Neil Barrett won the second day of Milan Men’s Fashion Week for the best shorts: a pleated, knee-length style loosely cut from a light techno stretch fabric, they came with a second hem peeking from underneath.
More ingenious details followed.
The elbow garters embedded in the crewnecks, sweats and duchesse pajama-like shorts, to be easily worn with the sleeves rolled up “give you an instant attitude,” Barrett explained. The white pocket squares — “emblems of refinement from a suit,” as he characterized them — were cloned (his words) from suits and repurposed on T-shirts, sweaters and Harrington jackets.
They all encapsulated what the designer’s spring collection was about, the elevation of the everyday. “Function can become decoration,” the show notes read.
The handsomely tailored blazers and cuffed pants — a “technical suit” if you like — as well as stiff-looking baggy jeans with a front pleat, taffeta car coats, running shorts crafted from duchesse were a full sample of menswear tropes that one can build the perfect understated, streamlined and neat wardrobe around.
Barrett is a consummate minimalist, but nonetheless prone to add some flourishes provided they come from utility. Even in his minimalist land of subtraction, his aim to create “something familiar but new” by taking elements out of context came across loud and clear.