JordanLuca, Magliano, and other designers to note.
Emerging designers aren’t exactly what comes to mind when you think about Milan men’s fashion week. The city favors heritage and history, with established brands being the norm. But this season, with major names like Fendi and Gucci sitting out, the stage was set to celebrate independent labels. A new youthful wave of creativity has emerged with a sense of self-assuredness, embracing risk and designing clothes in their own way.
Take, for example, JordanLuca. Founded by Jordan Bowen and Luca Marchetto, the Italian-British designers shot to infamy for their viral pee-stained jeans. This time around they leaned less on stunt moments and instead presented a collection that was a love letter to British style with elements of punk. Classic fabrics from Harris Tweed and Marton Mills mixed with new interpretations of the staple silhouettes like the duffle coat, Barbour-style toppers, and a double-belted take on the trench. But the real surprise of the evening? A finale of a lifetime — literally — as Bowen and Marchetto staged a surprise wedding, exchanging vows in front of guests. “Love is, for us, this experience of life with you,” said the duo. “In today’s fragmented world, [it] becomes more essential and selfless than ever as we venture together towards what the future holds for us.”
In the case of Magliano, the vibe had its own sense of romance, albeit in a poetic sense. Creative director, Luca Magliano, spoke of “a legendary threesome” between sea, night, and winter. You’ll find ribbed cotton jackets, transparent mohair trousers, and padded crepe-de-chine outerwear that evoked a sense of nudity. In this world, sleepwear and underpinnings are elevated and flaunted. Notably, the runway also marks the debut of a new line, Nudo By Magliano, dedicated to the basics, reinterpreted with the designer’s raw stylistic signature. It’s easy to see why he won the LVMH Karl Lagerfeld Prize in 2023.
Tapping into sentiment emerged as a trend this week, with Federico Cina’s nostalgia-tinged collection that celebrated his grandparents. Presented not as a show, but as a series of tableaux where models performed a singular task, be it saying one word into a microphone or peeling oranges, it was fashion performance art. As for the collection itself, Cina drew inspiration from everyday clothing, be it loungewear, work attire, or garments for special occasions, to create a wardrobe of trenches, blazers, and sculptural coats to be worn from morning to evening.
Speaking of nostalgia, PDF by Domenico Formichetti drew from the gritty vibrancy of 90s and 2000s hip-hop — a golden age of music videos that defined a generation. The brand’s first runway show nodded to the style moments of the time with oversized jerseys, Timberlands, and baggy denim. Clothes served as armor versus aesthetic with looks that spoke of resilience, aspiration, and rebellion. Exaggerated proportions and layered silhouettes take cues from snowboarding gear, merging technical innovation with streetwear’s raw energy. “At its core, this collection is about hybridity,” said Formichetti. “It’s about how cultures collide—hip-hop and snowboarding, the streets and the mountains—and how those intersections create something entirely new. I wanted to design pieces that carry the energy of a music video but function like performance gear.”
Performance and function also seeped into Mordecai’s latest collection titled The Intelligence of Others. Creative Director Ludovico Bruno welcomed practicality over bizarreness. In his realistic yet conceptual vision, duvets are like shields, ready to protect and provide comfort, thanks to their softness and enveloping quality. Bruno uses multifunctional garments that adapt to the needs of those who wear them. The same can also be said of Hevò with pieces created to respond to a world where climate change and social dynamics require a different approach. Their aesthetic can be described as quiet luxury but given their environmentally friendly slang and unique mix of technical with tailored designs, they reflect a new, innovative energy in Milan. Perhaps a quieter season was exactly what we needed for new gems to shine. There’s room for both well-known brands and newcomers, acting as a spokesperson for a (fashion) democracy that, in other forms, seems to be at risk elsewhere.
