Legs bared for annual No Pants39 commute MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2014

Models present creations for house Ermenegildo . Fashion Week seeks renewal

t was out with the old, and in with the new as Milan Fashion JULIAN ZIGERLI Week got under way Saturday. Jil Sander is gone - again - and Swiss Julian Zigerli’s fifth collection ever made its debut at Ia team, rather than a single star, has filled her shoes. Adding Giorgio ’s theater - part of the Milan headliner’s efforts to to the sense of renewal, another young designer got his Milan support young talent and breathe new life into ’s debut. And the National Chamber introduced its fashion capital. Zigerli’s looks were part busy bee, new CEO, a former advertising executive whose job is to both part urban slouch. If that seems a contradiction, promote Milan’s image as a fashion capital and help boost sales consider the honeycomb pattern that was a con- of Italian luxury fashion. “I am here to facilitate growth for all the stant motif in the collection, appearing printed brands, not just the big ones,” Jane Reeve said during an open- on easy track suits or knitted into turtle necks ing day lunch. “I want to foster teamwork.” and leisure suits. The looks were finished with The appointment of Reeve, a British citizen who has been liv- hotel-style slippers emblazoned with his logo. ing in Milan for more than 20 years, is part of the chamber’s Backstage, Zigerli swept away a tear of joy and efforts to relaunch Italy’s fashion system, which has suffered relief after his well-received Milan premier. “There because of Italy’s economic woes and growing competition are no words. It was truly great.” Zigerli said he from other fashion capitals. It has been the smaller fashion hous- chose the hexagon motif because it is a perfect es with less access to the export market that have suffered the geometrical shape that comes from nature. “It is also most. The chamber is forecasting a 5 percent increase in global what the bees make,” he said. The 29-year-old Zurich sales because of increases in exports and signs that the domestic native has previously shown in Berlin, where he studied market is stabilizing. and where he says the pressure and scrutiny is less intense. “I think my professor is here as well,” he said. “I can’t wait to DOLCE&GABBANA hear what she says.” North invades south in the designing duo Dolce&Gabbana’s menswear collection for next winter. The cold weather looks JIL SANDER took their cue from Medieval courts after the Norman conquest For the first time in a long while, no of Sicily, the designers’ eternal muse. Fabrics and yarns were one came out to take a bow at warm and wooly, colors dark and royal. In Domenico Dolce and the end of the Jil Sander show. Stefano Gabbana’s Norman court, the king wears a thick, sturdy The founder of the epony- top bearing the image of a king, perhaps a treasured predeces- mous fashion house sor, over slim-fitting trousers. Bejeweled gloves, slippers and, of announced her resignation course, a golden crown, finish the look. For a tour of his lands, for a third time this fall. there is a heavy sheepskin coat. Knights wear a knitted wool cap, Instead of naming a succes- which is embroidered with sparkling studs to mimic chain mail, sor, the fashion house said a over a furry gray jacket and strapped ankle boots. team assembled by Sander before she left would carry VERSACE on. The new team stayed Italian fashion house Versace’s cowboy-themed menswear true to the house’s trade- collection for fall 2014 was outrageously fun, even by Versace mark aesthetic, showing a standards. “Our cowboy is macho, he’s a biker... he doesn’t have a clean, moodily colored fall horse,” designer Donatella Versace said backstage after the show. menswear collection. Donatella’s cowboys wear their boots with sharp, tight suits dec- Sander’s trademark deftness orated with rhinestone horseshoes and cactus plants on both with luxurious fabrics was front and back. These cowhands head out on the town wearing evident in thick overcoats red leather chaps over their jeans, or sometimes just over their and jackets with surfaces bandanna-print underwear. Cheeky indeed! crafted into an eye-catching “packing bubble” texture. JOHN VARVATOS Coats and boxy jackets were Just because Kiss glammed-it down the runway at the John worn over high-waisted Varvatos menswear preview for next winter does not mean they trousers, paired with thick- are slaves to fashion. Gene Simmons, who is still wagging his soled, chunky Oxfords for a tongue at audiences 40 years after Kiss released its first album, vibe that was both relaxed says fashion for him “to be an individual and not to be a lem- and classic. The show’s eye- ming.” Singer and guitarist Paul Stanley said he’s not a fan of fash- catcher were pants in a shim- ion “because it’s really temporary. Fashion is something that mering metallic fabric that changes every year to sell products. Style is timeless.” They both looked as fluid as liquid mer- agree that Varvatos, whom they met during fashion week last cury. The fashion crowd year when they happened to be playing in Milan, had rock ‘n’ roll applauded enthusiastically, but credentials. “I knew John’s clothes for years because they have all no one took a bow. those elements that I love in clothes, which are timeless,” Stanley said. “There is a style that goes back to some of the great rock ‘n’ COSTUME NATIONAL roll bands of the 60s.” Costume National’s menswear looks for next winter made deft ZEGNA use of deep, masculine colors like Designer Stefan Pilati, in his second full year at Zegna, looked electric blue, burned orange, to the cosmos for aesthetic input, but kept his latest collection oxblood, eggplant and emerald firmly down to Earth. The drama and sweep of the collection green. Boxy jackets in heavy fabrics came from the most unsuspecting of places, like the staple scarf. like felt in black or gray were worn Pilati’s scarves were not mere accents, but part of the architec- over big, soft sweaters in maroon or ture of the collection. They appeared to be extensions of blue and paired with skinny trousers. sweaters and jackets, either knitted into and wrapped around a Black and white optical print pants sweater neckline or sewn into the jacket. The neckline, more were a nod to the designer’s geometric often the plaything of womenswear, was showered with atten- shapes shown in the spring-summer col- tion. Turtlenecks seemed to sweep upwards, and scarves were lection. For cold weather, there were black crisscrossed for a wrap-around look. Pilati, who spent eight years shearling bomber jackets and overcoats in “eco fur.” “I was as head designer at Yves Saint Laurent before returning to his inspired by the Berlin of David Bowie in the mid-1970s,” designer native Milan in 2012, commissioned astrophysicists to chart a said backstage after the show. The overall vibe was journey from space to the interior of Zegna’s new City Life Palace, loose and relaxed, with what few suits were visible on the run- creating the sensation of being catapulted from space and then way being shown with brightly-colored sweaters rather than back again. The designer combined formal and sporty looks - say with a shirt and tie. Models wore ankle-high Beatle boots with a short quilted jacket or sweater over a suit jacket. Roomy quilt- what looked like no socks, and a few carried leather portfolios ed anoraks offer a cozy warmth while short bomber jackets were dangling from the wrist by a strap. — AP offered with fur trim or notched collars. The color palate was mostly dark and formal - blues, grays, blacks and burgundy with some white and camel.

Models present creations for fashion house Versace as part of Autumn/Winter 2014 Milan Collections during the Men’s fashion week on January 11, 2014 in Milan. — AFP photos