Colour Poppin’ in the Bleak Midwinter

It’s that time of year when men the world over don’t take any notice of what the collections in Milan optimistically present as new wardrobe staples, and when womenswear trends from 5 years ago find themselves rehashed for a male audience.  Like many womenswear fads before it, the colour-pop raincoat (popularised by scourge-of-frowns, Martine McCutcheon, in the early noughties) has finally made its way onto the backs of the 14 year old boys stalking the runways of Milan men’s fashion week.

Usually menswear means black and navy for winter and khaki and white for summer. Not any more. Burberry Prorsum saw overcoats in orange and cobalt while Raf Simons brightened up the Jil Sander runway, in a continuation of his gaudy SS11 shows, with vivid wool tailoring and sports tinged leisurewear. McQueen did away with the autumnal tweed vibes of last winter as Sarah Burton experimented with military colour blocking. Her minimal take on ‘historical hero’ was less colourful than Simons’ and Bailey’s efforts, but certainly popped.

It was Nicola Formicetti’s minimalist cyber-bondage-tailoring-meets-abattoir-in-space collection as Creative Director of Thierry Mugler that was the most raptly anticipated show in Paris. He definitely got the get-something-orange-in-there memo from WGSN as we saw vivid total–look tangerine suits amidst the Matrix-esque gloom. These designers do have a point though. Maybe it’s time we started cheering ourselves up by working against the grey weather in northern Europe.

Let’s bring a little summery high-visibility to help part the clouds.

If these men’s collections are a prelude to what we’re about to see in the ready-to-wear shows across New York, London, Milan and Paris – you’d better have your sunnies handy. Winter just got brighter.

- Aaron Francis Walker