It’s no secret that men’s fashion rarely receives the kind of attention that women’s fashion receives. Milan’s men’s fashion seasons have always been quieter, overshadowed by the city’s spectacular women’s fashion calendar and the increasingly ambitious large-scale productions in Paris. But SS27 has exacerbated this imbalance further than usual. The season was so sparse that the absence itself became history, raising an uncomfortable question: Has menswear given up on Milan?
The answer was evident even before Milan Fashion Week officially ended, when the industry’s attention shifted to Paris. For Milan, this is more than just a side note. It reveals a fundamental problem, because in the competition for attention, audience and cultural relevance, the city is finding it increasingly difficult to retain the international fashion scene until the end. Paris benefited directly from this. While Milan’s traction waned, the industry gathered before its official end for the start of the men’s fashion shows there, heralded by Louis Vuitton.
Has the mixed format made men’s fashion week obsolete?
Comparable moments from the major productions remained rare in Milan. Some of the attention even shifted completely away from the official calendar. One of the most discussed men’s fashion presentations in Italy this season took place not in Milan, but in Florence at Pitti Uomo. Simone Rocha debuted her first independent men’s collection there and caused a lot of response. The reaction was in some cases clearer than to many contributions to the Milan program.
There were also personnel changes within the industry, including the departure of Adrian Appiolaza from Moschino and his rapid succession by Sunnei founders Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo. One of the most formative conversations of the week arose not from the shows themselves, but from their surroundings and points to a shift in attention away from the official program and towards the movements behind them.
Milan certainly attracted a notable array of international brands. Thom Browne, who usually presents in New York or Paris, showed in the city for the first time, New York veteran Ralph Lauren returned for a second season, and Paul Smith continued his Milan presence after leaving London behind. On paper, these are significant additions. In practice, however, they have not fundamentally changed the perception of the week. Prada remains the only local constant capable of generating the anticipation that once defined Milan as the men’s fashion capital.
There was no shortage of presentations, however, but this form of presentation inherently appeals to a narrower audience and rarely produces the cultural aftershocks that a runway spectacle triggers. They are efficient, commercially rational and increasingly in line with how brands want to operate today. At the same time, they contribute to a quieter, less visible fashion week, one that functions as a trading platform but leaves little trace as a cultural event.
Part of this development reflects deeper structural changes in the fashion world. As the lines between men’s and women’s fashion become increasingly blurred, mixed shows have become the norm. For many brands, separating calendars makes neither creative nor commercial sense. A joint presentation offers efficiency, coherence and a clearer brand world.
But the cumulative effect is less positive. Every decision to integrate menswear into a broader show removes another fixed anchor point from the menswear calendar. Over time, this undermines the density on which a standalone fashion week thrives and accelerates a cycle in which fewer shows lead to fewer industry visitors, which in turn weakens the overall relevance of the week.
Little hype despite a lot of bare skin
Nevertheless, while SS27 lacked the density of the shows that once defined Milan’s menswear, there was a clear aesthetic shift evident in the collections – the return of the body as a central focus.
Throughout the week, there was a growing interest among designers in no longer hiding the male form, but rather showcasing it. After years of oversized tailoring and relaxed silhouettes, the creative directors for SS27 have significantly increased their efforts to make the male body visible.
Microshorts, body-hugging knitwear, sheer fabrics and untucked shirts appeared repeatedly, underscoring the new focus on physicality. However, the result is not a uniform silhouette, but rather a spectrum of idealized body images.
Some collections, for example at Dolce & Gabbana, deliberately accentuated muscular physiques, while Prada developed a significantly slimmer, reduced slim-line silhouette – a shape that was largely missing from men’s fashion in recent seasons and was last visible in this extreme in the early 2000s.
The juxtaposition of these ideals reflects a broader cultural shift: masculinity is no longer defined by a single dominant ideal, but by competing, often contradictory body images. This development is reminiscent of patterns that have long characterized women’s fashion. The growing expectation to curate, optimize and make bodies visually legible has now fully arrived in men’s fashion. Social media has further reinforced this dynamic, with a constant stream of idealized male body images, and the catwalk is once again becoming the stage on which these very ideals are negotiated.
The result is a men’s fashion that is increasingly not only defined by clothing, but has become visible, malleable and normalized by external imagery through the body underneath. But as striking as this shift was legible in the collections, it was unable to mask the structural question that accompanied SS27 from the start: Has men’s fashion given up on Milan?
The answer is still no. But the signs are increasing. If relevant conversations arise outside the program, if the industry leaves before the week is over, and if a few houses carry the burden of relevance almost single-handedly, then a fashion week has lost its center of gravity, no matter how many shows are officially on the calendar.
Milan still presents men’s fashion, but it is less and less influencing it. And as long as it stays that way, this question will not go away.
