Florence ? Get ready for a new era of boom times in men's fashion. A whole slew of high level brands are now investing huge sums in menswear; a major league bet based on the belief that a generation of millions of men in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) markets are about to spend large sums on building proper gentlemanly wardrobes.
The signs are abundantly clear - LVMH, the world's biggest luxury conglomerate - will launch the tony shoemaker Berluti as a fully fledged men's brand in 10 days time in Paris; while its biggest rival PPR completed the acquisition of famed Italian tailor Brioni this week, ushering in a new era this weekend in the Milan menswear runway season.
But on Wednesday, Jan. 11, in Florence, all eyes were on the house of Valentino, which staged its first men's show in a half decade - what turned out to be a hyper sophisticated display of voluminous tailoring, edgy juxtaposition and brilliant use of bonded materials.
The show, staged in the faded glory of the beautiful Palazzo Corsini, whose Renaissance frescos have a ghostly charm due to being washed out by the 1966 flood of the Arno, making it an ideally opulent setting for this print free collection. Before a giant LED screen and audience dotted with scores of Tuscan nobility, Valentino's designers Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri sent out a gutsy collection - with subtly voluminous silhouette used in a garments that combined athletic sportswear elements with haute gamme tailoring.
The show opened with a half dozen curvy-shouldered coats in the duo's signature masculine obsession of mixing fabrics - most notably felt wool torsos with lambskin sleeves. These were all paired with slim fitted pants with darts, exactly the sort that Roman-born Piccioli himself wears.
But the standouts included mini cabans in combinations of knit cashmere fronts with felted cashmere shoulders and arms, or a sensational spy trench coat in deerskin bonded over denim. A palette of ink, deep sea blue and anthracite suggested a moody midnight in Rome, the brand's hometown. Above all, there was a great sense of designer's targeting a modern consumer keen for classy sophistication but also open to path breaking silhouettes and tailoring.
Not all the accessories worked and there were a tad too many micro suits in moss green, lending a minimalist leprechaun air to the show. But, over all, this was a smart meeting of Italian savoir faire and intelligently experimental design.
"Modern sophistication," commented Piccioli taking his bow in a palace on the other side of the Arno from where Valentino staged his very first runway show almost exactly a half-century ago.
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