After showing his collections co-ed for the last three years, in June Pierpaolo Piccioli returned to the menswear schedule with a standalone show at Milan Fashion Week. This season, the seasoned designer decided to bring the Valentino lad back to Paris, where he decorated the lavish interiors of the Monnaie de Paris with a vivid shade of sky blue.
Following 2022’s Pink PP collection – which saw Piccioli design almost an entire collection in a punchy fuchsia that even became its own Pantone shade – his menswear collection’s use of hue was a “reflection of contemporary masculinities”. Quick to point out that blue was traditionally seen as a feminine colour before this century began, he wanted to unleash the nuances that surround it – “here blue is freed, rethought, in turn echoing our transformed perception of man,” read the show notes.
Throughout, menswear staples were shot through a fluid lens – suits were cut wide and equipped with wide-leg trousers, overcoats came large and with sloped shoulders and dress shirts were light and cut with clean lines. Dissimilar to Pink PP, that tender shade of blue wasn’t used en masse, and instead was peppered throughout the collection – be it a turtle neck peaking beneath a crinkly boiler suit, or a floor-length duffle coat that closed the show. Flashes of plum, tangerine and lime completed the offering, which borrowed techniques from his womenswear designs without ever feeling second fiddle. A sold collection all-round.
Photography by Christina Fragkou.
