Machine Gun Kelly makes his runway debut, J Balvin goes regal in Dolce & Gabbana, Roberto Bolle brings Alta Sartoria to life, and Alton Mason represents modern Italian elegance at Vogue World in Milan.
Milan Fashion Week opened with something considerably bigger than a traditional runway show.
On September 22, Vogue World 2026: Milano transformed the magnificent Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II into a celebration of Italian fashion, craftsmanship, performance and culture. The fifth edition of Vogue World explored the relationship between the handmade and the technological, moving through five thematic acts that looked at Italian creativity from the Renaissance and industrialization through Made in Italy and toward fashion’s imagined future.
And while the enormous cast crossed genders, generations and disciplines, the menswear provided some of the evening’s most entertaining contrasts.
The clothes moved from workwear and relaxed sportswear to immaculate tailoring, brocade, ceremonial dress and full-blown Alta Sartoria fantasy. Looking exclusively at the men in the show, Vogue World presented an unusually broad portrait of what menswear can be in 2026.
Machine Gun Kelly Makes His Vogue World Runway Debut
One of the show’s biggest surprises came courtesy of MGK, formerly known as Machine Gun Kelly, who traded his front-row status for the runway.
Vogue confirms that this was MGK’s Vogue World runway debut, following his attendance at Vogue World: Hollywood in 2025. He appeared behind Alex Consani dressed in a blazing neon-orange Byblos suit with Camper shoes.
And orange might actually be an understatement.
Seen in the runway images, the ensemble combines the attitude of a utility uniform with the impact of a fashion statement: oversized proportions, multiple pockets, belting and graphic detailing create something between workwear, motorsport and late-’90s/early-2000s club fashion.
Against the ornate architecture of the Galleria, it was deliberately impossible to ignore.
J Balvin Goes Full Dolce & Gabbana
Then came J Balvin, representing a completely different vision of masculine spectacle.
The Colombian superstar appeared in Dolce & Gabbana, with Vogue noting that his appearance came during the show’s opening section.
From the images, the transformation is dramatic: richly patterned tailoring, lustrous surfaces and elaborate ornamentation replace the understated wardrobe surrounding much of the show.
This is menswear designed to be seen.
The fitted silhouette and historical richness of the fabric recall the decorative traditions that Vogue World was explicitly celebrating. Rather than treating embellishment as something outside conventional masculinity, the look makes ornament the entire point.
Roberto Bolle Turns Alta Sartoria Into Performance
Few people could embody the meeting point between the human body, Italian artistry and clothing better than Roberto Bolle.
Vogue had already revealed that the La Scala étoile would take part in a special ballet performance choreographed by Laccio, specifically connecting Milan’s tradition of elegance with the event’s emphasis on human creativity.
For Fashionably Male, however, the fashion moment is equally compelling.
Bolle appears in the imagery wearing extraordinary Dolce & Gabbana Alta Sartoria, transforming the runway into something closer to theater.
The look combines a richly decorated gold bodice with voluminous burgundy trousers and a sweeping floor-length cape. It feels simultaneously Renaissance, operatic and unmistakably Dolce & Gabbana.
And on a dancer’s physique, the clothing behaves differently.
Rather than merely displaying the craftsmanship on a static body, Bolle gives the garment movement and ceremony. The cape becomes part costume, part architecture.
It’s an ideal expression of Vogue World’s larger argument: however advanced fashion technology becomes, clothes ultimately acquire emotion through the person wearing them.
Alton Mason in Brunello Cucinelli
At the opposite end of the menswear spectrum stood Alton Mason in Brunello Cucinelli.
Where Dolce & Gabbana offered decoration and MGK brought saturated workwear, Mason represented the quieter luxury that has become another defining language of contemporary Italian menswear.
The screenshots show plenty of this softer approach throughout the cast: relaxed tailoring, fluid trousers, loosely constructed jackets, muted neutrals and clothing that seems designed around movement rather than rigidity.
On Mason, that philosophy feels particularly natural.
It demonstrates that luxury doesn’t necessarily require ornament. Fabric, proportion, construction and the way a garment sits on the body can do all the talking.
From Workwear to the Italian Suit
That’s ultimately what makes the men’s casting in Vogue World: Milano interesting.
There isn’t one definition of the Italian man.
Across the runway we see businessmen, skaters, artisans, performers, models and characters who seem to have simply wandered into the Galleria carrying shopping bags, boxes, instruments or luggage.
Some wear oversized hoodies and loose trousers. Others appear in polos and chinos. There are plaid outerwear pieces, uniforms, traditional tailoring, dinner jackets and sharply cut double-breasted suits.
And then suddenly comes brocade.
The progression visible in the images feels almost like a compressed history of menswear: labor, leisure, tailoring, ceremony and fantasy all occupying the same runway.
Particularly strong are the suits.
There are elongated gray jackets with fluid trousers, softly tailored separates mixing different shades of gray and taupe, pristine light-gray double-breasted tailoring and traditional black suiting. None needs a radical silhouette to make an impression.
The emphasis instead falls on cut, fabric and the wearer.
The Men Became Part of the Story
Vogue World has never functioned exactly like a conventional fashion show.
For Milano, Vogue organized the production around thematic acts—The Artisanal Revolution, The Industrial Revolution, Made in Italy, The Age of Intelligence and The Imagination Revolution—using clothing, performers and staging to trace a dialogue between handcraft and technology.
That explains why the casting feels intentionally eclectic.
Instead of 40 near-identical models marching through a designer’s seasonal proposition, the men become characters inside a much larger fashion narrative.
A skateboarder rolls through in oversized streetwear. A gentleman crosses the floor carrying hatboxes and luggage. Another man appears dressed like a chef. Formal tailoring follows casual sportswear. Models mingle with performers and celebrities.
It’s Milan as theater.
And appropriately, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II—positioned between the Duomo and La Scala—provided the stage. Vogue selected the landmark precisely for its relationship to Milanese commerce, culture and everyday life.
Front Row Meets Runway
Of course, half the spectacle of Vogue World happens beyond the actual catwalk.
Vogue’s live coverage documented a substantial celebrity crowd arriving at the Galleria before the fashion presentation, while surprise celebrity appearances were incorporated directly into the runway itself.
That collapsing of the traditional boundaries between model, musician, dancer, celebrity and guest has become part of the Vogue World formula.
In Milan, it worked particularly well for menswear.
MGK could become a model for an evening. J Balvin could step into Dolce & Gabbana fantasy. Roberto Bolle could turn couture-level menswear into movement. Alton Mason could remind everyone why an exceptional model can make even restrained tailoring command attention.
All four men represented completely different ideas of masculinity—and completely different possibilities for getting dressed.
Made by Hand, Brought to Life by Men
Vogue World: Milano arrived at an interesting moment for fashion.
Technology can generate imagery, predict trends and increasingly participate in the creative process, but the evening’s central proposition was resolutely human: craftsmanship still matters.
Vogue Italia’s Francesca Ragazzi described the event as a celebration of the Made in Italy tradition of genius and craftsmanship at precisely the moment when artificial intelligence is changing the creative landscape.
The menswear made that concept surprisingly easy to understand.
A beautifully cut gray suit. A piece of brocade. A cape sweeping behind a ballet dancer. An orange utility suit moving through one of Europe’s grandest shopping arcades.
The clothes may begin with an idea, a pattern, a loom or a machine.
But they don’t truly come alive until somebody puts them on.
And at Vogue World: Milano, the men certainly did.
