Milan Fashion Week

On what appeared to be a rain-slick gravel runway, designer Silvia Venturini Fendi sent out a menswear collection that was just as deceptively cool.

As the classical piano echoed through the expansive halls of the industrial venue of Milan's Via Tortona, Paris-based Damir Doma turned the crowd's attention to the simplicity of live instrumental music.

For a menswear brand like Canali, where excellence in fabrics, tailoring, and attention to details are at the core of their business, a runway show can be problematic. The nature of this sort of staging makes all those elements that much harder to appreciate.

Is capital-C consciousness compatible with capital-F fashion? You'd think, like, no: But the two certainly meet in Kean Etro, who oversees the masculine arm of his family's Puglia-rooted, Paisley-famed business. This show was yoked to the egg, "as a symbol of primordial life."

Maritime seems like an obvious theme for a summer collection, but Antonio Marras, armed with his signature arty, poetic touch, succeeded in creating something fresh and chic with his lineup

Andreas Melbostad took his spring collection in a more utilitarian direction, going big on compartments and multifunctional outerwear.