Panache Offblast

Emporio Armani’s collection stayed straight in the city, with the key silhouette for his first section being shorts-over-leggings. Black leather dominated the collection, and a clip from Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” video that greatly resembled his collection  played at the finale. Models looked wild with heavy eye makeup, slave chains, studs, tight leather, and grommets. In comparison, his Giorgio show targeted his signature collections, even if he applied a bit of eyeshadow to his model’s eyes. As usual, it was all about the jackets – low-buttoning, double-breasted, shiny buttons, trimmed lapel – the collection was called Sun and the City.

Gaspard Yurkievich

Displaying a Boy Scout obsession for patches, Gaspard Yurkievich experiments with the formal city suit for spring, patching together slim silhouettes with an ankle length pant from sections of tailoring fabrics in nostalgic military shades. The accessories tied in the outfits perfectly and had interesting elements to them, like someone ready for an adventure of some sort.

Gucci designer Frida Giannini was normally scolded for the inferiority of her work, but that Roman vulgarity brought something extra special and new to the Gucci scene. As she has grown up and learned a lot from the job, she’s created a beautiful collection. For the SS-2011 collection, we see silk/mohair suits, safarai suits, leather jackets, suede-front cardigans, embroidered denim shirts, silk jacquard evening jackets, and more garments that are too rich to be bland.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of his label, John Varvatos staged his Spring collection show in a Milanese church and invited an abundance of family and friends to watch. The music-obsessed designer from Detroit (my hometown!) is truly living his dream – the wardrobe he has created over the years has been a supply of outlaw-dandy rocker wear – skinny silhouettes, vintage tailoring, and washed leathers and suedes, all with antique hardware (I especially love the hook-and-eye closings) to make the clothes appear as if they’ve been around since the Civil War. I really loved a lot of the pieces in this collection; I feel that pretty much all of them are extremely wearable amongst many guys and the attitude is so laid-back, but still has a great urban/rock edge to it.