It was a season awash with fluidity, slouchy silhouettes, and plays on volume — and nobody does it better than Milan’s emperor of soft, Giorgio Armani. He seized the moment with gusto, sending out a polished collection in a powdery palette of dusty blue, peppermint leaf and lavender.
Armani kept a close eye on proportion, pairing wide, pleat-front trousers with curve-hugging cardigan knits. There were unstructured jackets galore, in linen, a shadowy herringbone weave, seersucker and other crinkly finishes. The designer pushed structure – or the lack thereof – to its outer boundaries with printed silk pajama suits.
“This is male lightness,” Armani said. “There was less of everything; we don’t need that much, little but well-chosen. Materials are much less synthetic, cotton mixed with silk.” Even his leathers were light and low-key as in a slim, dusty blue double-breasted jacket, or bomber style with a subtle argyle pattern picked across it.
Not surprisingly in this season of slouch, knitwear took center stage, Armani’s pullovers were dotted with diamond shapes or adorned with stripes. Overall, it was a strong Armani effort and one of the standouts in this slouchiest of Milan seasons.
