MILAN, ITALY — By the time the spring-summer 2010 men's Fashion Week in Milan wrapped up Tuesday, the runway had showcased enough old-school macho archetypes to form its own (infinitely more stylish) version of the Village People.
While several designers riffed generally on the concept of the nomad and the loner, others were more specific. Versace enlisted the foreign legion, Vivienne Westwood got on board with pirates and ne'er-do-wells, and an unusually subdued Roberto Cavalli rode the wave with the half-clad diver lad. On the final day, D&G tied it all up in a neat little bow with a London-meets-longhorn collection the designers dubbed "Brit cowboy."
The Vivienne Westwood Man collection used 1920s Hollywood (think Douglas Fairbanks in "The Mark of Zorro") and the early voyages of luxury ocean liners as inspiration, a combination that yielded well-dressed pirates, turban-wrapped rakes, men in Zorro masks and some fellows in face paint that brought to mind Heath Ledger's Joker character from "The Dark Knight" -- right down to the red, grimace-enhancing face paint.
The nautical theme was hammered home with Westwood's print-heavy collection, which included anchor-patterned sweaters, Hawaiian prints and a skull-and-crossbones design with the slogan "Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die," over which the words "Stop Climate Change" were scrawled. The footwear was particularly noteworthy: traditional silhouette saddle shoes and tasseled loafers covered in polka dots.
Versace drew on the notion of the (presumably French) foreign legion, wrapping in the desert culture of the Tuareg -- nomadic inhabitants of the Saharan interior -- jettisoning the stiff formality of traditional military garb, a perennial motif in menswear, for flowing tunics, and capturing the colors of sun-bleached uniforms.
There were a few head-scratching moments, like the black trousers with the tasseled side seams that came across as more toreador than Tuareg and a collection of stitched-leather belt pouches that looked suspiciously like BlackBerry holders. But for the most part, the wrinkled linen jackets, flowing djellabas under suit coats and fuller-cut trousers -- in shades of sand, khaki and white with the occasional pop of purple -- made for the most restrained and refreshing men's collection from the house of Versace in many a season.
