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Fashion

Milan Fashion Week Men 2025 is coming Soon

Milan Fashion Week Men 2025 starts January 17th. For all the coverage on the latest menswear style from Italy keep looking here.

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Fashion

A Sneak Peak Look

As we prepare for Mens Fashion Week Month have, here is a look from luxury brand Brett Johnson’s FF24 collection. We will get the lowdown on what Mr. Johnson has in mind for SS 25 at Milan Fashion Week.

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Fashion

Trends in 25

Trends 2025

The Luxury HandBag Bubble could pop as buyers turn away from overpriced labels.

Quiet Luxury continues to make inroads but expect a consumer shift away from big brands.

Hyper Fast Fashion will continue to dominate the headlines and consumer wallets.  The app shopping platforms show no signs of slowing down.

An easy one to predict, more brick-and-mortar stores will close.

Experience shopping will evolve, with more customers searching for expertise and personal retail.

Gender free style will slowly fade away as society shifts to a more conservative outlook.

Sustainable fashion, buyers are shopping based their wallets not their conscience.

Will young people go on the conformity road or more individualistic path?

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Fashion podcast

A Luxury Driving Addition

A luxury Before Tacky podcast episode from the past with the Italian based brand The Outlierman. Andrea talked about the ultimate driving addition for the motor dandy.

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Fashion

Milan Fashion Week Men Gives Good Face

Milan mens fashion is not only about style. The guys give at the presentation give good face. It will be a pleasure to cover the menswear event again this winter.

Milan Fashion Week starts January 17th.

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Fashion

Unpredictable, but I’m still going to Pitti Uomo

Pitti Uomo 2025 starts January 14th in Florence Italy.  The bi-annual menswear fashion trade fair showcases brands, style and trends from around the world. The fashion world faces strong headwinds as economies slow down, consumers cut back and geo-politics rattle business.  During a Zoom Call with Director of Communication Lapo Cianchi, the head gave one word, “Unpredictable” is the general outlook in the fashion world. The frank honesty was welcomed.  The business model for fashion trade show is being called into question. Since Covid, the attendance numbers have not recovered.  Even so, Pitti Uomo is a special gathering for men’s fashion lovers. 

With over 800 exhibitors signed, this upcoming apparel forum is an important event on the calendar.  MM6 from French house Maison Margiela hits the runway with “do not follow the rules” looks.   The other designer on the calendar, Satoshi Kuwata, comes to Tuscany with his label Setchu.  According to the brand’s web page “a fusion of two cultures” is the basis of the gender-neutral aesthetic.

Pitti Uomo Center
Center Court at Pitti Uomo’s Fortezza da Basso

Fashion and lifestyle concepts continue to evolve and merge.  Concepts of Community and Active Style of Living have emerged as consumers push more into experiences over brand linkage.  Producers, buyers and creatives seek shared passions with communal relationships and passions for the same ideas and values. 

Knees Up, a new concept store centered around Marathon enthusiasts has a prominent role at Pitti Uomo. The popular retail space located in East London offers fashion, coffee, sportswear and a place to recover from physical training.  Several athletic brands will exhibit with the first-time headliner in Fortezza da Basso.

The same questions linger, but have become more obvious. As customers move away from well-known masstige labels, will retailers take a chance on small brands?  Perhaps in these rattled times, a small bet can pay back big returns.   

Of course, we expect the traditional Dandy pageantry in the center courtyard.  

Pitti Uomo starts January 14th until 17th in Florence Italy. 

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Feature

The 47th Influencer

The Donald Trump influence on Fashion and Masculinity will be felt in the fashion industry.  Professionals should not underestimate the influence of a President’s outlook on style.  John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, the President went hatless on a cold January day, that styling decision placed a once accessory staple to the back of the men’s closet for a generation.  Men dropped the headwear.   Of course, his First Lady who needs no introduction, Jackie, is a timeless fashion icon.    

This election could mark an unexpected shift in many ways. People turned away from mass media for opinions.  Mainstream channels took a credibility hit.   Not only did they get it wrong by a September Issue Size Vogue issue, television commentators could not hide the disbelief on live television.   The fashion press misread voter sentiments, publications placed a bet on the wrong horse, then lost. What does that say about their insight?  No amount of deflection or no comments can cover up the scale of this pubic misread.  After putting Kamala Harris on numerous covers, no one expects Head Editor in charge Anna Wintour to have a public make up phone call to Melania Trump. 

Elle
Elle

Creative directors will need a rethink over the next months and years.  Since the term “gender” became a political toxin, consumers may move away from gender free fashion, out of style.  Sure, the houses can produce it. Who will buy the collections outside of four stores in NYC and SF? The marketing and messaging will take a different course.  Companies are ditching DEI initiatives faster than a Shein can copy a runway look.  Bottom line decisions trump social movements in boardrooms.   The 47th Unites States leader’s 75 million voters are too big a market to ignore.   

There could be a silver lining, style hope.   Brands could become counter reactionary, more underground.  The Gap was born in the counter culture of San Francisco.  The Mini Skirt shock off the feminine rigidity of the fifties.

The 47th head of the United States will leave an imprint on the way we dress, like or not. 

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Fashion

That Style in a Bowie Video

Rock superstar David Bowie wore a yellow suit in his 1983 music video single Modern Love. Everyone puts on black or brown. Only a confident man could wear this color and pull it off with such a level of finesse. After watching the concert performing video many times, this hue has been on my Style Bucket List for a long time. It’s time to cross this off the slate. With my fingers crossed for Spring 2025, I’ll be rocking like a legend.

Yellow Suit
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Fashion

Time For The Fall Jacket Style

Adding an edgy touch to a Fall Wardrobe is easy just by wearing the right jacket.

ISTO Jacket
Isto
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Fashion

All Gussied Up

At the recent press events I attended, noticing the fashion tribe I wondered.  Why do they wear everything but the frying pan? Many were gussied up wearing all the labels from their shelves popping in and out of offices and showrooms. I wondered if there had been a looting at a luxury department store.   The pride of being kitsch while not understand the meaning of the word scares me.

Chanel’s quote is, “The last thing you put on, take off.” This has been lost on the Kill for TikTok crowd.   When at one time anyone with an eye could see quality and style, in today’s social media driven world standing out as if you were the Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile at a 4th of July Parade means everything. 

It is sad to look dated after only two hours.  A great style is eternal.  Jackie O never wore a brand emblazoned on her chest. Before Covid, around 2018, many fashion houses redesigned logos to take advantage of the camera phone ratio in an attempt to attract younger buyers.  Monogramed mania took over the fashion industry. Every piece had to display a name.

The world had been hit with a name brand sledgehammer. The influencers, TikTokers wear everything all at once.  This embellishment veers to pathological bad taste.  Imagine stuck in a room with a person who has a big Louis Vuitton bag, Chanel glasses, oversized Balenciaga sneakers and a shinning Gucci jacket. I needed a certified CPA degree to track all the names.   How many of these items were fake?  No clue!

The shift to subtle fashion has taken place, however I do not think it has made its way to the younger crowd. “Bling” is still a way of life, showing off for the camera.  Thankfully, kitchen items do not have a YSL monogram on the side.