JordanLuca, Neil Barrett and Emporio Armani liven up the second day of men’s fashion shows

Alongside Dolce & Gabbana and Fendi, the second day of men’s fashion shows dedicated to Spring-Summer 2025 reserved some nice surprises. Several designers have revisited the codes of the men’s wardrobe, bringing a breath of fresh air to the Milanese catwalks, with original proposals: from the non-conformist punk couture silhouettes of JordanLuca, to the chic and intelligent everyday life of Neil Barrett, passing through the free and casual style of Emporio Armani.

JordanLuca caused a sensation, awakening a Milan Fashion Week that seemed to be dozing on the wave of rather classic and sober summer collections. With their punk Iroquois or pointed Statue of Liberty-style crests, their tight cycling shorts and bodysuits, and their curved stiletto-heeled boots or ankle boots, the models looked really good.

This display of bravado is underlined by the square shoulders of the extra-large jackets, over which the pointed, oversized collars of certain polo shirts extend. Or by the way of getting noticed by wearing an unexpected tweed bomber jacket à la Chanelshiny 3D printed jeans or a stiff-looking Marcel shirt with a starched look, whose shoulders rise from the body as if levitating.

The Englishman Jordan Bowen and the Italian Luca Marchetto – the creative duo behind this streetwear-couture brand founded in London in 2018 – have fun, continuing to renew and enrich their register of fun finds, from season to season . This time they took inspiration from the world of dance, specifically creating bold ballerinas with very pointed toes and studded soles.

For women, tutus in tulle and other materials mark the waistline, blending in with the suit jackets that extend into dresses, while large bows pull the front part of the garment towards the back, which thus separates and opens onto the chest. Large squares of latex or silk are draped over the body to create sensual clothing.

On the business front, the brand managed to remain in line with the previous season, despite “a dramatic moment for the market”, especially thanks to the viral success of its pissed jeans, equipped with pee stain effect. “What has changed is that we now have a lot of private orders from celebrities,” says Luca Marchetto.

Return to a more traditional style from Neil Barrett, but no less refined with, here too, a series of discoveries that are as playful as they are functional. It all boils down, as often happens with the English designer, to the construction, the attention to detail and the careful choice of materials, which this season draw on the feminine and evening register. “These fabrics give a different light to the clothes,” explains the designer, who replaces nylon with taffeta to create ultra-light windbreakers and sensual mini-shorts. Silk is used to make shiny trousers, moiré for jackets, silk duchesses for sweatshirts and cashmere to weave knitwear, tank tops and comfortable pullovers.

Barrett continues his work looking for solutions to make life easier for his customers by helping them “dress well, with style and effortlessly”. He makes clever two-in-one pieces, with a white T-shirt sticking out like a trompe-l’oeil from a knitted sweater, cardigan, jacket or other T-shirt. Note, in particular, the shirt in which the traditional vertical lines fade towards the bottom as if worn by the sun. Another Neil Barrett touch: putting fake pockets on anoraks, sweaters and shirts, for a touch of class. Finally, to lighten the upper parts of the garments, it equips them with sleeve straps to facilitate adjusting the length of the sleeves and shortening them in hot weather.

Neil Barrett therefore presented a clean and elegant collection, composed of well-cut essential pieces, defining a new fresh and modern silhouette. “With details borrowed from the sartorial world I want to elevate the everyday wardrobe. They are apparently simple details, but which are carefully thought out and make the difference,” notes the designer.

At Emporio, Giorgio Armani’s young line, whose show closed the second day of Milan menswear with panache, we find the same minimalism and great attention to detail, but with a fundamentally different spirit. Everything is much less urban, and looks towards a hot summer in contact with nature. The gaze is pointed towards the horizon, sweeping over the vast meadows of the Camargue, but also reaches the dunes and plains of the desert. The collection seems to have been designed to ideally fit into those majestic landscapes crossed by wild horses, which gallop in images positioned all around the catwalk.

Watch the parade

The models adopt a relaxed, country style, with linen dresses sometimes embroidered with fine flowers and ears of wheat, openwork knitwear, mineral stone necklaces, woven raffia bags and picnic baskets and straw hats. They look to the equestrian world, wearing trousers with shepherd’s boots, sometimes equipped with hunter’s straps, with some leather garments and suede jackets.

The clothes slide on the skin softly and lightly. The loose, collarless shirts close just at the waist, where they cross freely, leaving the chest exposed, just like in V-shaped pullovers with a deep neckline. The high waist of the trousers is turned inside out, as if they were too loose and tightened by an improvised belt. The deconstructed jackets with oversized volumes are worn next to the skin, accentuating the casual look.

An oriental vein runs through the collection in the wide and light trousers closed with a zip or tight at the calf, in the zouave style, in the Tunisian shashia style hats, in the series of collarless safari jackets with large pockets revisited in wider proportions, while for the evening the Emporio man puts on tops studded with sequins and stones or small embroidered jackets with mandarin collars. The color palette is neutral, crossing all the shades of earth, sand and nature. Large sunflowers are embroidered on a cardigan, in reference to Cézanne and the landscapes of Provence.

For the grand finale, the decor changes completely, the horses give way to large fields of lavender, while mauve and purple tones dominate the final look. Elegant women in floral dresses come forward accompanied by muscular men, dressed only in shorts and leather suspenders, each carrying large baskets full of lavender. Giorgio Armani, accompanied by his niece Silvana Armani and his right-hand man Leo Dell’Orco, only has to go out to gather applause.