Menswear's new mood: verdict from the runways of Milan and Paris

LOGIC doesn't always feature in the menswear shows of Paris and Milan but there were some eminently wearable offerings this year. 

France Fashion

FASHION can be a confusing business. Looking at the clothes on the catwalk at the men's fashion shows in Milan and Paris, it can be hard to work out what season is being shown to buyers and the media.

The only real way to know is to remember that summer is shown in summer and winter in winter. Therefore the clothes on the catwalks will be on sale 12 months from now, or at least that's the intention. The reality is just as confusing.

There was no doubting it was summer on the street outside the shows this season. In the 30-plus degree heat in Milan the men were wearing suits with shorts, neon bright coloured trousers, linen jackets in pastel shades and T-shirts with striking and vibrant prints (Prada's kooky banana print was seen on many a fashion editor).

On the catwalks, however, there was an abundance of leather, suede and wool - fabrics normally associated with cooler weather - as well as heavy coats and knitwear. To work out why, you only need to venture into a boutique on via Montenapoleone in Milan or the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris. It's only just starting to heat up in Paris and summer clothes are already marked down and winter stock is being delivered into stores. It's a particularly absurd situation when it comes to menswear because as any fashion retailer will tell you, men tend to shop when they need something (as opposed to women who will buy things at the beginning of the season and are happy to store them away until it's right to wear them). In other words, men on the whole tend to wait until it's hot before they think about their summer wardrobe.

It's a cycle that is largely dictated by the big American department stores that need a regular supply of new products to entice customers into stores and which are still being driven by discounting. The earlier you go on sale, the sooner you need new products. One fashion executive with a major Italian label told The Australian that the 2012 spring summer collection just shown in Milan will start to be delivered to stores in October - long before the northern hemisphere has even felt the beginnings of winter. But Milan is all about business and the Italian designers that show here are more than happy to oblige their biggest customers.

Ermenegildo Zegna presented a collection that didn't stray too far from the brand's core product of suits but it did rework them in lighter fabrics such as silk blends, cotton and linen in pale blues, greens, a beautiful dusty mauve and beige shades. This was a more relaxed approach to the businessman's uniform with crinkled finishes and silk scarves and crew neck knits instead of a shirt and tie, however the silhouette was still cut close to the body.

Giorgio Armani presented two of his best menswear collections in recent years for his mainline brand and the Emporio Armani diffusion label. Both collections were concise, well edited and very wearable. Armani used light fabrics and colours such as grey and various shades of blue in relaxed styles. When knitwear appeared in the collection it was super light. For the Giorgio Armani label he worked in a geometric motif throughout the collection, which he said in his show notes was designed to "elongate and streamline the silhouette",

Burberry has prided itself on its use of technology and innovation but this Burberry Prorsum collection by Christopher Bailey seemed almost anti-technology in its use of handcrafts and materials such as woven raffia. Parkas, coats and jackets were trimmed with raffia or crochet and beaded collars. The knitwear and T-shirts were colourful, some embellished with wooden beads. Shirts were appliqued with felt and trousers were made from ikat fabrics. Under Bailey's skilled direction the whole thing avoided looking as if it had been done by the clever hands at home.

Frida Giannini presented one of her best menswear collections for Gucci to date, apparently inspired by Michael Caine's character in the film Alfie. It's hardly an original starting point for a collection but the inspiration is never as important as the clothes themselves and here was a range every young Hollywood actor is going to want to wear. Sharply tailored jackets, cropped skinny trousers and some knockout evening jackets in bold checks and gold lame had that one combination that all menswear designers strive for: formality and comfort.

Prada's playful collection for spring-summer 2011 was a smash hit for men and women and the menswear collection Miuccia Prada showed for 2012 was just as upbeat. Golf was the inspiration here, which translated into check tailoring, vibrant cartoon-like prints that depicted golf and other leisure activities and, of course, golf-inspired shoes in colour combinations that would make real golf shoes look boring by comparison.

Now Prada is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, commercial success trumps critical acclaim for a collection, but this show was far from a safe outing and it showed the two ideals do not need to be mutually exclusive.

If Milan is all about business then Paris is where the more avant -garde fashion is on display. It would be hard to imagine a Rick Owens collection on a Milan catwalk. In Paris Owens showed a collection heavy on androgyny, with men in long skirts, tunics and lots of draped fabric.

Owens wasn't the only designer who tried, yet again, to get men into skirts. Givenchy showed pleated short skirts in a bird of paradise print that would look great on a tennis court on, say, Serena Williams. Officially Yohji Yamamoto's models were wearing culottes, but they were so wide and billowing they resembled flowing skirts. It's hard not to think some of these Paris collections will be worn by women when critics such as Cathy Horyn from The New York Times declared it was "a good day for men's fashion" after seeing the Comme des Garcons show. Horyn particularly liked what she described as "a pink knee-length shirt worn under a double-breasted coat". Actually, Cathy, a knee-length shirt is, in this writer's opinion at least, a dress.

Hopefully Horyn saw Kim Jones's first collection for Louis Vuitton the day before. For the past three years Jones has been the creative director for the British brand Dunhill and in his debut collection as the men's style director for Louis Vuitton he showed a collection that was inspired by travel.

The collection, inspired by Peter Beard's African adventures, featured everything from city suits to shorts, safari looks and slouchy pyjama-like ensembles. Jones presented some great bags that changed shape, transforming into smaller or bigger carriers. The classic Vuitton Damier check was reinterpreted in a bold Masai-inspired version in red, which added a punch of colour to this very wearable collection.

Wearability can sometimes be a dirty word in fashion, but not at Hermes. Veronique Nichanian has been designing Hermes menswear for more than 20 years and is a very rare breed in fashion: a woman designing men's fashion. Hermes's men's collections don't set out to rock the boat design-wise. It's about elegance, comfort and, perhaps most importantly, touch.

The fabrics used in this collection look so luxurious you wanted to reach out and touch them as they came down the runway. Fine-gauge turtleneck knits in wool crepe were teamed with cotton shorts, suits were in seersucker cotton, pants in linen jersey and T-shirts in the softest lambskin suede.

In the courtyard of what was once a convent in the 6th arrondissement there was scarcely a man in the audience who wasn't thinking how something would look on him. That was a good day for men's fashion.