Dress to Recess: Milan Menswear

There were a lot of adjective being thrown around about this year's menswear collections in Milan: safe, stark, minimal, gloomy, black. While we're largely OK with a dark wardrobe year round (slimming, remember?), much of the classification was due to Italian collections seemingly being created in response to the economy and the doom that has come with recession. Are we surprised? No. Fashion tends to be either one of two things: a response to the times, or an escape from them. And this season in Milan, it was largely the former.

There were a lot of adjective being thrown around about this year's menswear collections in Milan: safe, stark, minimal, gloomy, black. While we're largely OK with a dark wardrobe year round (slimming, remember?), much of the classification was due to Italian collections seemingly being created in response to the economy and the doom that has come with recession. Are we surprised? No. Fashion tends to be either one of two things: a response to the times, or an escape from them. And this season in Milan, it was largely the former.