The models wandered around the intimate setting of the historic headquarters in via Borgonuovo, far from the frenzy of show fashion, on the fourth day of Men's Fashion Week in Milan, which ends on Tuesday.

What is the message of this fall-winter 2023-2024 collection?

"Calm and serenity," the veteran of Italian fashion told AFP, still tanned, white hair and blue eyes.

Giorgio Armani greets the public after his show for the fall-winter 2023-2024 collection in Milan, January 16, 2023 © MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

The silhouette of the Armani man is sophisticated, but supple, the cuts are refined and the materials noble and fluid, such as cashmere, alpaca, velvet or curly wool.

"I like to think of the Milan of old palaces, atriums, gardens that we can glimpse, I liked to bring back this serenity" to breathe it into the new collection, explained Giorgio Armani to the press. from the show.

If the parade takes place in an imaginary way in the streets of old Milan, the colors of the fabrics are borrowed from nature: gray, beige, greige and green dominate, with a few touches of ruby ​​red.

A model presents a creation by Giorgio Armani during a Fashion Week show in Milan, January 16, 2023 © MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

Classic corduroy cardigans or jackets, matched with shirts or sweaters in the same tone, are worn over loose but refined trousers that promote freedom of movement.

playful spirit

Strict double-breasted jackets, tailor-made for business meetings, but with slightly puffy ties, classic suits with incorporated hoods... the master gives himself little offbeat notes.

Faux fur coats during the Giorgio Armani fashion show in Milan, January 16, 2023 © MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

"The rigid whole is not right, you always need a side of transgression, a little relaxation," said Giorgio Armani.

And always with "the desire to rethink the classic in modern terms".

In this playful spirit, he designed a long faux tiger fur coat, not recommended for important work meetings, he quipped.

But the men imagined by Giorgio Armani also come out of their sumptuous homes in sportswear, colorful down jackets and quilted pants, while keeping a refined look.

Then, to bewitching music by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi, Armani features five couples of models in sparkling evening wear, who embrace and kiss each other before going to the ball.

Five couples of models close the Giorgio Armani show in Milan, January 16, 2023 © MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

Closing the show in this way, "it's a precise choice because we are talking about a man and a woman who love each other", comments the designer.

According to him, it is an invitation to "show more gentleness in relationships".

- Cashmere flakes at Zegna -

A completely different setting awaited the guests of the Zegna show, at the other end of Milan: at the entrance to the exhibition hall, flakes of cashmere floated in a reconstructed inner tube, illustrating the first step that leads to clothing. finished.

The parade dedicated to Zegna's fall-winter 2023/24 collection in Milan, January 16, 2023 © MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

Cashmere, endlessly declined, is the common thread of the luxury brand's autumn-winter 2023/24 collection, the presentation of which closed the physical shows of Men's Fashion Week.

Pleated trousers are loose, to be combined with blazers without lapels and collars, cardigans, bomber jackets and sweaters with geometric patterns.

Models present Zegna creations during a fashion show in Milan, January 16, 2023 © MIGUEL MEDINA / AFP

The palette of colors imagined by artistic director Alessandro Sartori ranges from the ubiquitous grey, to red, passing through beige, yellow and brown.

Milan Fashion Week ends on Tuesday with digital presentations before this small world moves to Paris, for menswear and then haute couture shows.

© 2023 AFP