali to mark the collection's Gran Turismo theme that saw relaxed pleated trousers (good for sitting behind the steering wheel) and cropped blousons in brown suede and natural and ecru linen for the gentleman driver. There was a beautiful vintage Lamborghini at Tod's, where the granddaddy of driving shoes, the rubber pebble-soled Gommino, had a whole show dedicated to it. The famous loafer-style moccasins, on display here in suede in a range of colours, also provide the inspiration for many of Tod's other styles that are co-opting the pebbles, like deck shoes and even sneakers. Ferrari, as you would expect, has great driving shoes, and also high-top driving 'sneakers' in a technical knit, similar looking to the boots that Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc actually wear when racing. But, more than that, Rocco Iannone, the creative director of Ferrari Style, continues to develop pieces that subtly reference the factory in Maranello, like a two-piece garment-dyed denim boiler suit in the Rosso Maison red with custom rivets featuring the prancing horse logo. The most literal racer offer came from Fay, which proudly showed two vintage Alfa Romeo race cars to support its collaboration with the driver Ronnie Kessel, the son of the F1 driver Loris. The collection featured all manner of cropped race jackets, including a limited edition cotton style (only 70 pieces will be made) with quilted lining that looks like you're about to step from the pits into your Le Mans car.
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The Italian quest for how to parlay its sartorial tradition into contemporary form continues apace. This week saw many variations on jackets and trousers that had little to do with the established notch lapel classic with matching trousers most commonly associated with traditional tailoring, though that combo is by no means finished. But we have certainly come to the point where a chore jacket, or a tailored bomber, is an option for a smartly dressed man who is not so much looking to make a fashion statement as express stylish elegance. These jackets are characterised by being unstructured and often feature practical on-show pockets. Corneliani is exploring this with a cotton button-up chore jacket with four large flap pockets on the front, an ecru suede blouson with two button-up chest flap pockets, and a tailored outerwear piece with drawstring fastening at a stand-up collar, as well as a cotton zip-up shirt jacket again with flap pockets at the chest. If you can match this type of jacket with trousers in the same fabric, you have a modern take on the suit.
Summer eveningwear can often feel like it's designed for formal occasions like Ascot. But in Milan there was an alternative, modern take where the idea is to look superlight. Leading the charge is Brioni, which has a history of innovation dating back to the 1950s, when it started to introduce 'ice cream' colours to tailoring. Now, under its executive design director, Norbert Stumpfl, it's pushing the boundaries again with extremely luxurious fabrics and eveningwear that is anything but formal. 'It's very modern, you just put on a shirt and trousers, but they're made in the most beautiful fluid silk or embroidered in gold,' he says. 'We try to take everything out, all the construction. We don't weigh our wearer down, we make him feel completely at ease. Nothing stuffy, nothing heavy.'
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There's one summer fabric that's getting a billowing airing this season and that's silk. At Giorgio Armani the silk came thick (well, thin actually — which is the point) and fast. From a Nehru-collared fuchsia suit to geometric patterns printed on silk shirt-jackets with matching trousers, to silk shirts with a dégradé effect, to more conventional tailored jackets and trousers. A standout was a gossamer-fine black silk evening suit that makes you look like you are floating. It's comfortable and speaks of luxurious, indolent days in the sun.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana threw a veritable pyjama party on their catwalk. A style first shown by the duo in the 1990s, the collection placed pyjamas centre stage. These are an Italian classic — striped and in lightweight cotton jacquard, these PJs are for day and night — with the evening pieces also embroidered with crystals and stones. The pyjama theme also surfaced at Emporio Armani, but while Dolce & Gabbana's take evoked lounging in a Venetian palazzo, the Emporio Armani version was straight out of Marrakesh, with big, bold and flowing striped cotton trousers. Meanwhile, at Zegna washed silk pyjama-style striped jackets, shirts and trousers felt more like something you might see on a global traveller — maybe in Dubai, for example, which is where the brand actually showed its spring/summer collection before bringing it to Milan.
It was a season of extremes where trousers are concerned. I'm not sure what to call Prada's new shorts for men, so cropped that there are no leg parts as such. If Paul Mescal's Gucci style from last year was the micro short, maybe these are nano shorts? Or just pants, but not in the American sense. At the other end of the spectrum are Emporio Armani's voluminous harem pants. And somewhere in between are Dunhill's Gurkha trousers. Dunhill's creative director is a fan of the style, which sees the waistband extend round to the side where it fastens. 'The great thing about the Gurkha is that it comes from the military wardrobe, where so much of classic menswear originates,' Holloway says. 'It gives a flattering silhouette, sitting high on the waist. And because of how it is cut it really is the equivalent of a Wonderbra for men,' he says with a laugh. Expect them to sell out.